New solo EP, Jumpstart, releases on May 21st, 2023 at Icehouse, Minneapolis.

The new solo release from Leslie Rich, Jumpstart, visits the teen and pre-teen years of his childhood. Leslie had to manage a lot of emotions in those early years: his dad’s yearning wanderlust, his parents’ temporary separation, the death of both grandfathers, and navigating blossoming love. These emotions all come together in this first EP from 12 recently written tracks; it’s rare for any songwriter’s songs to be so closely bound together. And rarer yet that they proliferate from a specific era in time. Reflection may always come at a certain age. Whatever the truth behind these seemingly endless, sunshine-filled days, Leslie decided that his experience of that time and how he remembered it was as valid as anyone’s version. Any healing came from the roots of how his nine, eleven, or fifteen-year-old self navigated those memories.

In Heck&Away, the nine-year-old Leslie can’t understand why anyone would invest so much in love. Is it really always a “rollercoaster ride?” because it “seems much too hard to work”?

Because the songs came so fully formed early on, Leslie decided to reinvent his usual recording process. He shared the rough demos with his friend, Heavy Sixers guitarist Grant Eull, who had recently begun experimenting with analog synths and sequencers. The results were instantly enlightening, so Stephen Helvig of Helvig Productions was recruited to bring order and direction to the home recordings. In the studio, happy accidents flourished, “usual” processes were abandoned, and traditional instrumentation was kept to a minimum, outside of Leslie’s acoustic foundation. Once finished, a common thread of experimentation can be seen all the way from 1999’s Geeklove or 2001’s Written Lie. In ruminating on his roots, perhaps Leslie managed to creatively rediscover them.

Jumpstart will be released at Icehouse, Minneapolis, on May 21st. His special guest will be Robert Wilkinson from the Flamin’ Ohs