PRESAVE LINK

"I wrote the song during a time of uncertainty and anguish where I was feeling rejected and confused, trying to find my way back after a painful breakup. Some of the words reflect this but I also tried to make the song a bit of a pep talk for myself. Emotions that are very powerful and visceral in the moment can seem daft and dramatic with the benefit of hindsight so I am glad I documented how I was feeling as a reminder to myself."

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Perhaps I Have The Power is one of the most up-tempo tracks on the Alone album and features more of a band sound than other songs. Like all other tracks it started with a performance capturing vocals and acoustic guitar but this time there are overdubbed drums - heavily muffled with silicone baking mats, bass and Mellotron. The song has a wonky lo-fi vibe that was a conscious aesthetic for the album. Leo set out to make something really authentic as an anti-dote to over-produced perfection. Tempos fluctuate, vocals crack and sometimes the whole thing feels like it could collapse in on itself but the sound is real, emotional and captures a moment in time. 

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Leo tells us more about the song - "It took me a little while to realise that I wanted the key message of the song to be about having the power to change your mind, get a grip on yourself and turn a corner. I realise this is sometimes easy to say and hard to do but what I realised is that, for me at least, music was the most powerful resource I had to help me through tough times and guide me through life. I mean this as a performer, a songwriter and a music fan."

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Leo has been illustrating all the cover art for the Alone album and will be releasing a book with the album. The cover art for this song uses photography instead of being hand-drawn. It's a more fleshed out version of the Alone album cover and shows a scene shot from overhead and depicting Leo surrounded by meaningful items in the room where he writes his songs. Leo explains some of the items depicted:

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"...obviously guitars, my banjo and a little toy piano (mainly because my Rhodes piano wouldn't fit) represented me creating as a way of processing life's ups and downs. I then got some of my many songwriting notebooks, the one that is open is actually open on the page with the first draft of Totalitarian Blues, a key track on the Alone album. There is also a copy of "The Trials of Life" by David Attenborough - this represents how inspirational the natural world is to me but also I found the title quite appropriate! Finally I chose some albums that were meaningful to me - Joni Mitchell's Blue, Leonard Cohen's Songs Of Love and Hate, McCartney 2, Bonnie Prince Billy's Beware, Neil Young's Tonight's The Night, Wilco's A Ghost Is Born and The Who's Who's Next?

All of these albums were either meaningful to me in this context or were examples of the artist creating as a way of processing life's changes, they represent turbulence and resilience, triumph and disaster."

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