Forever is a Long Time, But Not For Leeds’ L’objectif

Words: Darci Jackson

Photography: Izzi Glover

As the name of their most recent EP suggests, L’objectif are in it for the long haul. This Band Is Forever; a dynamic narrative of being 20-something in today’s world is a window into the new era of the Leeds indie quartet.

L’objectif are Saul Kane (vocals, guitar), Louis Bullock (drums), Sam Hudson (bass), and Abe Hussain (guitar). We sat with the four-piece on a biting Wednesday afternoon in one of their favourite Leeds boozers; The Victoria & Commercial.

"I couldn't spell it for the first two years!" exclaimed Bullock on their choice of band name, one that they’ve stuck by since they were teenagers. 

"Me and Louis met when we were, like, 12 in high school in the school play, and we just snuck off into the practice rooms and started practicing as a band. We pretty much had our first festival one week after we formed," explained Kane. 

"It was in Kirkstall in Leeds, and it was just like a battle of the bands, I don’t know how on earth we won." 

"It was just sympathy, we were like the youngest people there. And ironically, we won an hour of free practice at Eiger Studios, which is where now we have our actual practice studio," added Bullock. 

Hudson and Hussain joined at the latter end of 2024. 

"I used to live out in the Middle East, and came back to do uni, I lived in Abu Dhabi for like 9 years," revealed Hudson with Hussain adding: "I met Saul at music college when we were like 15 but this is like my first proper band. I used to be at a music school that had a band and we did little gigs there, the guy who actually ran that was James from Yard Act, so that was kind of my experience of it before this."

Midway through 2024, following the release of their third EP, The Left Side, and a UK headline tour, L’objectif’s steady success came to a grinding halt. 

"The band had a breakup, like we weren’t on a label anymore, didn’t have management, didn’t have a booking agent, didn’t have anything. Everything just kicked off overnight," explained Kane. 

"That’s where the slogan, ‘this band is forever,’ [came from] because it kept coming up that we’ve been in this band forever, like ‘Shall we carry on? What shall we do?’ And we decided to carry on and kind of dig in and start a new whole kind of project. And that got us a new label and new management and things like that.

"We’ve had ups and downs but they weren’t real ups and downs, like even when we were younger, like if something didn't go right as a band, even though we were like 14 or we didn't get a gig and our mates band got a gig, it felt like the end of the world. And then we were 16 and we got signed and it was like ‘ah we were right all along.' But it felt like a dream and I think a bit of reality happening to us made us like focus on, you know, what we actually wanted to do and that was the music and getting that perfect and figuring out how we want to present that music to the world."

"You’ve got to keep doing it for the right reasons, keep doing it because you love to do it and I think you’re winning either way if you’re doing that. That’s what you take from it really, the fact that you get to play music with your best mates and yeah, you know, it's just a bonus that you get to play shows, you get to go to places and meet people and stuff like that. It’s just all about music really, isn’t it? It’s got to be," followed Hudson. 

And that’s exactly where L’objectif stand today, showing pure grit and determination by taking a hit but getting straight back up again, probably on a more secure and exciting path than they were on before thanks to their resilience. 

Leading the next chapter of the four-piece was single Goth Kids, a soaring tune complete with their enticing tales of living in the moment. 

"It was quite different to the other stuff we've done, it was a bit more anthemic. It felt like we wanted to test our production skills as well, like could we even make a song like that had had like a really heavier element to it?" started Kane. 

"Usually if you've got like a big band song, it's good to get an exterior producer in to try and capture the sound of the band. Going forward, if we can like really nail this one song or like, at least do our best with it and try and learn a lot more about how to make a big sounding song, then it would help us. It ended up driving us crazy, to be honest, because it took us like a year to finish producing it. We were so perfectionist over it, we weren’t really making any other songs, it was literally that song for a year."

Last Summer, they played their first festival main stage at Live at Leeds In The Park, drawing in a respectable and energetic crowd.

"It was class, it was terrifying!" began Kane.

"The fact we had to wake up for a gig at like 8 in the morning and we were behind the stage at 10 before we'd had breakfast was just was kind of surreal and the gig was over by like 12 and we were like, what do we do for the rest of the day? I think we were nervous, but actually just being on a stage like that, you can't not enjoy yourself, really." 

"We got buggy-ed as well!" added Bullock. 

As one of the UK’s best festivals to discover new talent (and a personal favourite at Dizzy Magazine), Live at Leeds is a staple in the world of L’objectif.

