LEAP’s Jacky Scott talks us through the journey that’s led to the band’s debut album ‘Entropy’, out now.

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It’s possible to argue that the story of LEAP began before any of its members were old enough to speak the four-letter word.

Born just days apart in the same hospital, frontman Jacky Scott and drummer Hector Cottam were brothers long before they shared a stage. Growing up side by side, experiencing every moment of joy, confusion, and heartbreak together, their connection sits at the heart of a band built on a simple, but vital, foundation: family.

Rounded out by guitarist Adam Mason and bassist Declan Brown (who Jacky first met whilst admiring each other’s denim jackets in The Hawley Arms), the four-piece may not share a bloodline, but their unbreakable bond has become somewhat of a lifeline in recent years – especially for Jacky.

After signing a major label deal with his previous band, the frontman was thrust onto a rollercoaster ride of relentless ups and downs. Living with bipolar disorder, he spiralled into an extended manic episode, eventually being sectioned in a psychiatric institution. After being released from the unit to the news that his project had been dropped by all labels and management, followed by the devastating loss of his father to suicide – it left him shattered.

“My confidence was at an all-time low. I wasn’t sure whether I’d ever get back into music,” he reflects.

“That’s why this band is called LEAP. It’s about giving yourself a second chance and trying to be brave. You just have to take that step forward.”

Taking that plunge alongside his brothers, Jacky will be the first to say that this band has saved his life, referring to LEAP as ‘rock and roll therapy’. Coming after a whirlwind few years, the band’s debut album ‘Entropy’ has now arrived, serving not only as an introduction to the their sound, but to their ultimate purpose.

Eleven songs bound by grief, hope, and healing, it’s a window into Jacky’s life, but more importantly – it’s an invitation to join his family.

THE SOUND

Prior to their debut album taking shape, the sonic DNA of LEAP was built over the course of three EPs.

For those that have been following the band’s story then, there are a few tracks on ‘Entropy’ that will be familiar. Live-tested during their huge sold-out European shows, the band picked out the three songs they felt best captured the energy of those EPs. Intended as a way to chart the band’s story so far, the hook-driven moodiness of breakout single ‘Exit Signs’ slots seamlessly into the tracklist, alongside other previously released tracks ‘Energies’ and ‘The Downfall’.

With three slots on the tracklist already filled, that left LEAP with eight new songs to write when they hit the studio in January 2025.

“We wrote a large chunk of the record over the course of six weeks,” Jacky says.

“When ‘Exit Signs’ started getting love from radio stations all over Europe, we thought maybe that’s what the LEAP sound was. But then we had another moment with ‘Sinking Feeling’. That got a huge response and hit some milestones that were very rare for a totally unsigned band.”

“Those songs guided our vision for ‘Entropy’, but our focus was on making an album that could take you to another world for 45 minutes. That form of escapism is so important because it’s easy to get lost in your phone screen and all of the everyday things that get us down. Having a moment to completely connect with something and go on that journey is special.”

That journey begins with expansive opener ‘Over & Out’ and continues through the mighty riffs of ‘Do Or Die’, the upbeat dance-ready hooks of ‘I Was Never There’, all the way through to the slow-building explosion of closer ‘Eclipse’. Capturing the electric spirit of their live show whilst leaving space for intimacy, it’s an album that veers unpredictably between chaos and control, a feeling intended to mirror the inner workings of Jacky’s mind.

“It’s a reflection of how my brain works,” he explains.

“Being diagnosed bipolar, sometimes I feel like everything is amazing, but then it can suddenly go completely the other way. The way the record sounds is supposed to reflect that inner turmoil.”

“Like anything, it’s all about balance. I’ve been going to gigs since I was 15, and I never want to go to a show and walk away feeling sombre. I want to be sweaty, I want to feel euphoria, and I want to be moshing. Going into the album, it was important for us to get that balance right. A show should mostly be about big, upbeat bangers. You want to give people a good time, but then you also want to dip into the tears here and there.”

THE LYRICS

If there’s a thesis that underlines ‘Entropy’, it’s radical honesty.

From mental health and grief to mania and resilience, every lyric draws straight from the raw edges of Jacky’s lived experience. Always aiming to uplift with his words, yet never pretending that the darkness isn’t real, it’s unflinching – but never hopeless.

“I’ve been through some really hard times in the last few years,” the frontman nods.

“I want to be open about my darker feelings because there are so many people out there going through the same thing. That’s what I love most about live shows, being able to get them all under one roof, moshing and going wild.”

That level of vulnerability comes naturally to Jacky, with some of his most sombre lines naturally flowing out of him whenever he sits down at the piano.

“It’s something I’ve learned from my own journey with mental health, but also from seeing people around me deteriorate after not being open about their feelings. I know how destructive that can be, so I pride myself on being able to talk from the heart. At the same time though, I love the fact that one song can have 100 different meanings to different people. Sometimes, if you keep things a little bit more cryptic, then it allows people to go on their own journey with it.”

‘Energies’ traces the unpredictable manic spikes Jacky has had to navigate, ‘Do Or Die’ captures the ride-or-die hustle of an independent band, whilst ‘Waste Your Love’ bottles up the feeling of rediscovering your true passion.

If you ask Jacky what the most personal song penned for ‘Entropy’ was though, the answer is easy. Written for his father who took his own life in 2021, the poignant ‘Messages’ is the prime example of how deep he was willing to dive in his songwriting this time around.

Released in partnership with CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), the powerful single raised funds and awareness for suicide prevention, a cause understandably very close to Jacky’s heart.

