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"I found songwriting to be a real source of comfort and purpose during a particularly difficult time in my life" Leo says "that's not to say that all the songs were sad, reflective or mournful though. I also wrote light hearted songs, dinosaur songs and kids songs, I just basically just wrote habitually as a way of occupying myself and my mind."

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Leo has long written inspired by the natural world as the name of his label Birds and Beasts Records attests. Totalitarian Blues is a rare departure from this and rather than addressing his struggles through a prism of the lives of other creatures it instead meets them head on in a direct and frank way. 

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"I remember writing many verses for this song down in a notebook during the end of my marriage. As I came to sift through and make some sense of them I came to realise that there were so many contradictory emotions and feelings that come with the end of a relationship. As well as sadness, regret and fear there exists relief, optimism and occasional euphoria. I guess as humans we aren't always predictable in how we respond to things, it can even change from day to day.  This dichotomy is what I attempted to document in the lyrics, the journey of moving on, healing and standing strong alone again, looking back with nostalgia and looking forward with excitement." 

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The song features acoustic guitar, bass and pedal steel guitar. It has a country blues type vibe reminiscent of classic singer songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. 

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"I only felt the song was complete once I'd hit upon the up-tempo sections. Early versions with longer verses and no shift felt musically dour and too depressive. I wanted to capture not only the lows but the highs too and it was after I came up with the fast picking part on the guitar and the imagery about walls not standing in the way that I knew I'd arrived at where I'd set out to be.​​