LoveLeo

Leo Reilly grew up in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains outside Los Angeles, sharing backyard space with black bears and coyotes. He records cross-legged on his bed, directly into his Macbook microphone, over whatever wild combination of a type beat he can find on the web.

After experimenting for a few years and decamping to San Francisco to study fashion, Leo finally landed on an upbeat sound that allowed him to find inspiration in music he loved, no matter where or when it came from. Later, back at his parents’ house at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, he put together his breakout single “BOYFREN” in his childhood bedroom while his mom and dad were making chicken parm for dinner. After its release at the end of 2019, “BOYFREN” went viral and paved the way for 2020 singles “ROSIE” and “LEMONS.” On his debut eight track EP, LOOK AT THIS MESS I’VE MADE, Reilly taps into a rich wellspring of personal moments of growth, filtered through his unique sense of humor. The EP, its singles and their kinetic and innovative videos, all of which Reilly co-directed, paint a portrait of a rising artist on the cusp of something big. As LoveLeo, Reilly has landed on a sound that is playful and probing, the result of an urge to create music that is not so much reliant on genre as it is a reflection of the 21-year-old’s idiosyncratic viewpoint and style. His songs are deceptively simple earworms that probe big ideas with a light touch, but Reilly never pushes listeners toward a revelation. Instead, he offers up a wonky, sometimes-cartoonish world of slick players and devious villains who’re posturing and fumbling through love and life, just like the rest of us.

In April 2021, LoveLeo release TUNG TIED - the second taste of LoveLeo's recent foray into hyperpop, an anything-goes genre where the artifice of pop meets the avant-garde. At its core is a maniacal vocal sample that wraps in and out of itself – as if LoveLeo is literally tongue-tied. "The song is a dialogue that plays out in my head whenever I'm doing something stupid on the internet," explains the artist. "Who am I trying to impress? I usually can't answer that. The cat's got my tongue."

“TUNG TIED” arrived on the heels of “BUZZCUT” feat. blackwinterwells, a sly, sardonic look at the way our realities and appearances are increasingly blurring.