Christian Review Magazine Issue 1 - Nov/Dec 2014 | Page 51

S

even years ago in a spare
bedroom 50 miles north of
Chicago, We Are Leo was born
out of a series of song-writing sessions.
Filled with an excitement and passion for
their message-centered music, Starbucks
employed brothers, David and Jonny
Duffield, built a make-shift studio in their
garage where they began to create rough,
but passionate demo’s which they burned
and gave out. Slowly but surely
momentum to began to build as positive
feedback came back from their friends,
community, and church family. After two
years of day jobs plus weekend shows, they
took the leap of faith to focus their whole
energies on music.
“The early days were exciting, we were
learning how to use software like Logic to
make better sounding demo’s, and began
to get connect to the local/regional music
scene, first online and then at venues. It
was a blast, getting out there at shows:
feeling the thrill of being on stage and

hearing the crowd respond. We were
learning from other bands, deciding what
we thought was exciting & cool, what was
lame and boring, and we began combining
our love snyths and electronic music with
the pop & punk-rock roots that we grew up
with.” - David Duffield
In 2011 We Are Leo signed with Skies Fall
Records and indie label owned and run by
Ben Kasica (former guitarist of SKILLET)
and released their first official EP Hello.
which included songs like “Supernova
Sunrise” that went #1 on Billboard’s C-Rock
Radio Chart, “Oxygen” and “Heartbeats”
went top 30 on Billboards CHR/HotAC
chart, and “I’m With You” and
“Heartbeats” which were featured on Major
Television shows. With the momentum of
a label & brand new songs, We Are Leo
went on to win the CFA’s new artist talent
search (out of more than 2,000 applicants)
which in the summer of 2013 landed them
on Mainstage at nearly every major
Christian festival. After festivals they

PHOTO & BACKGROUND PHOTO © "Chino" Villatoro - Skies Fall Media Group

headed out on the road with Acquire the
Fire’s EPIC TRUTH TOUR, which was an
amazing opportunity for We Are Leo to
connect their music & message about hope
in Christ to thousands of teens.
When Skies Fall morphed into a media
company, We Are Leo launched a
kickstarter that was successfully funded by
their fans who wanted to hear new music
from them. Halfway thru the making of the
record, We Are Leo signed with Dream
Records. The band then spent 12 months
writing & recording Fightback Soundtrack,
which released October 14th 2014.
We Are Leo’s sophomore release Fightback
Soundtrack is fresh blend of SnythPop,
AltRock & New-Wave packed full of beats,
bold melodies & strong lyrics that uses vivid
imagery to explore themes like hope,
identity, loneliness, and finding love’s true
meaning in Christ. The band is currently
preparing for their upcoming tour.
- We Are Leo

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