Leon Daye is a guitarist, songwriter and lead singer of his own band.

Self-described as “Cirencester born and bred”, Leon has been performing for over 25 years, both as a soloist and in a variety of bands.

His latest group, ‘The Leon Daye Band’ is made up of fellow local musicians all from Cirencester, and he explains how the group came about.

“I recorded my second EP, ‘The Gift’ in 2018,” he explained. “I needed to put together a band for the launch, which went really well, and it’s gone from there.”

The band is made up of bassist Ian Keates, lead guitarist Mike Herbert, Jason Hughes on keys and Brendan Downes-Hall on drums.

“Ian and I have been playing together since 1993, we were in school together,” continued Leon.

“Tim and Shelley Downes-Hall are close friends whom I’ve known for years, their youngest son Bren has been listening to my music for a few years and was enthusiastic to be part of the band.

“Then Jason was in the same year as Ian at school, a year above me. And Mike used to be in a band with Jason. It all fell together nicely and it’s been great.”

The band write and perform original material – “with a couple of covers here and there,” adds Leon.

He describes the music they play as alternative, indie rock, and cites bands like REM, U2 and Feeder as direct influences.

Leon himself has written and recorded two EPs as a solo artist – 2015’s ‘Bird on a Wire’, and his most recent offering ‘The Gift’.

He continued: “We recorded music videos for a couple of songs on ‘The Gift’, including ‘Centurion Town’ which we filmed on the roof of Cirencester Parish Church. It was a logistical nightmare and bloody cold!”

2019 brought plenty of shows at venues around the country, including The Thunderbolt and The Fleece in Bristol.

Events like the Worcester Music Festival and Lakefest were also on the band’s schedule, and Leon is hoping 2020 will bring more of the same.

“We’ve got lots of festivals on the cards,” he said.

“We did our last show of 2019 at the Advent Market and then took December and January off to work on new songs.

“We’ve written a few songs as a band and hopefully we’ll get the chance to record them and release an EP this year.”

For more information visit www.leondaye.com or www.facebook.com/THELEONDAYEBAND