Phillip Leo interview on Colourful Radio 11-April-2021
Phillip went on to establish himself as a successful songwriter/producer, with a string of reggae hits by other Fashion acts, including the No. 1 hit single “Two Timing Lover” by Janet Lee Davies, “Crazy Feeling” by Peter Spence, “Lets Show the World” by Nerious Joseph and producing the lovers duo Zuruchi’s first single “Celebrate Our Love” winning Reggae Songwriter of the Year two consecutive years in row in 1989 and 1990. Phillip also did sessions on drum programming, keyboards and backing vocals on a string of artists like Barry Boom, Nerious Joseph, & Cutty Ranks and also producing 2 songs for the Sandra Cross album “Foundation Of Love”
As an artiste in his own right, Phillip reached No. 2 with “I Wanna be Loved by You”. He then Produced the hit singles “Why do Fools Fall in Love”, “Good Thing Going” and “Young, Gifted & Black” which were duets with DJ superstar CJ Lewis. His debut album in January 1990, entitled “Lover of Music”, which included 9 of his own compositions, reached No. 3 in the Reggae Album Chart to great critical acclaim and featured top ten reggae singles “I’m Missing You”, “We Belong Together” (duet with Marie Dawn) and debut single “Rocking The Night Away”.
A desire to expand his talents into other areas of music, ie: soul/dance, led to a prolific writing partnership with bassist/songwriter Steve Bingham of which they wrote over 170 titles together, this led them to forming the Breakin’ Loose Record Label as an outlet for their songs. The first single entitled “Hypnotic Love”, which featured DJ CJ Lewis reached No. 1 in the UK Reggae Chart and remained in the chart for an outstanding 6 months. This was followed by “Today”, which was the title track of his second album that reached No. 5 in the UK Reggae Chart.
Having learnt about running a record company Phillip went on to form his own company of which he called “Sharma Productions” (which he later renamed Big Lion Productions).
After a string of releases Phillip was approached by EMI Records. He then signed as a recording artist. This led to 2 top 60 National Chart positions “Second Chance” and “Thinking About Your Love” which featured the DJ Top Cat on the street versions, opening up a whole new market for him. Whilst he was with EMI Records Phillip also Produced CJ Lewis’ first major album “Dollars” recorded for MCA Records of which he had a No. 3 with “Sweet’s for my Sweets” and another 2 consecutive releases which reached the UK top twenty in the British Mainstream National Chart. The album went on to sell over 500,000 copies worldwide. CJ’s second album “Rough & Smooth” again produced by Phillip that went platinum in Japan, had a No.1 taken off it called “ R to the A” in France and sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide. Phillip then got his own record company Sharma Productions back on the road. His next release his third album entitled “Just 4 U”. The first single from the album is called “Angel Heart”/”I Wanna be the One”, which sparked a lot of interest especially in Japan.
In 1997 a limited release of Phillip Leo’s fifth album “Down 2 Earth” was circulated of which the top ten reggae single “Summer Girl” featuring Glamma Kid was taken. Phillip also embarked on music production & remixing for other artists like: Louchie Lou & Michie One, Carroll Thompson, Jack Radics, Japanese DJ Nahki, Judy Cheeks, Sean Mcguire, Musical Youth, Charlene Smith, Awesome, Rick Clarke and many more.
In May 2017 Phillip Leo made a come back with a new album called “Faithfully” which was made available on download only, from this album the first single “Feel So Good” was released along with 3 remixes.
A digital reissue of Phillip Leo’s past albums “Just 4 U”, “Down 2 Earth” and “Space Dub” were also released to his relaunch his career as a recording artist.
Following the “Space Dub” series he released another 12 track dub album called “Space Dub 2”.
In January 2018 Phillip Leo launched the single “The Gift” which was the introduction to his follow up album “The Universe” which was released that summer. From this album came the singles “Hold On”, “Love Your Life”, “Don’t Judge Me”, “Escape” & “A Heart That’s Pure”, these singles also included remixes in the Ragga, R&B/Soul and Dance Genres.
April 2019 saw the launch of Phillip’s 11th studio album “New Horizon” which included the Stevie J. Man No.1 chart topping hit “Peaceful Party”, “Together We’ll Abide”, “The Border”, “Times Will Change”, “The Future” and “Violation”.
August 2020 saw the release of his 12th studio album “Rolling River” which included the single “Let Love Be Your Guide”, “Love Grows”, Never Lose That Feeling”, “The Sun Will Shine”, “Heavens Beauty” and “A Losing Game”.
Phillip has laid great foundations for him to become one of the worlds leading singer, songwriter, producers.
The Best Of Phillip Leo is available now via www.biglionproductions.com. Release Date : 22/03/2021