When it comes to mixing pure musicianship with a more new-age approach, few artists have made a more explosive splash than Leon Thomas.
Despite once being best known as a child star actor, Thomas has since established himself as a premier songwriter, with credits for some of the biggest artists in music, including Ariana Grande, Drake and Giveon.
“It’s kind of crazy because I’ve been in the limelight my whole life but this season seems really personal,” Thomas told Blavity in a recent interview. “I think a lot of how people knew me was through other TV shows and movies, so it’s really great to have this personal process using music as therapy and kind of spilling all of the things that are going on in my life and have that resonate with millions of people has been such a cool process. We’re still building; we’re at the beginning but I really feel like we’re inching towards a new level.”
Thomas’ latest pursuit entails launching his career as a solo artist. In the last couple of years, he’s been able to swimmingly exceed that goal.
With a Grammy Award for co-producing SZA’s megahit “Snooze,” becoming the first artist signed to Ty Dolla $ign’s EZMNY label and releasing his first two solo albums, Electric Dusk and Mutt, Thomas has been on a lightning hot streak with zero signs of slowing down anytime soon.
“It was an insane process and to be honest, I didn’t think the song was gonna make the album, let alone turn around and win a Grammy a year later, so that was insane and SZA’s cool as hell. She’s been so supportive of my artist journey.” Thomas said about “Snooze.”
As subtle as it may seem, Thomas always had a clear vision for his career and knew he would reach his current summit through the power of manifestation.
“‘Blue Hundreds’ was one of those records where I wasn’t financially doing too well, but that was like a manifestation for money coming in and things about to change,” Thomas said. “It’s so cool to look back at it now because I was completely right. Things were about to switch up. On my new album, there’s a song called ‘I Do,’ where once again I’m manifesting something that’s not here, but I’m looking forward to being in that position. I have a lot of friends getting married right now and I’m looking forward to being in that space where I find my person.”
Before his solo journey as an artist, Thomas formed a production duo alongside Khris Riddick-Tynes formerly known as The Rascals. Some of the tracks they’ve produced together include Drake’s “Love All” and Ariana Grande’s “Nasty.” They two have known each other for over a decade.
“I had a studio session with Babyface and afterward, he was like ‘Yo, I wanna introduce you to my protege’ and I met Khris,” he said. “We met briefly then and then my boy Jinsu invited me back to the studio to do a song I was working with Khris on and at that time, there was no splice, but I noticed he had all the best drum sounds I had heard at all the studios. He had epic sounds. I noticed this kid was very smart. He was engineering and doing his thing. I was like, you know what I’m gonna keep working with bro. So we started working together every day for the next eight months. And next thing, we knew we would have placements together and we decided to make it official and become a production duo.”
Above the music, Thomas embraces Riddick-Tynes as one of his true friends in the industry.
“That’s really my brother over everything. We recently just did a song with Mariah Carey, which was really cool,” Thomas said. “It’s been a real process of friendship and camaraderie in an industry that’s usually just about money, so you know it’s a very rare thing.”
When it comes to his creative process, taking risks, synergy and being authentic are all concepts that resonate deeply with Thomas.
“I think shock value is important. Being around people like [Kanye West] who will find something crazy to say in every verse or that will even make you think or chuckle while listening to a song that’s also sultry or upbeat. I think that’s the aspect of it that can stand the test of time,” he said. “When I’m writing music, it’s really about jammin’ and coming up with a groove that inspires lyrics. I have amazing co-writers that I work with. One in particular is Bizzy Crook. Bizzy Crook is a rapper and he’s really good at coming up with outlandish things and bars and I have all of the melodies. I’ll usually do the hooks and he’ll have really cool ideas for verses and I’ll shape out a pre-chorus that really brings everything together. It’s kind of like playing Tetris with words.”
In terms of skillset, his rolodex as an artist traverses singing, songwriting, acting, playing multiple instruments but his affinity for performing truly stands out.
“I definitely enjoy performing more. Songwriting is really beautiful and production is a great process but I feel like you have to wait so long to find out whether people like it or not. Performance is instant gratification,” he said. “There’s something very intimate about it especially with the size cap rooms that I’m doing right now. It holds up to 500 people. It’s an intimate process. I can see the faces. I can feel the energy. I’m really excited to vibe and get back to that. That wonderful exchange.”
For Thomas, he prides himself on learning from the greats and having the rarefied opportunity to soak up game directly from veterans in the industry.
“I really consider myself a student of the game,” Thomas said. “I’m consistently watching a lot of my mentors. You know, I’ve worked with Boi-1da, I’ve worked with Ty Dolla $ign, I’ve worked with Babyface for years on end and really have seen the ups and downs of their career and how they’ve maintained success and really cultivated great teams around them to make projects happen was just a beautiful thing to take home and utilize as an artist myself now. Having great examples is a stellar process.”
Currently, Thomas is on his Mutt Tour, which kicked off on Oct. 27 in Atlanta and will conclude on Nov. 29 in Los Angeles. As for the future, Thomas harbors even bigger dreams that he aims to see come into fruition real soon.
“Brick by brick, I feel like I wanna build a bridge between music and acting in a way,” he said. “Acting is really awesome but what’s amazing for me about the music world is that I get to build worlds, so my goal in the next five years is to be able to have platinum records, have an amazing touring history that I can fund movies that are associated with all of my future upcoming albums. Movies that can hopefully one day be nominated for Oscars and streamed on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Like really building a world that my fans can exist in. Right now, I see it as though I’m building an amazing brand that’s going to be able to evolve into a bunch of amazing things”’
Stay up to date on exciting projects and upcoming events from the Black Promoters Collective.
©2024 Black Promoters Collective (BPC) All Rights Reserved.
