Leon Thomas
Your parents were in the band, One Nation, and they toured and opened up for legends like Chaka Khan. What was it like to grow up around working musicians?
Leon Thomas: When I was five, six, and seven years old, I thought I was their biggest fan. I would be on the road with them, wrapping up cables and hanging out backstage. Seeing the reaction of the crowds they would play for and how happy they made people was a contagious feeling that played into my need to be involved in music.
At 10, you got cast as young Simba in the 2003 Broadway production of The Lion King. Were you aware of the magnitude of the work you were doing?
I knew it was a big deal, but for whatever reason, it was not a lot of pressure on me. We would have two months of rehearsal, so by the time we got to doing the shows; it was just second nature. I was out there just having fun and chasing my dreams.
You did a couple of plays on Broadway and then eventually transitioned to doing TV shows and movies. Can you talk about that transition?
I did Lion King, and then I did a play called Caroline, or Change. I signed with my first acting manager, ended up going on tour with Caroline or Change, and started working with Disney. I did these voiceovers with Disney, and we stayed in LA for two months for the tour.
It was my first time coming to Los Angeles and seeing the Hollywood shine, and it kind of gave me the bug of like, “Man, maybe I can figure something out.” By the time I got back to New York, I was auditioning for different shows like Law and Order and little roles like that to get me in the flow. I ended up booking The Color Purple [on Broadway], produced by Oprah.
During that time, I [also] booked a TV show called The Backyardigans [on Nick Jr]. That was my first real introduction into feeling like, “Okay, I'm doing something that's going to be on TV. This is next level.” And then, from there, I booked August Rush, which was a film with Robin Williams. I learned how to play guitar for [the movie]; it was such an explorative journey.
By the time I finished that movie, it was game on. Nickelodeon was taking notice of me, and development deals were being talked about. Warner Brothers had even offered me a three-picture movie deal with them.
In the midst of these development deals, the writers' strike was starting to happen. The writers' strike changed Hollywood, so many TV shows and movies were delayed or canceled. How did you stay hopeful and dedicated to the dream you had? Many people would have just left LA and never come back.
Well, I did leave LA, I went back to Brooklyn. I [was] going to high school and middle school in Brooklyn, a couple of blocks away from the projects. I went from doing this big film and TV shows and Broadway and all this stuff to then, really having to go to school. School is tough to survive naturally anyway, so I was just focused on trying to get good grades.
Were you still pursuing acting and music in New York?
At that time, I had a record deal. A lot of my time after school rather than going to do auditions and movies and TV shows, was just going to the studio and working with legendary producers like Bob Power and Toby Gad. That's where some of the songs that I ended up performing on Victorious came from.
I didn't know what was going on, but God had a plan. He was like, “No, you have to live some real life and enjoy being a human.” While the writers' strike was happening, the Victorious stuff started coming around. Around 15, I started auditioning for that and getting prepped to maybe potneitlally move to LA.
From the outside looking in, Victorious seemed like the perfect opportunity for you. You were able to be around kids your age and sing, act, and create music with them.
When you're deep into the industry at that age, it's kind of hard to make real friends. It [Victorious] was awesome to have a new group of friends to vibe out with. It was a healthy amount of musical competition. We would be backstage seeing who could write a song fastest, me and Ariana would do adlibs and see who had the best ones. It was almost like going to Hogwarts or being at the X-Men Academy bcause you're finally around people that share the same passion for the things you're trying to do and it’s being catered to by the network around us.
In the midst of Victorious being a smash hit, you dropped your first mixtape, Metro Hearts, worked on Ariana Grande’s debut album and started a production and engineering group with Khris Riddick-Tynes, The Rascals. You were on a grind.