"We’ve been going for ages, well, just when we were old enough to to go," explained Bullock about himself and Kane.

"I’d never been until I went to see you guys, I went to see the old band so 2021 was the first time I went but it feels like ages ago," furthered Hussain with Kane adding: "It was my first gig, I saw Peace at Live at Leeds. I was tiny, I was in the mosh pit and I was like 11 or 12 and I was just dying in the mosh pit, getting booted about like a ball. But it was good, and I think I’ve been going most years ever since, so it was always a thing that we really wanted to play."

One thing glaringly obvious about L’objectif is their hunger for what they do. They’re switched on, and they know exactly what they want, and are well on the right path to getting it. It’s refreshing to hear, and it emanates across in the way they talk not only about the band, but the process of creating their debut album. 

"We've been in the studio every day and like, we really, really want it to be like the best we can make it. I think it’s going really well but it’s still not finished because we’re perfectionists but it is very, very close to being finished," confessed Kane.

"I feel like it was good for us to just block out some noise from social media and comparisons and worrying about things and just be like alright, us four. What do we want an album to be? What can we add to it? What direction would we go in if we just fully focused on what we wanted to do? We don’t want to start promoting an album that we’re not absolutely in love with, and we are. We probably wont be by the time we start promoting it but right now we really like it," added Hussain.

"It’s been a nice realisation that you can just do whatever you want, you know, we’ve been sat there writing songs for us. There’s parts of the songs like, you know, that I don't think would have made earlier ‘Lob' stuff, but, like, it is now because you can just do whatever you want. It’s really freeing," finished Hudson. 

The frankness in which the four spoke about creating such an important body of work made apparent the collaborative and comfortable environment with which they’re operating. It’s a little flame of excitement that makes you feel in safe hands knowing that, whatever form this album takes, the band are undeniably proud of what they’ve created. There was a very tentative mention of the project being released in 2027, but the band are almost certain we will be getting a taste of it during this year.

L’objectif’s discography is eclectic and enticing, each EP offering something different sonically, showing not just their progression from their early years as a group, but also the eagerness to learn and not being afraid to dip into new sounds. Speaking about this, Kane mentioned:

"It's kind of unfortunate because I feel like with some of our stuff that we release, we gain a few fans that are specifically into that, and then we lose some others who were into the bit before but I think that’s the way we like doing it. I'd want the bands that I like listening to, to come up with something new every time otherwise it’s boring."

Touching on their most recent EP, Hussain added: "There’s definitely glimpses of this album on the last EP for sure. I think looking at songs like Burbank, Party’s Comin’ Down, that definitely influenced the way this one’s going."

"It’s a debut album, you can only do it once. Hopefully we want to tell a bit of a story, I really enjoy albums where you can see like a story through the whole thing and like a whole project, as a project. A lot of our EPs are just songs that are ready to go and they're just there and that's thrown together but with this, like, we want to think it as thought about and like tastefully placing each song in order as a body of work and a story," continued Bullock with Kane furthering: "Everyone's focused on how do we make this song slap even more, especially like with Abe and Sam like coming in and their own ideas."

One of the most important parts of any album isn’t about the music, it’s the cover. And if there’s one thing about L’objectif it’s that you can tell which EP run they were on by Kane’s hair, and because we ask all the important questions at Dizzy Magazine, we had to find out whether with the album, he would continue the trend.

"It depends on the colour to be fair! I was thinking the cover to be black in my head so I don’t want to dye my hair black but I don’t know. Well, I was thinking of it being like a massive L apostrophe so I could shave that into my head potentially!"

And without getting ahead of ourselves, with talk of the brand new Beatles films being banded about, what would a L’objectif film look like? 

"Jonah Hill would play me very well," said Bullock with certainty as Kane joked: "Who’s the best looking bloke? Jacob Elordi for me, I reckon. On a serious note, apparently people say that I look like Dylan Minnette."

"I think Harris Dickinson for Sam’s a good shout," added Hussain, on the grounds that they’re both tall, before considering for himself: "Maybe the guy from Saltburn. Not Jacob Elordi, not Barry Keoghan, the cousin. Farleigh. Or Dominic Calvert-Lewin."

L’objectif are certainly afoot in the world of debut albums and back firmly on their ever-evolving path. As four talented individuals with a inherent fervour for storytelling, L’objectif’s steady rise has us waiting with bated breath at what lies ahead. 

"Get ready," was all Kane had to say.

"Get ready for the songs of the year, next year," added Bullock.    

They also left us with this parting message:

Big things coming… L’ x See you later