An Interview with Icy Spicy Leoncie, the World's Most Sexual Musician

"Icy Spicy" Leoncie is an incredibly gifted woman. A polyglot, a musician, a poet, a creative director, a comedian. Her very specific brand of highly tuneful yet oddball music has shades of both Cher and Wesley Willis. Her sexual themes and lyrics, her outfits, her dances and her come-to-bed eyes have the potential to be jarring, but all you want to do upon experiencing them is live deeply inside the world she's created – a world of bawdy romance, slapstick hilarity and comedy both light and dark in theme.

Yet, as I discovered in a phone conversation with her recently, her world isn't as sunny as her music makes out. She currently lives in Iceland, a place she highly dislikes, but plans to return to her homeland, India, to pursue a career in politics, while continuing to compose music and release it through the site on which she's built most of her audience: YouTube.

What follows is an insight into the frustrations and dreams of a truly modern auteur.

VICE: To begin, can you tell me a bit about your early life and career?
Icy Spicy Leoncie: I was born and grew up in India. I studied music, did examinations and everything through Trinity College of Music London. I studied classical music. I first started my career playing the organ in a Catholic church in India, then travelled around with my father's band to the Arabian Gulf, staying over there. Then later on, I decided to move out of all these places and stayed in Europe. And that's where I've been. I'm still doing music, composing, writing for films, stuff like that. I'm also writing for myself. I love the UK because that's where I do most of my recordings.

Did you ever live in the UK?
Oh yeah, I lived in Essex. My husband is Icelandic and he wanted to come [back to Iceland] for a while. I just hated the thought of going to Iceland or even staying there! Right now I'm preparing to move out again, and it's quite a huge move because I have quite a huge house.

How was Essex?
It was nice. I did recordings and made many music videos. Most of my music videos have been done by British filmmakers, so I can choose who I work with. It's good. I like England. I've been busy composing and writing my book, and it's going to be quite a thick book. I think it's going to look as thick as a Bible, actually.

Is it a biography?
Yes. About my life experiences, my travels and everything else that happens around me.

When did you first discover YouTube as a way to get your music out?
When I went to the UK. There, I met my first music video producer, Chris from Cambridge. He came to Southend, where I lived, and he helped me to get on with these things. He told me about it. I don't care so much about the internet – it wastes my time. I like being busy composing.

How does it waste your time?
Because one thing leads to another: you go there, there, there and there… and then suddenly I go, 'Oh god! I forgot to cook today!' I really love cooking. But YouTube was great.

How's the feedback been on YouTube?
It's good, except for the Icelandic racists. They are permanently after me! They should try and mind their own business and stop bothering me all the time. God, the kind of rubbish they write on the internet and everything else.

What do they say?
They call me all kinds of ugly names. Indian this, Indian that and that and that.

What inspires the themes in your music?
They are mostly about my life experiences. Something that I watch and observe. Things happening around me.

What inspired, say, "Killer in the Park"?
That is a good song! When I lived in the UK there were all these things happening. Suddenly a maniac jumped out from the trees onto some person, grabbed them and killed them, and I thought, 'This is good.' "Killer in the Park." So I wrote "Killer in the Park." I was quite inspired in England; I did a lot of videos and wrote many songs. "Killer in the Park" is fantastic. You know, when I'm actually performing live, the floor is crowded with people for "Killer in the Park". And also for "Wrestler".

In terms of style, there's a lot of comedy in the songs and videos. Is that a conscious thing?
Yes. You know, Joe, life is not all about love. There is plenty of hate going around, and I like to have a lot of fun. And I guess I am a sort of comedian. Like "Love in a Pub" – that's a good one. It was also recorded in Leigh-on-Sea. Like my name, exactly like my name.

Is the name Leoncie not a reference to Leigh-on-Sea, then? I always thought it was.
No. I don't think my parents even knew such a place existed. And anyway, I think Mother Nature was in a reckless mood when I was born. Nobody knew there was a place in England called Leigh-On-Sea. When a music video filmmaker in Surrey told me, "Do you know there's a place called Leigh-on-Sea?" I said "Really? Where?" He told me and I said, "That's where I'm going to stay." And so, that's where I went. It's a nice place, Leigh-on-Sea. I love it.

You mentioned before about experiencing racism in Iceland. Is that predominantly in YouTube comments or does it happen in daily life too?
Yes, but it started online. The people here are quite hateful. I lived for almost nine years in the UK, and nobody behaved like the people do here. I have started calling them the Icelandic Ku Klux Klan. They kick me out of all of their concerts. They cannot stand the competition that would come from me. That kind of thing would not be allowed in the UK, where I could just get a lawyer and handle things. But here, the lawyers are corrupt. The doctors are corrupt, and the politicians are terrible! Everything in Iceland revolves around nepotism. Like my husband told me 34 years ago, there's just about four or five families in Iceland, and they're so corrupt and so greedy and such dreadful criminals – they control the whole of the country.

What does your Icelandic husband make of all this?
He just says it's a mistake we left the UK. We should have gone straight to India. There's a lot of things to do for me in India.

Where you plan to become a politician, I hear?
I want to be a politician. I've been invited by several political parties, and this is a good time for me to think about politics in India, because now I have so much life experience – world experiences, my life in the UK and here in this horrible country. Oh! I want to put it out of my head. I am not coming back to Iceland. And if anybody has any intelligence they wouldn't bother with it either.

What sort of policies would you want to enact if you were an elected politician in India?
I want to make sure that mostly people who are Indians get all their rights. There's lots of trouble that comes out of Africa and Nigeria, fighting with the police. These are the things I just cannot stand. I want to do something good. I've got a lot of concerts arranged for me in India, and I want to donate a lot of my money to the orphanages in India and other good causes. Nobody else is thinking about doing something nice – everyone wants to take money and put it in their pocket, and hide it in offshore accounts like the [former] Prime Minister of Iceland. Disgusting. It's horrible that these people are not paying their taxes. It goes on to the shoulders of the low paid workers in Iceland.

Would you describe your politics as more liberal or conservative?
I don't think it's going to be conservative. More liberal – that's what I think. I'm a Christian, and India is majority Hindus. I've been polishing up on my Hindi. I like it a lot. Why do I want to go to India? I don't know. I'm not telling these Icelandic idiots any of my plans.

How many languages can you actually speak? You're fluent in English and I'm guessing Icelandic, too?
Icelandic, Danish, Portuguese, Konkani, Hindi, Arabic.

You're fluent in all of those?
My Arabic has got a bit rusty. The others are pretty fluent. But English is my mother tongue. I make it my business wherever I go to make sure I learn the language of the country perfectly. So that way, when I'm composing songs in Danish or Icelandic, for example, it's perfect. You know what happened in 2008? When my first Icelandic video came out on my YouTube? The Icelandic music racist Ku Klux Klan ganged up on me and tried to take it away from YouTube. I have a translation for it – it's called No Threesome Here.

I love that one.
It's a fantastic song. I have it in English too.

Who would you say is your biggest musical influence?
Tina Turner, Cher, Earth Wind & Fire, Tom Jones…

What aspects of their music do you take from?
I like the way they sing. I like their voices. They have great style, like me. They have a lot of expression and emotion in their music. I don't like flat voices, or wobbly voices. They have great voices.

They're quite sexual musicians as well. Especially Tom Jones.
Yes. And me?

Yes, I put you in the same bracket.
That's good.

@joe_bish

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