LA-born, Chicago-based songwriter and producer Angelo LeRoi has the kind of voice that will stop you dead in your tracks. The alt-R&B, soul-inspired singer’s new EP eLRoi is only five songs, but it paints a picture of how, exactly, LeRoi views himself as an artist. Opener “If You Knew” begins with a stirring cello melody and falsetto vocals from LeRoi before dusty drums and an almost-recognizable throwback melody gives the song a vintage edge. Much of the project functions in this way, with Angelo singing melodies that are instant earworms above instrumentals that hearken back to an earlier era of soul music.
Thematically, LeRoi touches on some of the usual subjects, like being heartbroken by a crush who has a boyfriend. That’s how the EP closer, “Another Man,” came about. “I was working at this health food store at the time and this customer I had a crush on came in with her boyfriend one day, so I ended up making this that night,” he explains. Elsewhere, like on “That’s How Much,” he used an effect pedal to inspire the song. “I was messing around with this pedal my friend Kevin Long had called the Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water and came up with this tone that felt like someone crying,” he shares. “So I played that melody and built the rest of the song around that. It reminded me of old ’50s doo-wop groups.”
Check out Angelo LeRoi’s thoughts on all five of the EP’s songs below.
1. “If You Knew”
The last track to be completed on the record. It usually goes like that for me. The first impression on a project is so important, and I can only know what impression I want to set if I have the rest of the project more or less filled out. I had recorded drums for the other songs at okay coleman!’s place when I was living out in LA, so I resequenced them and created the drum track that you hear now. I got my friend Emanuel Keller to play cello on the EP, and we spent a session writing that first section together on a trip returning to LA in August of last year.
2. “Wedding Ring”
This one came about all at once. I’ll make short song ideas to use as samples in my production and this started as one of those, with the lyrics written in that initial session. Later I added the guitar solo and filled out the production some more. One of the homies mentioned there’s been a shortage of “shooby doo-wop” in music lately, so I had to throw ’em in there for the culture.
3. “That’s How Much”
This also started as a sample. I was messing around with this pedal my friend Kevin Long had called the Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water and came up with this tone that felt like someone crying. So I played that melody and built the rest of the song around that. It reminded me of old ’50s doo-wop groups—I loved how unabashed the displays of love were in those songs, so that’s something I wanted to try and replicate for this one.
4. “Forever”
This one was another sample. This one has more of a Western desperado vibe to it. I always see that lone ranger type, the man on his horse riding into the distance whenever I hear that main guitar melody. This one was fun to play around with different guitar tones, especially that fuzzy tremolo guitar. It’s a lot more aggressive and sinister than any of the other stuff you hear on the project.
5. “Another Man”
I was working at this health food store at the time and this customer I had a crush on came in with her boyfriend one day, so I ended up making this that night. “Another Man” was originally just the first two verses. I liked the sort of winding melody and the lyrics I had, but I knew I wanted a bridge to give it some kind of space. I tried to write a few things, but I lost the flow and decided to put it down for a little bit. I came back to it a little later and ended up splicing together the bridge from other chords and bits in the song and finally recorded the bridge and last verse to that version.
