Leon III (that’s Leon The Third, not Leon Three), a psychedelic band that cites classic influences like Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead but bears just as much sonic resemblance to the alt-country and indie folk artists of the past 25 years, has just released its fourth album, “Candy Cigarettes.”
The band, led by Andy Stepanian—the co-founder of the Howler Brothers outdoor clothing brand—and Mason Brent, worked with its core touring configuration and producer Mark Nevers (Silver Jews, Bonnie “Prince” Billy) to create the record. It serves as a bit of a departure, or at least a conscious step forward, from Leon III’s previous output.
“On the first album, the eponymous one that came out in 2018, I had a collection of songs, but we didn’t have a real idea of what exactly Leon III was going to sound like,” Stepanian says, adding that the studio musicians the band tracked with—including Brian Kotzer, who played drums for the Silver Jews; Chris Scruggs, who plays in Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives; and Tony Crowe—were folks they did not know who have since become friends. Because of that, it wasn’t the most cohesive process.
The band that made “Candy Cigarettes,” he says, is one that’s “really begun to sharpen what we do.” While the core is still the two main members, they have settled on a touring group that served as the studio musicians this time.
“Our live shows are pretty damn rocking and jammy, and we’ve just sort of embraced that in the studio. This time it’s the live band playing, and I think you can feel it.”
Stepanian, who is based in Houston and grew up in Richmond, chatted with Highway 81 Revisited about the writing and recording of the new album and how Howler Brothers maintains a focus on music as part of its company ethos.
How did a song like the album track “Brushstrokes” come about?
Everything still starts with me. I do a lot of demoing just on my own, and I probably do it in a way that is not the best. I don’t play the drums, but I play everything else, so I’m bad at a lot of the instruments. So I play what is a version of the song that’s in my mind. I don’t do a lot of takes; I just go through and rip it out one time. The recorded version is like eight minutes long, and the one that I demoed was probably four minutes long or four and a half or something. So we kind of take that demo into the studio and just start playing with it.
In this particular case, I think we probably struggled a little bit with it. It didn’t feel like a song that was busting off the tape until we just relaxed and started jacking around with it, everybody having fun, making a lot of noise, and doing whatever. And then the energy hit, and we just let the song go.
Where did the name Leon III come from?
My dad is Leon Jr. and my grandfather was Leon Sr., and there is no Leon III. When I was contemplating this, at first I thought, Oh, maybe it might be just a solo project and I don’t want to call it by my own name, so Leon III was like my Bonnie “Prince” Billy or Hiss Golden Messenger or whatever. Ultimately, it became kind of this duo, and now ultimately a band, but that’s where it comes from. It’s sort of my family lineage.
Just checking out the Howler Brothers’ website, there’s obviously a huge musical component, and you even have a music series. How have you integrated that company into the music world?
You don’t always want to be selling people stuff. I mean, that’s obviously the point of it, but it’s also nice to give people some connectivity, community, and things that maybe they might not find otherwise. One of the big things that we love about adventure and all those things is geography—where you travel and things like that—so world music and the connection of music to people is really important to the quote-unquote brand. If you’re doing anything fun or good, traveling or whatever, there’s usually some soundtrack going through it.
And you always hope that like, Oh, well, we’re in Costa Rica, so we’re going to listen to the local radio station for a little while, or We’re in France, so we’re going to listen to whatever. So there’s a musical aspect to it that tries to define the brand, but also bring people together with like, Oh, this is a really cool thing that maybe I wouldn’t have found otherwise.
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