Leisure Cruise puts Dave Hodge in the spotlight for once

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      For the longest time, Dave Hodge was perfectly content to hang out in the background, both in the studio and on-stage. Even though odds are you’ve never heard of the New York–based Canadian, he’s built up a varied résumé, having played with high-profile acts that include Broken Social Scene, Feist, and Bran Van 3000.

      Hodge is just as happy hunkered down behind a mixing board, creating work that has appeared in movies and commercials. It was while he was working on an ad campaign that his own recording project, Leisure Cruise, was born. The two-piece—whose eponymous debut album, was released last year—also features singer Leah Siegel. Commerce was the initial reason they ended up in a studio together; they were presumably compensated very well for a Horizon ad they ended up scoring. After a chance meeting in New York after that project, the two realized they were onto something.

      “We met working on the launch of the iPad through Horizon,” Hodge says, speaking from a tour van that’s making its way to Boston. “That track worked out really well, so we did another thing together, and that went really well. Then a lot of time went by where we didn’t really see each other. I had already started making a record when I bumped into her on the street.”

      The former Broken Social Scene trombonist was writing the soundtrack for a feature film at the time, setting aside some of the songs for himself. Those songs would eventually lead to the formation of Leisure Cruise.

      “I wanted to take a couple of tunes and spin them into my own record,” Hodge recalls. “I was basically going to make the record with all my friends and family, like the Metric people, the Broken Social Scene people, and Stars. The idea was to get different singers for each track, and make kind of a collective record.”

      The DIY musician turned producer was initially excited about working regularly with Siegel—who also fronts New York’s Firehorse—for no other reason than her vocal chops.

      “Her voice is really, really diverse,” Hodge gushes. “She can sing 10 different styles and sound great doing all of them. You’d never know it was her each time. We started writing together, and it went so well that we decided to just keep going. Half of my friends were on the road anyhow, so it was hard to rush them into the studio. Instead, Leah and I ended up making a whole record fairly quickly.”

      Leisure Cruise announces the arrival of a band whose songs are as varied as its singer’s range. The electro-spooked opener, “Double Digit Love”, suggests that Leisure Cruise’s idea of a dream date is going vintage-synth shopping with John Carpenter, while the breezy “Believer” plants its umbrella on a Florida beach on a sun-soaked spring morning. “The Getaway” is built on a foundation of rubbery minimalist electronica, while the phenomenal robo-pop jam “Human Relocation Program” sounds like a teaser from the lost sequel to the Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

      It may have taken Hodge a while to end up on the frontline, but at least he sounds comfortable there.

      “We weren’t trying to emulate anyone, and we weren’t trying to write songs that would fit into a particular format,” Hodge says. “This wasn’t something crafted to fit into a niche. We just wanted to make a record that we would want to listen to. Hopefully, other people will want to as well.”

      Leisure Cruise plays the Media Club on Sunday (March 1).

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