Next month, Corey Leiter is releasing White Heat, a follow-up to his 2022 album Fire Season which sees the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter collect a couple of forgotten songs alongside a Buddhist mantra and a Joni Mitchell cover to form a tight, thematically resonant EP. Together with bandmates Raymond Joseph, Spencer Hoffman, Doron Zounes and Aristotle Galanopoulos, Leiter took to the Altamira Sound studio in Alhambra, California to work on the four tracks. The band recorded live to tape with minimal overdubs to not only better capture their spontaneous magic of making music, but more importantly align the process with the EP’s thematic underpinning. “It’s Leiter’s most recent attempt at merging spiritual practice with music,” as label Anxiety Blanket Records put it. “These songs emphasize presence and immediacy that is felt and understood.”
The release is tied together by the emotional understanding Leiter has gained working in the field of community mental health, something encapsulated by the title track. First written after a loved one experienced grief-triggered psychosis, the song attempts to substantiate and legitimize the combination of anger, loss and despair which can so often accompany mental health issues, and implores a more compassionate approach to anyone suffering. The track originally appeared on the 2019 EP Time’s Cruel Lullaby, but the immediacy of this reimagining adds a newfound depth, pushing beyond the surface narrative to apply more widely. Watch the video shot, directed and edited by Justin Kohlberg below for a glimpse inside the process:
White Heat is out on the 12th July via Anxiety Blanket Records.