Shout out to my boy, Khris Riddick-Tynes. We met over at Babyface’s studio, and we just really hit it off musically. There's those people you just meet in this music game that speak your language, and you can understand their influences growing up and what kind of stamp they're trying to make within the industry. At that time, Khris had just did a song for Boyz II Men, and I’m a huge Boyz II Men fan. I was like, “Man, you're tight.” I didn’t have any placements, and I was like, “Bro, you’re amazing. Let’s work.” I was just hanging out over there all the time. Like I said, I didn’t really have any friends. I was like, “Hey, this is a new opportunity to be around like-minded people and potentially make some music.”
I would throw little kickbacks at the studio. We would have Ariana, Taco, Chantel Jeffries, and all these cool kids in the industry pop by and just listen to music and hang. That turned into us doing songs for Ariana’s new project, and everything snowballed once again. We were making so much music, and then randomly, placements would happen because artists would just be there because of Babyface.
We got our business managers together and made a production company. I thought it was pretty smart because the pseudonym left everybody in the dark who was trying to work with me. There was no preconceived notion of who I am or what I would bring to the table musically.
Babyface is one of the greatest songwriters and producers of all time. What was it like to have someone like Babyface mentoring you?
It was awesome just to have access to his world. I'm a visual learner, so seeing the process and writing songs for real functioning artists trying to make a change in the industry themselves…gave me the lessons I needed to make things happen moving forward. I'm forever grateful for what he's been able to make happen for me.
You went on to work with Toni Braxton and Babyface on their joint album, Love, Mariage & Divorce. Your songwriting contributions to that project earned you a Grammy win at 21. A Grammy at 21 is insane. But, a Grammy at 21 for something you did with Babyface and Toni Braxton? That’s next level.
It was nuts; she was really fun to be around. I only got one song placed on that project. It was kind of by accident, too; it was originally a song that we did for Kevin Ross. She [Toni] heard it and wanted to rework the lyrics and make it fit the album's vibe.
The Grammy? I wasn't sure if anything was going to win. When you're a producer on an album, they don't give you tickets or treat you like a true nominee. You can buy a ticket and get a plaque afterward if it wins. I was kind of broke around that time. I was like, “All right, I'ma stay home. Save up.” I was cooking spaghetti with some biscuits when I found out I [had] won. I was like, “What?”
It was such a humble moment for me because it validated the process of me continuing to push forward. It [music] can be a thing that you have doubts on if it's not going unbelievably well straight out the gate. But I knew that anything I've ever built took time; it took really going through certain things and developing to reap the benefits. I was willing to put in the work until I got there.
In the following years, you continued getting placements with artists like Post Malone, Meghan Trainor, Jessie Reyez, Kehlani, and Kevin Abstract. In 2019, you got a placement with Rick Ross and Drake on, ‘Gold Roses.’ After that, the floodgates swung open and refused to close. In the three years since you’ve got two placements with Ariana Grande, three with Drake, 7 with Giveon, and so many more with artists like 6lack, Buddy, and Jack Harlow. What do you think shifted for that to happen?
I started working with Boi-1da and Simon and Ek over at Isla Management. They have some kind of magical energy around what they got going on. Working with Drake also has something I call “The Drake effect.” Artists are more susceptible to being like, “All right, you’re working with Drake. He usually knows what's next. Let’s see.” But prior to that, I sat down with Ariana just to hang out. We were just hanging, and I was like, “Yeah, I got some beats.” She was like, “We'll play 'em. We got a studio.” I played them, and she was like, “Oh. I really love that.” We started writing to it, and it became a song on her album [Positions]. We wrote another one, same thing.
Seeing the influence that Boi-1da had in the production space in the industry and even his process was really mind-bending, understanding now that it’s genuinely about getting everything off the shelves. I was always about going from scratch in every session. After working with him, I started playing artists some of the work that I did, not even just that year, but the year before and the year before with that. Seeing that process started giving me an opportunity to get more things on more artists. The way that they attack sending stuff out was next level. The leverage they have from being so closely associated to all of Drake's hit records put me and my ex-production partner in a position to start doing some big records.
