Angelo LeRoi Channels Soul, Love, and The Blues on New EP “eLRoi”
a rich, timeless tapestry of soul, love, and blues
Photo by Eden Berke
Angelo LeRoi makes music that lingers—tender, textured, and emotionally unguarded. The Chicago-based singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer has spent the last few years quietly shaping the sound of a new wave, with production credits for artists like MAVI, MESSIAH!, and Malaya. Now, with his new solo EP eLRoi, LeRoi emerges fully in his own light, delivering a project that fuses blues, soul, and a painter’s sense of composition into something intimate and timeless.
eLRoi is a deeply personal record—rooted in live instrumentation, poetic lyricism, and a quiet kind of ambition. Love, in all its imperfect forms, sits at the center, unfolding across tracks that resist nostalgia even as they nod to it. There’s a warmth to the production, a restraint in the writing, and an attention to detail that rewards close listening. Even the cover art, inspired by Picasso’s Blue Period, reflects the project’s emotional weight and painterly intent.
We caught up with Angelo LeRoi on the week of his release to find out more about the project.
“There’s always been this thread of emotional expression — longing, devotion, melancholy — that I try to carry into what I make.
It’s kind of always been there.”
Justin Staple: Talk about your early musical influences. I understand you started playing instruments really young, around seven. Did you grow up in a musical household?
Angelo LeRoi: Yeah, totally. My dad played bass recreationally around the house. I thought he was playing guitar at first, and I just wanted to be like him. So I picked up the guitar at seven. A lot of the music around the house was old soul — Prince was a huge influence. There was Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament-Funkadelic, that kind of thing. But also a lot of rock — Jimi Hendrix, The White Stripes, Rush. My dad was a big Rush fan. It was a mix of everything, and in middle school I got into blues, then later hip-hop and jazz.
JS: And eventually you went to Berklee College of Music. What was that process like — getting in, finding your sound, evolving?
Angelo LeRoi: At first, I didn’t even know exactly what I wanted to do. I just knew I loved music and wanted to be surrounded by other people who were passionate about it. Berklee was a place where everyone around you was incredibly gifted, and that environment pushed me to raise the bar for myself. I learned so much from my peers. At first I was mostly focused on guitar, but I gradually shifted more into production while I was there.
JS: Did artists like Frank Ocean, Tyler, or Kendrick — who blend older sounds with new — help shape how you approached production?
Angelo LeRoi: Definitely. When I first started producing, I was mostly recreating songs I loved. One of the first things I made in GarageBand was a cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” where I rebuilt everything from scratch. Then I heard artists like Tyler and Frank — people who clearly pulled influence from the same records but weren’t trying to replicate them. They had this DIY, bedroom-producer aesthetic. That was a big moment for me — realizing I didn’t need a fancy studio to make something meaningful. The tools were becoming accessible. That whole Odd Future mindset — it really inspired me to just go for it.
JS: Let’s talk about how you met MAVI and how that creative partnership began.
Angelo LeRoi: That happened at a show at Resident in LA. After the show, we were all just hanging out, and MAVI and I got to talking. A couple days later, we were already in a session. Things just clicked. I’d send them ideas, and whenever they were in LA, they'd pull up to the spot I shared with my roommate. We had a little studio setup in the house. That’s where a lot of stuff started happening.
JS: You started as a producer — how did that evolve into becoming your own artist?
Angelo LeRoi: It all kind of happened simultaneously. I put out my first EP in 2018, but I actually dropped something even earlier at the end of high school — though you can’t find that one anymore. Dirty Laundry came out during my freshman year at Berklee. That felt like the first real attempt at producing a full project. From there, it’s been a constant process of learning — trying new things in production, experimenting in my own world, sending stuff out to other artists, and then letting those experiences circle back and influence what I do solo. Being an artist and being a producer are almost like snapshots of different periods in my life.
JS: And now with eLRoi — what headspace were you in while creating this project?
Angelo LeRoi: I wanted to lean back into live instrumentation. The last project I did was more rock-influenced, but with eLRoi, I wanted to reconnect with those soul roots. I’d been learning a lot about arrangement, instrumentation, composition — all the stuff that makes records feel warm and human. A lot of these tracks started as ideas I planned to sample later, but a few of them felt special. They felt like they belonged together, so the project grew from there.JS: Lyrically, it feels like you’re reflecting on everyday life and the little moments. Could you walk us through one of the songs — maybe “Wedding Ring”? What was going through your head while writing it?
Angelo LeRoi: “Wedding Ring” came from thinking about that moment when you know you’re in love. Like really in it. That fantasy of the wedding day, being with someone forever. The song opens with “I will always love you till the end of nevermind,” which to me is about something infinite — like, love even beyond forever. The lyrics are super confessional and direct. “I need that finger now. I want you to my home. Let’s go and make a home.” It’s me being honest about wanting to build something — even though I come from divorced parents and I’ve seen how love can fall apart. There’s still something beautiful and important about chasing that feeling, even knowing it might not last. That journey teaches you so much about yourself.
JS: There’s definitely a thread across the EP — love, longing, thinking about the future. Would you say that’s a fair way to describe it?
Angelo LeRoi: For sure. Love’s a space I naturally write from. And a lot of that comes from my love of blues music. There’s always been this thread of emotional expression — longing, devotion, melancholy — that I try to carry into what I make. It’s kind of always been there.
JS: Let’s talk more about the blues side. Who are some of your biggest blues influences, and how do they show up in eLRoi?
Angelo LeRoi: Elmore James is big for me. I love his vibrato and how much soul he brought to electric blues. Learning how much he influenced Hendrix was eye-opening. Buddy Guy is another one — he’s actually sampled in “Sinners,” and he played a key role in the evolution from acoustic to electric blues. And of course, Robert Johnson — the crossroads mythology, the raw feeling in his playing. There’s something haunted and powerful about those records. That spirit seeps into my music even when I’m working with more modern tools.
Angelo LeRoi’’s eLRoi EP is streaming everywhere now.