A folk-inflected chamber pop outfit fronted by London-based singer/songwriter Nick Hemming, the Leisure Society first drew widespread attention across Britain with the 2009 arrival of its debut full-length, The Sleeper. Its wistful grandeur and richly textured songcraft earned widespread praise from the U.K. music press, paving the way for subsequent chart entries with 2011’s Into the Murky Water and 2013’s Alone Aboard the Ark. Over the years the group collected two Ivor Novello Award nominations, contributed to an independent film’s score, supported Laura Marling on the road, appeared at Glastonbury, and collaborated in the studio with Ray Davies. Ten years after forming, the band unveiled its first double album, 2019’s Arrivals & Departures.
The project took shape in 2005 once Hemming relocated to a South London flat shared with Burton upon Trent-born musician Christian Hardy. Already a guitarist for a decade, Hemming had previously composed music for his friend Shane Meadows’ 1999 feature A Room for Romeo Brass and the intense 2002 drama Dead Man’s Shoes. On the latter film’s soundtrack, issued under the Leisure Society name, his contributions appeared alongside tracks by Smog, Adem, Will Oldham, the Earlies, and M. Ward. Before their film careers, both Meadows and Paddy Considine had played alongside Hemming in the early-’90s Staffordshire indie band She Talks to Angels. Additional experience came through Hemming’s stints in Stephen Lawrie-led groups the Telescopes and Unisex.
Although Hemming and Hardy initially performed as an acoustic duo in London, connections forged with Tom Cowan and Will Calderbank’s Brighton-based Willkommen Collective prompted the ensemble to expand. By 2008 it had grown into a seven-piece, with Hardy’s keyboards joined by Calderbank on cello, Mike Siddell on violin, Helen Whitaker on flute, Darren Bonehill on bass, and Sebastian Hankins on drums. Hankins, whose most recent work had been avant-garde jazz with the Yorkshire Inertia Trio, had begun his professional training in 2001 within a contemporary version of the ’70s chart act the New Seekers.
The Leisure Society’s debut, The Sleeper, was completed in late 2008 inside a converted chicken shed belonging to Calderbank’s parents and appeared the following March on Willkommen Records. Its opening track, the delicate and elaborately scored single “The Last of the Melting Snow,” received an Ivor Novello nomination within weeks, while the chiming, rhythmic drive of “The Darkest Place I Know” evoked the Boy Least Likely To; Hemming’s introspective vocals mirrored that Buckinghamshire group’s whimsical, off-kilter tone. Further classic echoes surfaced on “We Were Wasted,” which closely mirrored Nick Drake’s “River Man,” including its Robert Kirby-style string arrangement.
Summer distribution through Full Time Hobby enabled high-profile 2009 festival slots at the Big Chill and Green Man. An autumn reissue bundled the album with the eight-song EP A Product of the Ego Drain, sustaining visibility while work began on the follow-up. Released in 2011 on Full Time Hobby, Into the Murky Water reached number 75 on the U.K. chart—the band’s first appearance there. That year Ray Davies, long admired by Hemming, invited the group to collaborate, culminating in a joint performance at Davies’ Meltdown Festival; the band also supplied music for the British independent drama Tyrannosaur.
The third album, 2013’s Alone Aboard the Ark, was tracked at Davies’ Konk Studios and climbed to number 71 in Britain. Early 2015 brought the loosely conceptual fourth release, The Fine Art of Hanging On, again recorded at Konk. Shortly afterward, Hemming and flautist Helen Whitaker parted ways after an extended separation, prompting her exit. Their split became central to the expansive double album Arrivals & Departures. Its advance single, “God Has Taken a Vacation,” surfaced in 2018 precisely a decade after the band’s first 45, and the full set arrived in April 2019 on the group’s own Ego Drain label.