That brings us to one of the biggest albums out right now, SZA’s S.O.S. You, Khris, and Babyface, landed a placement on that album with, ‘Snooze.’ Amazing tune. How did that happen?
I had just gotten a deal and an imprint at Sony ATV for a publishing company. I was courting signing a couple of different producers. One of the producers I was working closely with was BLK Beats from Scotland. He would send me 40 different samples, just chords, maybe a synth or two. He sent over this really great chord progression with a couple of synths on it, and it was one of my favorite ones.
I was in the studio with Babyface, Khris, and SZA. She [SZA} was like, “Load me up with a track. I'm going to go into a separate studio and vibe out. You guys go into another one and just continue to create.” We gave her one track we did a couple of days earlier, and then while she was recording, I pulled up the sample from BLK, and started playing some bass and some guitar. I started singing a freestyle over it, and Khris added drums to it.
I was singing more ideas on the mic while SZA was walking by to go to the bathroom. She was like, “What the hell is that?” She stuck her head in the room like, “Whoa, what's that?” She walks in, and she’s like, “That’s fucking amazing. I love that.” She’s vibing with us and just singing little ideas, and then she's like, “Bounce it out and send it to me. I'm going to write something to it right now.” We shot it over to her, and a couple of hours later and she came back with ‘Snooze.’
In 2022 you signed with Ty Dolla $ign’s Mowtown imprint, EZMNY Records, and ended the year with the release of your song, ‘Breakout.’ Your last EP, Genesis, was released in 2018. Can we expect a full-length project this year?
Honestly, I've had a mixed and mastered album ready to go since last year, before the summer. But I think it's really all about time. You can throw a project out there, but prepping the marketplace, really making sure that there's a need and a want for the content and the product itself, is such a big part of any artist's journey. I'm down to take the time to make sure people know I exist, that they know that this is the real thing. I just want people to really be in a position to be an active member of my tiny community, my musical community, so I could really genuinely come through with something that's going to be special.
We got some dates floating around over at the label right now, which is really exciting. But I'm so focused on the present moment right now. I want to focus on what's going on right now rather than worried about worrying about what happened in the past or worrying about what's going to happen way in the future.
You went from being signed to Columbia Records to going the independent route to now back in the major label system. Can you talk about returning to a major label and what that has done for you?
We are really working as a unit right now, and I love to see it. I got some all-star players locked in with me. Shawn Barron’s an amazing A&R, and the marketing staff over in Motown has worked hard to put some amazing moves together. I had some hoop dreams early on. It's feeling like I'm really playing for the Lakers or something! I'm finally at the point where I feel like, all right; I can really hit the world stage. I'm not being super hard on myself right now. I think it's just really important for me to just train my subconscious mind to be grateful for every opportunity that I have and attack everything with a lot of momentum.
I'm focused on this social initiative, letting people know I'm here, doing every interview I can do, and just getting the word out there. I did a lot of the hard work for the music, and now I just really want to make sure that everybody who's put the hard work in over in Motown is proud of what I'm doing as an individual to market myself as well.
Do you have any advice or tips for any singer-songwriter reading this?
One of the biggest things you can do as a songwriter is to learn songs from some of the greats. Then you can know their form of storytelling, and this whole thing is like a big cycle of imitation if you really think about it.
Another great thing is mastering the art of collaboration. You don't have to write 100% of every song that you put out. You can find yourself in situations where you're collaborating with somebody that understands your story, and you can be involved and help build that lyrically and melodically. It'll most times be a lot better than if you were just sitting there by yourself. Mastering the art of collaboration takes people to that stratospheric level.
Anything else you want to say before we head out?
A lot of these songs that I'm a part of, I'm really genuinely working on a lot of the production aspects. I always want to give love to all the writers involved because I think it's such a gift that they have. Obviously, I write a lot of my stuff as well, but I just wanted to say that and give them their flowers.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.