Leon’s Getting Larger sound huge on sophomore album If You Lived at Home, You’d Be Here By Now
Leon’s Getting Larger are among the bands leading the prairie emo charge. The Winnipeg-based trio, made up of friends Niko Boticki (guitar/vocals), Luke Penner (drums/vocals), and Noah St-Hilaire (bass), came together in 2021 and have been kicking out wonderfully sarcastic, Midwest-flavoured emo music ever since.
The band hit the ground running, playing their first show in 2022 and releasing their debut EP Or Something the following year. Building on the momentum of the EP, the band returned to the studio to record You Be Good Now, their first full-length album. Now, after two years of touring and honing their sound, Leon’s Getting Larger have returned with their sophomore album If You Lived at Home, You’d Be Here By Now.
Recorded with Jordan Voth, who they also worked with on their debut album, If You Lived at Home, You’d Be Here By Now finds the band expanding their sonic palette as they incorporate more elements from shoegaze, post-hardcore, and screamo into their unmistakable emo sound. Through gorgeously textured instrumentation and fully realized (and relatable) lyrics, they embody the tumultuousness of being in your mid-20s as they discuss grief and longing, dealing with the weight of expectations, and the seemingly endless feeling of inadequacy. Each song is crafted for maximum catharsis, from the intense energy of album opener “Try Not to Laugh” to the introspective nature of album closer “Worthless From Now On”, proving that prairie emo is not only alive and well, but thriving.
We caught up with Luke, Niko, and Noah to delve into the origins behind their name, why If You Lived at Home, You’d Be Here By Now is dedicated to Buster Keaton, finding catharsis through songwriting, what makes prairie emo distinct, and so much more.
REVERIE: Your band name is a reference to the 1980 film Airplane!. What does this movie mean to you? Why did you decide to name the band after this line in particular?
NIKO: Listening to a lot of that sixth-wave emo stuff, there’s a whole lot of movie references, and a lot of fun long band and song names. When I was watching Airplane! for probably the 1001st time with my dad, I thought that clip was funny, and it felt like it reflected that prairie sense of humour. It’s this weird, quirky line that does nothing for the movie, but is just funny. To me, it was kinda a no-brainer. I wanted something long and I really like band names with a person’s name in it, so I thought that would be a really funny name to use as an emo band. It also abbreviates pretty well; I think LGL is pretty solid.
LUKE: It’s also a good ice-breaker. People either get it and think it’s hilarious, or they’re like, “What’s with the name?” Then we can explain the reference.
NOAH: We get people saying, “Who’s Leon? How big is he getting?” all the time. One thing about the name is it’s hard to pop up as the first result on Google or YouTube or things like that, but one day we’ll get there. [laughs]
REVERIE: What did you learn from recording your first album, You Be Good Now, that you brought into recording If You Lived at Home, You’d Be Here By Now?
NIKO: I think it became more of a collaborative process. We went with the same producer, Jordan [Voth], who’s done a lot of good work, and I think for this one, he recognized the sound we were going for more. There were a couple times in the studio where we were like, “This is what we think it should sound like.” We listened to a Taking Back Sunday song or a Hotelier song, and it was like, “Ok, how do we capture this magic on our record?” I think we took more risks, and our tone’s gotten better.
NOAH: With our producer, we also got a lot more of his input on how it sounds sonically and what parts to maybe modify or add, like a little melody or background vocals for different parts. He understood the direction we were trying to go, and he was able to nail that a lot better this time.
LUKE: It also helped that we’d hung out with Jordan while recording the first LP. We all got to know each other a little better, so we felt more safe standing our ground and making requests, and also being receptive to stuff he could bring to the table. Recording that first record, he got us into more of that 2000s emo stuff. He’s a big Motion City Soundtrack and Starting Line kinda guy, so I think going more glossy on the production where it applied and getting some harmonies in there was right up his alley.
NIKO: I remember playing our album release show for the first album and realizing that even after recording, we had changed the songs a lot. Feedback was something we never really thought of when recording our first album, and even our EP, but listening to some of the crazy records that came out over the past couple years made us realize how much a little bit of guitar feedback or a little bit of synth really filled out a song.
REVERIE: Did you have a song on the album that was the most cathartic to write?
NIKO: “Beer O’Clock” was a song I wanted to write for a while, and it meant a lot to write it. I think lyrically “Beer O’Clock” is probably the most cathartic for me, but I think “Manitoba Plates” might be our favourite song as a band we’ve written so far. I don’t think the song talks too much about what it’s like to be in Manitoba, but it adds a little of it, and I think the big moments in there just feel so rewarding.
NOAH: For me, I’d say nailing the catharsis at the end of “Manitoba Plates”. It’s like the whole song is building up to that and we bring back lyrics from the chorus, and it just feels like a nice moment. I think that would be my favourite song we play or record.
