INTERVIEW: LEFKADA's Selene on their latest single 'The Curator'

Melbourne based electronic duo LEFKADA (stylised LEFKΛΔΛ) , made up of Selene Messinis and Tim Cox, released their latest single ‘The Curator’ at the end of February. A delicious electro-synth heavy track with lashes of 1980s vibes and a beat driven, thrash chorus it is reminiscent of the type of indie, DIY, dance music from the 1980s and 1990s whilst remaining complex and compelling on so many levels. It is a complete joy.

“‘The Curator’ is inspired by our fascination with “influencers”; we’re always wondering what their lives are truly like behind the veil of social media,” the band say. “Online, they meticulously curate their personal brand and image, so that their lives appear in perfect snapshot moments, which are usually never as perfect as they seem…”

With a background in jazz, R&B and hip-hop Messinis and Cox have performed in their own solo projects with the first LEFKADA single dropping in 2018. They have also performed and written for a number of Australian artists including Woodes and NO ZU. We recently caught up with lead singer Selene to find out more.

Hey Selene! Thanks for chatting to us. How are things in your world right now?
Hey! Thanks for having me interview! Yeah, things are all go in my world - with the release of ‘The Curator’, planning shows and writing new music for this project and for other projects! Also: Tim and I literally just (a couple days ago) bought ourselves an apartment, so that’s been a huge life thing ha ha!

Congratulations on the release of new single ‘The Curator’ it is a brilliant song! You have said the song was inspired by your fascination with social media influencers. Can you tell us a little more about this?
Yeah, it’s been a love/hate relationship with social media, because I am always finding myself trying to break through people’s facades and seek out the authenticity online; that’s important to me and a massive factor in how well I connect with people on an interpersonal level. ‘The Curator’ definitely has a satirical slant but as the lyrics progress over the course of the tune, there are definitely some hints that social media may be affecting people on a deeper level.

Social media is such a double edged sword - it can be great fun and a vital communication tool but can also be incredibly damaging to mental health. What are your thoughts on the best way to use it?
Ahhh, this one is tricky for me to answer because I actually find social media hard work; so much so that I have to actively think about logging on and posting/responding to messages/constantly creating content for artistic projects! Of course, I acknowledge that it is certainly an important tool for businesses/brands/artists in this digital age we find ourselves in, however, for me, I like seeing the genuine person, no matter whether they are talking out the happy moments or unfiltered, rougher moments. I like it all when it’s authentic. I think it’s really hard when we only see perfect, snapshot moments of people’s lives online, and the real stuff gets cropped/filtered/discarded. This can be damaging because subconsciously we compare ourselves to what we see of other people’s lives online and may feel inadequate, but the standard has been pushed to such an unrealistic level.

Can you share with us a bit about the creative process behind the song?
This one actually came very organically initially, and the lyrics felt as though they almost wrote themselves as I was playing the chords on the piano! This was bizarre for me, because lyrics are the thing I struggle with most as a songwriter. The bulk of the tune was actually completed in a matter of weeks, and we recorded it all in our home studio, but we were never quite happy with the original bridge… Months went by, and we locked in our mixing engineer for post-production, but the night before we were due to send through all the stems to him, on a whim we rewrote the whole bridge melody & lyrics and that’s what’s on the track today!

Over the past year, what was it like creating music throughout lockdowns and the pandemic, and being an artist in general? Particularly coming from Melbourne which suffered the worst in Australia. Did it have any impact on your mindset/creativity?
I have to say, for me it’s not been too bad, as Tim and I live together and we were able to continue playing music at the same time together in the same room, which is much more fortunate than some people. Being an artist was hard during lockdown, because I often write from unique personal experience, and there wasn’t a whole heap of inspiration during that time, but we did find ourselves getting inspiration from larger world issues that were experiences shared by many. As with most people, there were some days that I had no inclination to play or write, especially as I’m an extrovert and my energy comes from external sources, but we pushed ourselves to at have at least an improv jam once a day together - even if it was for 5 minutes! That actually helped us reconnect as musos and kept our chops up a little haha!

LEFKΛΔΛ have been releasing music since 2018. Can you tell us how you formed?
Yeah, we have been playing together from when we were teens at high school and throughout uni too and I guess we’ve had a lot to do with each other in various contexts but LEFKΛΔΛ formed when we wanted to write slightly different music to the jazz that we were predominantly playing together. We wanted to write dancier, poppier tunes and realised we had a shared love of Disclosure ha ha!

For you personally, what artists inspired you when you were growing up and also today as a professional singer?
Ahhh, as a young kid I grew up listening to a mixed bag of latin music, Greek rock, heaps of classical music and a random selection of jazz (Keith Jarrett is my idol!). It’s kind of interesting, because as a teenager, I was really moody and pretty much exclusively listened to niche European lounge records and instrumental guitar music like Andy McKee and really found it hard to listen to lyrics and anything with a backbeat ha ha! Nowadays, I’m heavily inspired by singers like Jessie J, Marie Dahlstrom and Lalah Hathaway, and love heavier music (than what I listened to when I was younger) like Disclosure, Skrillex, Animals as Leaders, Dua Lipa and Glass Animals, but I can pretty much get around anything!

Was music something you felt you were always going to do, or did it come about through unexpected means?
I was very fortunate to have grown up in a high school that excelled in music education and it was through this program that I discovered that all the music teachers I admired so much were also killing in in the scene as players too, and I was probably about 15 when I realised that it wasn’t totally far fetched idea to pursue music as a career! I will never forget my teachers saying: “We don’t explicitly encourage our students to pursue music as a career (because it’s so difficult), but if you (as a student) come to us with an expressed desire and drive to pursue music, then we will support and back you 100%”. I really valued their honesty and support as a budding muso back then!

For so long the music industry has treated female artists poorly, mostly in part because it is run by older, white, straight men. What are your thoughts on gender equality and sexism in the music industry?
Oooft, this is such an important topic and there will never be a point where it’s been overdone or over spoken about. I think it’s not an easy choice to pursue music as a womxn and it’s such a systemic issue that needs to be dealt with at the formative ages for young students (ie. back in early teen years) with opportunities for all genders and not promoting exclusive “boys’ club” behaviour. We also need to educate people not to assume all females in music venues are “girlfriends of musicians” or even that all womxn musicians/artists are singers only, because that’s perpetuating stereotypes.

Also, speaking from experience, it takes guts as a womxn to voice an opinion about something in a band context (or any professional environment), and people should be compassionate and kind when it comes to listening to a womxn speak, and allow them the respectful and safe space to do so, rather than being unnecessarily critical/undermining because of the person’s gender.

In terms of young students’ decisions to pursue music, I believe whole-heartedly in the “seeing is believing” idea, because if prospective musicians see more womxn artists killing it, they too will be encouraged to go on with music because they can see themselves reflected in the artists they admire.

What else is coming up for LEFKΛΔΛ in 2021?
We are so excited to get back into playing shows at full steam ahead and we have heaps of music we’re working on to release in the coming months too! You’ll definitely be hearing more from us in 2021! 

Thanks so much for the interview! 

‘The Curator is out now. You can buy and download here.

To keep up with all things LEFKΛΔΛ you can follow them on Instagram and Facebook.