A CHAT WITH LEAH MASON
BY HOLLY VAN NESSOriginally from North Carolina, Leah Mason moved to Nashville in 2019 to attend Belmont University and focus on her aspiring music career. Leah began releasing country music back in 2021 and collaborated with Austin Burke and Kidd G in her early days. Around the beginning of 2024, Leah started to shift the sound of her music and explore different genres and styles. With the release of “YOUR BOYFRIEND SUCKS,” Leah experimented with a more pop, dance sound that ended up sticking around.
Nowadays, Leah says her inspirations range from Sabrina Carpenter to SZA to Hozier but she has ultimately created her own unique sound by blending different genres and influences together. I had the opportunity to chat with Leah and when asked about how she defines her music, Leah told me that it was difficult to do so because she never wants to confine herself to just one thing. Leah has about 423.4K followers on TikTok and has had a few videos and songs blow up throughout the last few years. You might recognize her song “Far Boy” which gained a lot of traction back in 2021 on social media for its witty and creative marketing.
Speaking of marketing, Leah continues to primarily use social media to promote her music. Although, like anyone can imagine, social media comes with risks. “It’s honestly been hard for me to find the right balance. There’s a lot of pressure to share so much of yourself on the internet with no boundaries and that can be a really scary thing,” Leah tells me. “[But] seeing people connect with the music I’m creating and the words I’m saying makes all of the risk worth it.” Right now, Leah uses her social media platforms to talk about her music, interact with fans, and show off what she’s been up to lately. One of my favorite things Leah has been doing lately is going track-to-track and explaining the meaning or message behind each song off HEXED.
COURTESY OF PREEMO
About HEXED
Released on August 9th, 2024, Leah stepped away almost-entirely from her country roots to push the boundaries of her sound on HEXED. Last year, she visited Sweden to work with producer Simon Jonasson (the man behind “How Does It Feel” by Summer Walker and “paper plane” by Foushee). Simon excels in soft, bedroom-pop and cozy R&B sounds and his influence was a wonderful addition to HEXED. In addition to working 14-hour days for nearly 2 weeks straight to produce the album with Simon, Leah struggled with the time difference and jet lag. This was challenging for Leah but because of her passion and excitement about creating the album, she persevered.
“Working with Simon has truly been the highlight of creating this project,” Leah tells me. “He really gets me and my vision and he’s always open to hearing me out throughout the creative process. He’s also one of the most talented people I’ve ever worked with! I truly value his opinion so much and he values mine, which I think makes us a great team. The project would not be what it is if it weren’t for him.”
HEXED is Leah’s most unfiltered and genuine project to date. Throughout the album's 13 tracks, Leah channels the fervor and complexity of young adulthood into a diverse array of music that resonates on a universal level. The album spans a wide emotional spectrum, featuring everything from witty, angst-driven anthems that capture the rebellious spirit of youth to deeply introspective songs that explore themes of love and loss. With each track, Leah masterfully encapsulates the raw intensity of her experiences, offering listeners a compelling and relatable musical journey.
COURTESY OF PREEMO
When asked about the inspiration behind the album title, Leah told me that for a while, her life felt hexed. “My early to mid-twenties has felt like one long string of unfortunate events, so it only felt fitting to have it be the album title. We wrote the title track, “Hexed,” on the first day I was in Sweden and it ended up being one of my favorite songs on the album, so it just felt right,” she says.
In a way, the album is like a peek into Leah’s personal diary. “It’s exactly how I felt in the moment with no filter,” she says. Leah makes music as a way to cope and heal and she experienced a lot of growth through the process of making the album. “I think it’s important to feel your emotions for exactly what they are in the moment in order to move on. That’s exactly what this record did for me.” While Leah is proud of all of the music she’s created, she’s especially proud of HEXED. “I feel like I made this album for me. In the past I think I let a lot of outside factors dictate the music I was making and I didn’t want this project to feel like that. I wanted to make music I liked and that I felt represented me as an artist,” she says.
HEXED, at its core, is the story of Leah and her early-20s. She sings about relationships and breakups and the familiar feeling of going from supportive and empathetic to resentful and cynical to, eventually, hopeful as she recounts a new love. In “Midas Touch,” one of Leah’s favorite songs off the album, Leah feels like she has a special gift of leading guys toward their soulmates while she’s just a stepping stone for them to get there–something many of us can relate to. Leah is a magnificent storyteller and tells us what it’s like to fall in love, fall out of love, watch others be in love, and a multitude of other emotions. HEXED is a sweeping coming-of-age project that will convince listeners to lean into that feeling of being cursed because, like Leah did, you might just find out who you truly are.