LUKE: “Worthless From Now On” was one I didn’t really write to a melody. I had some brown liquor and dialled some feelings to 11 and just put pen to paper. The next morning, I went back and adjusted it a little bit. Then it sat for a really long time without a closing lyric, and I was like, “I have to sum up all the feelings of the whole album in four lines.” It felt really good to get those last deadly cathartic lines out there.
REVERIE: “Jokes Aside” ends with a clip from the 1932 movie Speak Easily and “Worthless From Now On” has some radio chatter at the end. What’s the story behind these samples? Why did you choose to include them in particular?
LUKE: I love Buster Keaton. It wasn’t really so much of a thematic thing to choose, but I’m sure you could glean something out of that. It was Buster Keaton’s first speaking picture when he was still known for silent movies. He was pressured into doing speaking roles and they weren’t as funny. I heard the clip and I was like, “That would tie in so well as a sample at the end of a song that’s called ‘Jokes Aside’.” Jordan put the entire movie in stacks over the end of “Worthless From Now On”, so it’s a rolling the credits to tie it all together kind of thing. We dedicated the album to Buster, of course.
REVERIE: Does the name of the album come from that movie too?
LUKE: No, I always like scrambling common sayings to recontextualize them. I was taking a lot of influence from the Hotelier too, especially their album Home Like Noplace Is There. I wanted to have an album title like that. In new suburban developments along the highway they’ll have these signs that say, “If you lived here, you’d be home by now,” and I think that’s kind of depressing, even though it’s an advertising technique. You have to drive past all these cookie-cutter houses to get to your even further suburb. I was tying that in with being from Winnipeg. A lot of people move away from Winnipeg, so it’s something about still calling it home and just missing people.
REVERIE: How would you describe the emo scene in Winnipeg? How would you describe prairie emo?
NIKO: I think the music scene in Winnipeg is unreal right now, specifically emo. We’ve had some really good bands, like Guilty Sleep, pop up in the last three years, which is amazing. I think maybe what’s different with prairie emo is that it’s not completely riff-driven. I think prairie emo has a bit more of that chordy instrumentation to it, and there’s different influences. I think shoegaze definitely popped up in our influences for this record.
I would honestly say that sarcasm plays a huge role in prairie emo. Jamboree are a local band in Winnipeg that are crazy good. I don’t know if they would call themselves an emo band, but they have hints of emo. I think the way they present themselves on stage, and in their songs, with this hint of sarcasm is so integral to the prairie identity. I think that prairie emo has a recurring trend in bands we’ve played with in Saskatchewan, like Blind Commentary, in some parts of Alberta, and in Manitoba. It’s close to Midwest emo, but it’s more sarcastic.
LUKE: It’s not weed emo like, say, Mom Jeans or Glocca Morra and stuff like that. It’s like beer emo, somehow. [laughs]
REVERIE: You made Leon’s Getting Lager beer last year or the year before, right? Would you do it again?
LUKE: Yeah! That was last year for our album release. Niko is a brewer at a brewery.
NIKO: I had the pleasure of working for Trans Canada Brewing, based in Winnipeg. I was like, “Hey, we’re doing this release party, is there any way we could brew something special for it?” We’d seen other emo bands do it before, and we thought it would be nice to do it ourselves. We were able to brew on a Sunday, and we brewed this small little batch of the lager. The Handsome Daughter was happy to work with us and get that on tap. I don’t drink before I play, and I really wanted to have a pint of what we’d made, but the beer sold out before the second band. It was a success nonetheless, but it would’ve been nice to taste the fruits of my labour. [laughs]
LUKE: We just had a bunch of puns that we wanted to make into a reality, and so the Leon’s Getting Lager was just a funny what-if. I think it probably stemmed from a typo. We’re going to do it again, I think.
NIKO: That’s the plan for our September 11 album release party. Hopefully, we’ll do a couple more kegs this time and we can have some at the end. [laughs] It’ll be very similar, but just a hint less hops.
REVERIE: Which part of If You Lived at Home, You’d Be Here By Now are you proudest of?
LUKE: That part in “Manitoba Plates” where it changes into that jangly riff that kinda sounds like the McDonald’s beepers. I’m a sucker for turning something into a triplet feel out of nowhere, and that change was such ear candy for me.
NIKO: I’m proud of the whole thing, honestly. One thing I really loved, and I’m really proud of, is that we were able to start the album with such gusto on “Try Not to Laugh”. I think we nailed an emo album intro. Every time I listen to it by myself, I feel like jumping. I’m really proud of the energy and anticipation we were able to capture in that first track.
NOAH: I was really proud of how “Beer O’Clock” turned out. That was one of the songs that our producer, Jordan, put a lot of input into, especially on all the harmonies and a lot of the background guitars. When it all came together, it felt like it became its own song and I think it’s also one of my favourites. I love a song that just builds and builds into this crazy crescendo.
Leon's Getting Larger will be playing their If You Lived at Home, You’d Be Here By Now album release show at the Handsome Daughter on September 11, 2026. If You Lived at Home, You’d Be Here By Now is available digitally now and you can follow Leon’s Getting Larger here.