The synth and electronic pop we all need to pretend we grew up in the 80's like real alternative fans. Where can we get this authenticity, music so distinct and fresh it awakens your ears like you've never even heard a chord before?
Look no further than Brett McLaughlin, more widely known as his stage name Leland. He's the singer/songwriter that's been missing from your life this whole time.
Currently touring with Troye Sivan on the Bloom Tour, he's ready to make a name for himself not just as the producer behind other artists, but an artist that deserves a stage of his own.
I got the chance to sit down and talk with him about his experience in the music industry before his show in Austin, Texas, and his insight did not disappoint.
Haley Walker
What made you decide you wanted to go by a stage name and not your real name?
"Well, Leland is my middle name and my dad's first name, so I wanted to differentiate Brett McLaughlin as the songwriter and Leland as an artist. I just really wanted to help differentiate that, and I like one-word names….. so When I changed all my socials to Leland it was really fun because you get to start fresh and you get to introduce yourself to people that have never heard of you as a new person and that's really fun."
Did you always know you wanted to go into the music industry?
"I did not. I was born and raised in south Mississippi, so I did not really know what my options were. I knew that for me, I wanted to move away from Mississippi. I knew that whatever I was going to do was going to involve me living in New York or LA. I was a senior in high school and I had to sort of make that decision, I wanted to do film so I was thinking about NYU, and then I went and visited Belmont in Nashville and I fell in love with it and the culture around it, and I noticed that there were a lot of people there like me when I went to visit, so at that point I was like I'm gonna do music and see what happens."
What's it like getting to tour with Troye, I know that you're friends, as opposed to touring with a stranger?
"This could not be the better introduction of touring for me. It is the best time, I'm with friends every day. Troye has his parents and boyfriend and dog with us and it's just the best atmosphere, it's so chill, so loving, so comforting, this just feels like we're hanging out, and we get to explore different cities. So it's awesome to have that support system. There are many layers to enjoy being a part of this tour, I enjoy it because I get to perform my own songs, I get to perform in front of so many people who've never heard of me before, but I also get to go out into the crowd and watch Troye perform and hear the album we wrote together every night, so that also in itself is amazing. Even if I wasn't performing I'd still be here hanging out because that's our baby that we made for the past two years. So to see it performed every night is just awesome."
Troye Sivan Live at Moody Theatre Haley Walker
You have a very distinct pop-electric sound, did it take you a while to find that unique sound?
"It took me years. I was raised on Christian music which is always like 10 years behind everything else, so I had to rid myself of those influences to make music that was fresh and pop. So many of the songs I wrote in college felt dated and not cool and it was just all my influences coming out at once. It took me a long time to flesh that out. When I moved to LA I had to write like 500 songs to start getting to the good ones. It did not happen overnight. It's also about meeting people at the right time, so I met the right producer who was at a certain skill level when I finally was at a certain skill level as a writer. So it took us meeting at the right time. This actual one producer who I work with all the time now, we wrote years ago and both of us sucked so we didn't get anything good, and then we reconnect 5 years later and we're both in completely different places. There's a confidence that wasn't there before, a skill set that wasn't there before, and it's that combination that allowed me to find my sound."
What's your favorite song you've ever written if you had to choose one?
"That's a hard question because I love all the artists so I never want to offend somebody. But I'll say since I'm on tour with Troye, The Good Side on his album Bloom is one of my favorites because it feels timeless. It's a song that before it came out I played it for my brother and my brother loved it and I played it for my grandpa. My grandpa cried. That's definitely one of my favorites because it was the hardest but the quickest to write. I think it approached a breakup from a really unique standpoint that hasn't been addressed in the way that this was."
Leland Live at Moody Theatre Haley Walker
When you write songs for other artists do you tailor it to their style or do you just write it how you want it and let them influence it?
"It's both, it really depends. When writing for Selena (Gomez) I am very particular as to writing for her, writing melodies for her, writing melodies I think she would sound good singing, writing lyrics that I think she would want to say, and then catering the production to where I think she would want to go. Now working with her, it's more collaborative, but when I wrote Fetish, that song was birthed without her being in the room or even knowing we were writing a song for her. But I was saying as a fan, this is where I would love for her to go. I recognized what other writers had done for her previously, and was like, I think this is the next step. She connected with the lyrics and with the production, and with stuff we're working on in the future, you just take a risk and say, I think she would respond well to this. So for an artist that has such a specific sound like her, I am only focused on making something that sounds right for her. If she doesn't want it and it works well for other artists, great, but, I really try to be focused on the sound of the artist that I'm writing for.
Do you have anything in the works right now that hasn't been released yet?
"I have an EP coming out in a couple of months and I'm really excited about that and I'm playing some of the unreleased songs on tour right now. And then I have a song in the movie Boy Erased based on a true story about gay conversion therapy in Arkansas, Troye and I wrote the theme song for the movie, it comes out in November with the movie. That's a really special project because it deals with something that hits so close to home for me, something that I think is so relevant right now. I just scored a Netflix movie called Sierra Burgess is a Loser, I wrote every song on the soundtrack and sing some of them, that just came out three weeks ago, and that's been a really rewarding process because that's been two years of work. I loved working on that movie and I would love to work on more. There's a TV show called RuPaul's Drag Race that I write all the music for, and we just won the Emmy. More stuff with Troye, I've been writing a lot with Charli XCX who I love, I just worked with OneRepublic and we have a song coming out. But I really want to work with legacy artists. I really want to work with Dolly Parton, and Janet Jackson.
Interview at The Driskill Hotel Brandon Arlington
What's your biggest inspiration, someone famous, someone in your own life?
"I would say my biggest inspiration is my grandparents, mainly because of where they came from. They were literally picking cotton in Texas when they were 15 and 16 and then for them to build the life that they built, and then for my mom to be able to do what she did and for them to be able to support me because trying to become a songwriter is not cheap. It takes a lot of risk and sacrifices that my family has done for me, you know until you're able to start paying your bills doing it, there was probably like 5 years of work outside of college that needed to happen. My grandma has this psycho drive I think I got from her to where she's now 79 and just as busy driving all over the country and planning parties and fundraisers. I really respect that about her. Musically I love Prince. I love how he would do something super feminine then do something super masculine and blur the lines of gender and I'm really inspired by that. I'm really inspired by anyone who does the opposite of how I was raised.
Do you do anything special to hype you up or shake your nerves before you take the stage?
"I don't get nervous, I just get excited. Right now on this tour it's just me so I don't have a band and I normally do, so I can't really do something alone in my dressing room to hype me up. But I just listen to my set and get excited. I will definitely stand in front of the mirror in my dressing room and pump myself up. What's been exciting for me, so the first show was in Dallas a couple nights ago, and I was like I'm gonna go check out my merch table and see what's up and security was like, no we need to go with you, you have 200 people waiting in line to meet you. And I was like I think you're mistaken I think that's for Troye, And they were like no it's for you, and I was like I think you should triple check because I don't want to go out there and be embarrassed, and we went out there and there were 200 people in line to take photos and that's been a really fun surprise, getting to connect with fans and people who follow you on social media, all they are is just a handle and then to put faces to those name is really rewarding and fun and really special and everyone is super nice, so that's a really fun benefit of being on tour."
Brandon Arlington
Get tickets to see Leland in concert here and check out Troye's website here. Stream both Troye and Leland on Spotify today! Long live the music industry and the kings and queens that make it happen.
Leland leaving The Driskill Brandon Arlington