“It’s such an earth-shattering thing to happen to you and your family. It was totally out the blue, and my dad wasn’t diagnosed with depression or anything,” he reflects.

“It puts everything into context, and it’s such a deep feeling. Trying to get that into a song is hard, but there was one thing that really stuck with me. When it first happened, I was unable to process it. Over time, listening through his old voice notes allowed me to access that emotion and feel connected with him again.”

“We had the first part of the song written during the year that he passed, but it took a long time to work out the rest. I wanted people to be able to look into the song and take something positive away from it. Since it was released, so many people have been reaching out about those they’ve lost. Everyone deals with grief in different ways, but it’s nice to have that community there, and to not feel like you’re alone in that pain. I think there’ll be a few tears when we play that one on tour.”

THE COLLABORATORS

Whilst LEAP officially exists as a four-piece project, it’s unlikely that the band would look or sound the way it does without the help of Tom Leach.

The ideas that sparked each of these songs came from countless sources. Some were born from Jacky’s demos, others from jam sessions between the band’s four members, but each one of them took on a new life after being touched by Tom. Serving as their secret fifth member of sorts, the producer has overseen every element of ‘Entropy’, from the scrappy initial acoustic demos to the fully fleshed-out songs you hear on the final cut.

“It took a while for us to work each other out,” Jacky reflects,

“We have very different personalities. Tom is matter of fact and to the point, whereas I can be a little bit more whimsical and likely to come up with silly ideas. He’d shoot a lot of them down, but 95 per cent of the time he was totally right to do so. It’s been beautiful to feel that relationship blossom though because we’re so tight now. When you’re making a record, one of the most important things is feeling comfortable in that space. You can’t have any self-judgement there; it’s just about looking into the corner and letting the ideas flow through you. Developing that friendship with the people you’re working with is so important.”

The cohesion of ‘Entropy’ is largely driven by the purposefully tight circle involved in its creation. Familiar with the feeling of having ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ in the past, for Jacky, it’s vital that LEAP remains a much more intimate operation. Focused on maintaining a fluid, instinct-led process, ensuring that he and his bandmate’s voices lead each and every decision, it’s all about keeping their core as solid and laser-focused as possible.

“We’ve been lucky because the dynamics of this band are so easy,” he shrugs.

“Everyone has their own ventures outside of LEAP, and their own outlets for writing, so this project is mainly my voice. We’re four best friends though, and even if there is a little disagreement, it’s easy to talk it out when you’re that tight with your bandmates. I think that problems come up when people can’t communicate how they’re feeling about something, but we’re all good communicators. We have such a strong bond.”

THE TITLE & ARTWORK

When Jacky first heard the word ‘Entropy’, the band were on tour, refuelling at a service station somewhere in Europe. Their tour manger – a Czech man with a thick accent who Jacky affectionately describes as being “the size of a polar bear” – posed a question to him.

“He said, ‘What’s that word for when everything goes boom?’” Jacky laughs.

“I looked it up, and I don’t think it was necessarily the word he was meaning, but entropy popped up. The definition was something like, ‘a gradual decline into disorder’, which basically summed up my twenties. It immediately felt right.”

Shot by Manchester-based photographer Liam Maxell and designed by Till Schelli, the inspiration for the album’s striking artwork came whilst Jacky browsed an art gallery. Stumbling across photographer Tim Bret-Day’s X-ray themed shoot of David Bowie, LEAP ran with the idea, conjuring up an image that reflects the fragile humanity threaded through each of these songs.

“X-rays are made up of broken bones. Your body can be broken, but your soul keeps you going inside the chaos,” Jacky says.

“Putting it all together was actually quite a process. We had to buy a piece of plastic that was the size of a wall, then we shot lights from behind it and stuck all the X-rays on there. Liam got some great shots, and then we passed it onto Till. He’s an amazing up-and-coming designer, and we first started talking when he randomly sent us some t-shirt designs over email.”

“One thing I love about Till is that when he comes to take photos of the shows he’s always like, ‘Just so you know, I will need to take 15-minute breaks to go in the mosh pit’. He puts his camera down, moshes for a bit, then gets back to work. He’s there for all of the right reasons.”

THE FUTURE

Before their first tour, LEAP put out a message to say that anyone who got a tattoo relating to their band would receive guest list for life.

An offer they came to regret as it became technically impossible to accommodate the hundreds of requests each night from those proudly showing off their new ink, the unexpected response to their silly promise still means the world to Jacky and his bandmates.

“I just find it amazing that we can be a small moment in so many people’s lives all over the world,” he smiles.

“I love being on tour so much. You meet so many people each day, and I honestly want to be friends with every single one of them. Talking to those people and hearing their stories… It’s another kind of emotional journey. It feels so trippy to be sitting on your sofa at home after a 50-date tour. You’re just thinking, ‘Okay, what do I do now?’”

With their debut album in hand and the headline shows growing, there may be fleeting moments of stillness, but the story of LEAP is being written quicker than anyone can truly keep up with.

The focus now firmly on the live show, as we talk, Jacky is adding the final touches to the plans for their upcoming headline run. Whilst there are obvious decisions to be made regarding lights and equipment, what’s most important to the London band is less technical. It’s about being able to foster an environment where everyone feels safe, and everyone is equal.

Whether you’ve been a fan for two years or two minutes, and whether it’s your first LEAP show or your tenth, the message they want to send remains the same – welcome to the family.

“We’re always thinking about the next thing, but we’re trying to take it all in right now,” the frontman finishes.

“I want people to walk away from these shows feeling uplifted, excited, and also a little reflective. I want them to look back over the journey they’ve been on to get to where they are and use that as momentum to go even further. I want this band to motivate people.”