We speak to TikTok personality and musician Leif Coffield at Glasgow’s WEST brewery on the story behind his latest release ‘Only Fascination’
‘Only Fascination’ was originally written by Leif Coffield’s great uncle Des but was never released. The demo was the stuff of legends in his family and this year Leif decided to process it into something tangible. Using AI technology he extracted the vocals and added instruments.
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00:00a way for me to collaborate with him posthumously.
00:04But you can keep that in because that's also good B-roll.
00:07Right.
00:08Right. Cheers.
00:09Good luck.
00:10For a tiny boy.
00:11I'm Leif Caulfield.
00:13I'm a music producer and artist
00:16from Glasgow.
00:18And whereabouts specifically in Glasgow?
00:20Specifically East Kilbride.
00:22Does that matter?
00:23It does.
00:24If you're outside of Glasgow,
00:26you are from Glasgow.
00:29Even at, like, from East Kilbride,
00:31if I speak to somebody outside of Glasgow,
00:33I'm from Glasgow.
00:34Just because that's, like,
00:35you could be in, like, Magaluf or something like that.
00:37Yeah.
00:38If somebody goes, like,
00:39oh, where are you from?
00:40Glasgow.
00:41But then if you speak to a Glaswegian person
00:42and then they go, like,
00:43oh, where are you from?
00:44Glasgow.
00:45He's like, whereabouts?
00:46East Kilbride.
00:47And they're like, that's the f***ing Glasgow!
00:48I would say my music is,
00:51I would say pop slash synth pop.
00:54It's just, like, variations,
00:56different variations of, like, pop.
00:57But I'm a producer first and foremost,
00:58like, that's what I started doing.
00:59I started producing when I was 18.
01:01And that's, like, my,
01:02that's the first love.
01:03Like, the first love is the creation of the music.
01:05And then I think maybe four years after that,
01:09I was, like,
01:10I was fed up of people taking ages
01:12to get back with vocals and shit like that.
01:14So then I just started singing on stuff.
01:16And then it kind of took the shape of, like,
01:18where we are now,
01:19where it's, like,
01:20now I don't need anybody.
01:22I'm my own entity.
01:24You know what I mean?
01:25The main thing with my music
01:26is I want people to, like,
01:29I want it to be, like, fun.
01:31Like, I want people to, like,
01:32have fun when they're listening.
01:33I want it to be,
01:34I don't want it to be, like, sad.
01:35Even if it's sad material,
01:37then there's probably,
01:38there's a place for that.
01:39The majority of the time,
01:40I want people to just be, like,
01:41and having fun when they're listening to music.
01:43Whether it be, like, summertime,
01:45like, you know,
01:46you're, like, vibing in a car.
01:47Always dreamed of being in a band
01:49or being a,
01:50being an artist in plenty of crowds.
01:52So it's, that's the,
01:53that's always been the end goal.
01:54It's just, like, how to get there
01:56has just, like, kind of
01:57taken the shape of what it is now.
01:59At the end of the day,
02:00it comes down to, like,
02:01I want to make the best music possible
02:02and I want to make it with
02:03the best people possible.
02:05And then I want to play
02:06to the biggest crowd possible.
02:08Do you know what I mean?
02:09Like, there's something about
02:10playing live to a crowd
02:13where it's, like,
02:14it's like a drug.
02:16I feed off of that energy.
02:17Like, I thrive on it.
02:19Do you know what I mean?
02:20So only fascination.
02:21Tell me a bit about that.
02:23So only fascination is,
02:26I mean, pardon the pun,
02:27like, the most fascinating track
02:28that I have.
02:30Because I feel like as artists,
02:32like, we always try and, like,
02:34make everything have such
02:35a deeper meaning to the music,
02:36even if it's just, like,
02:37you've made up some kind of,
02:38like, fantasy story
02:39and you write about that.
02:41This legitimately has, like, backstory.
02:44It's so deeply rooted in my family.
02:45So when my dad was,
02:48God, he must have been, like, 17.
02:50He was on holiday with his pals.
02:53For some reason,
02:54he managed to get a tape
02:56of one of my great-uncle's old demos.
03:01And it was a tune called
03:02Only Fascination.
03:03And he showed it to his pals
03:04and shit like that.
03:05Didn't say that it was his uncle.
03:07And all the boys were, like,
03:08oh, that's f***ing amazing.
03:10And then, so they were listening
03:11to it the whole holiday.
03:13And at the end, he was, like,
03:14by the way, that's my great-uncle.
03:15And they were, like, no f***ing way.
03:16This kind of story of, like,
03:17only fascination,
03:18I'd always heard about it.
03:19Like, I'd always,
03:20it was always in our, kind of,
03:21family zeitgeist.
03:23It was the stuff of, like,
03:24myth and legend.
03:25So it was just hidden somewhere.
03:26So my great-uncle was
03:28diagnosed with cancer
03:30in September of 2023.
03:34And then,
03:35so I think he was only given, like,
03:37he was actually only given
03:38a few weeks to live.
03:40So I think then he was just,
03:42kind of, like,
03:43I'll just start f***ing
03:44clearing the hard drives,
03:45kind of thing.
03:46He sent Only Fascination
03:47to my dad.
03:48And then my dad showed it to me.
03:50And I was, like,
03:51this is, like, a hit.
03:52To me, it was utterly criminal
03:54that it was never released.
03:55Well, the goal was to, like,
03:56collaborate with him on it
03:58and then release it.
04:00But his health deteriorated,
04:01like, really rapidly,
04:02as you would imagine,
04:03like, f***ing three weeks to live.
04:04You know the Beatles tune
04:05Now and Then?
04:06So they had just released that.
04:09And the backstory behind that
04:10was that, like,
04:11John Lennon had these old
04:12demo tapes and
04:13then they used AI to, like,
04:15extract the vocal
04:16and do that shit.
04:17So I was, like,
04:18amazing.
04:19So I did the same
04:20with my great-uncle's recording
04:23of Only Fascination.
04:24Basically took the vocal
04:26and then remade the rest
04:28of the instrumental
04:29from the ground up,
04:30dissecting all the parts
04:31and then recreating them.
04:32I was, like,
04:33this is f***ing amazing, man.
04:34Like, there's so much
04:35that goes into it.
04:36Even just wee,
04:37kind of, structure things,
04:38wee, kind of, chord changes
04:39that, like,
04:40I would never think of,
04:41wee melodic lines
04:42I would never think of
04:43a way for me to, like,
04:44collaborate with him
04:46posthumously.
04:47Brief, kind of,
04:48backstory about him.
04:49He was, like,
04:50in a band called
04:51the GSD Band
04:52in the 60s
04:54and early 70s.
04:55And they toured
04:58with, like,
04:59David Bowie
05:00when he was doing
05:01his UK tour
05:02back then.
05:04I think it was
05:05for the Ziggy Stardust tour,
05:06which is crazy.
05:07Pals with Billy Connolly,
05:08Gerry Rafferty,
05:09just, like...
05:10It's pretty cool.
05:11It's insane, man.
05:12The stuff of, like,
05:13Scottish legend,
05:14I think they
05:15parted ways
05:16in the, kind of,
05:17early to mid 70s
05:18and he just wrote
05:19their stuff, like...
05:20Didn't ever have, like,
05:21a solo career.
05:22I think he maybe intended to
05:23but just didn't.
05:24I think it's just nice, man.
05:25It's, like, nice that
05:26I've been able to, kind of,
05:27continue his, or, like,
05:29at least release
05:30part of his, like, legacy
05:31so that that, like,
05:32continues.