Leon Thomas Talks His Music Journey, Debut Album, New Single

Picture Supply: Renae Wootson (“IIRONIC”)

Leon Thomas III won’t ever be extra able to go solo. Since he was a child, the actor, singer, songwriter, and producer has at all times been a bit of an even bigger complete — whether or not he was starring in a Broadway play, ensemble solid on a Nickelodeon present, or within the studio cooking up hits in your favourite artist. However now, the 29-year-old tells POPSUGAR that it feels just like the “good time” to interrupt off as his personal entity and “let individuals know what I can do as an artist.”

Thomas is nonetheless primarily being acknowledged for his “Victorious” function, which he admits, at one level, “form of bothered” him. “I needed to actually circle again and notice I used to do this, too,” he says. “The way you first meet anyone is how you may often develop to recollect them. It is undoubtedly a bittersweet factor every so often, however I’ve grown to know that individuals are nonetheless figuring it out and studying.”

Thomas is hopeful that his solo music endeavors will clear just a few issues up for followers who solely know him from his performing days, which included roles in HBO’s “Insecure” and the 2017 drama movie “Detroit.” However fact be informed, Thomas has been making main strikes for himself for over a decade now — they usually at all times join proper again to music.

The Brooklyn-born, Los Angeles-based artist says his musical roots have been planted when he was only a child watching his dad and mom, additionally musicians, run an impartial report label out of their home. “There was a relentless stream of music surrounding me from a really early age,” he says, noting that he grew up listening to everybody from Marvin Gaye, Stevie Marvel, and Donny Hathaway to D’Angelo and Erykah Badu. By that time, Thomas was unknowingly learning all of the music greats. Nonetheless, his personal goals of being an entertainer did not kick in till age 10, when he auditioned for a “actually huge Broadway play”: “The Lion King.”

“I used to be capable of begin listening to my voice for the primary time and feeling linked to singing and music otherwise than I had ever been earlier than,” he explains. “And as soon as I received the play, it was a relentless obsession with making extra music round that. I actually began diving into the world of music otherwise.”

Performing in three Broadway performs in three years gave Thomas a “crash course” in the whole lot wanted to be a magnet for a Viacom government, who signed him to a developmental deal at age 13. This finally put him on TV. For the following roughly seven years, Thomas patiently waited for the precise alternative to transition from performing to music. Although he admits it was difficult to steadiness each profession paths on the identical time, it gave him an “fascinating benefit” when he determined to pursue the latter full-time.

“Quite a lot of the artists I used to be working with grew up watching me on tv, so it gave me a leg up in a number of rooms, and I used to be ready to make use of that within the time the place I used to be ready for lots of the Nickelodeon shine to put on off,” he says. “By the point I used to be prepared to start out placing out information, the whole lot was set and laid out. I had already labored with all the main labels with a few of their largest artists. It turned a very nice transition into what I needed to do.”

He continues, “There is no actual remorse being on Nickelodeon. If something, it gave me benefits that I in all probability would not have had firstly of my profession that I used to be actually blessed to work with. I used it as a software extra so than the rest. I by no means noticed it because the end-all-be-all.”

Picture Supply: Renae Wootson (“IIRONIC”)

Regardless of his clean transition, the start of Thomas’s full-time music profession nonetheless had just a few bumps within the street. His largest problem? “Utilizing my actual title once I was working with rappers,” he shares. “They weren’t positive if I used to be succesful [of] transferring into their world.” As an answer, Thomas got here up with an alias, The Rascals. The music manufacturing staff, made up of Thomas and fellow songwriter Khris Riddick-Tynes, turned a Grammy-nominated duo. Collectively, they labored with huge names like Ariana Grande (“Positions”), Chris Brown (“Indigo”), Rick Ross (“Gold Roses), and extra. The duo’s success is a noteworthy chapter within the journey Thomas calls “an train in future.”

“I really feel like typically I am actually taking each alternative critically. I am pulling as much as the studio and individuals are listening to about what I am doing, and it is created a snowball impact,” he says — one which’s put him in rooms with individuals like his good buddy and producer Boi-1da and his mentor, music legend Babyface. However working with A-list artists like Drake (“Licensed Lover Boy”) and SZA (“SOS“) and creating music alongside all-star producers is just half of Thomas’s Hollywood voyage. Now, the EZMNY Data-signed artist is able to let individuals hear the physique of labor he is been chipping away at for almost three years: his forthcoming love-inspired debut album, “Electrical Nightfall.”

“This album got here from about eight months of strong work at a studio in Silver Lake, the place we had an enormous TV the place we’d at all times play motion pictures silently whereas we have been creating,” self-proclaimed movie buff Thomas shares. “I made a decision the title needs to be ‘Electrical Nightfall’ as a result of there is a drive-in movie show out right here that performs a number of old-school movies. I used to be watching nothing however old style [flicks] with Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee. A few of the cool movies like ‘Love Jones’ and ‘Brown Sugar’ form of impressed the sensation of affection. I would like individuals to essentially step into my thoughts as a inventive.”

Thomas may’ve simply launched his debut album and began his solo profession years in the past. Of the delay, he says, “I really feel like I’ve had a number of this music hanging in my laptop for a very long time.” “[But] I actually need the world to listen to my perspective,” he provides. “I really feel like I used to be undoubtedly destined for nice levels and to be on the market as an artist, in addition to a inventive behind the scenes. I have been on this journey for a very very long time, however I really feel like God has blessed me with all the precise alternatives proper now. I am not letting any of them slip via my arms — now could be the time.”

He continues, “Seeing the proper storm that is been created with information I’ve carried out for different artists, in addition to the publicity that comes from that, it is the proper time to let individuals know what I can do.”

In December 2022, Thomas marked his new solo chapter along with his newest single, a bluesy ballad titled “Breaking Level.” The melancholy breakup monitor, featured in a Beats By Dre industrial starring LeBron James and his son Bronny James that very same month, is definitely the results of Thomas’s final severe relationship, which just lately ended after two years.

“Me and my ex have been going via it a bit. That was actually extra so a journal entry, if something. Me imagining what the top would appear like,” he explains of the music’s origin. “I actually needed to faucet into a few of the feelings I used to be feeling on the time. It wasn’t even a music I used to be positive was going to be on my album initially. It was actually musical remedy. However as soon as I began enjoying it for individuals and I noticed the response, we had so as to add it to the [track]checklist.”

Thomas teases that “Electrical Nightfall” accommodates options from Ty Dolla $ign, Benny the Butcher, and another he cannot announce simply but, however notes it may doubtlessly be for a “very nice remix of ‘Breaking Level’ coming very quickly.” He is additionally manifesting future collaborations with Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, and a “ceremony of passage” characteristic from Beyoncé. However within the meantime, the multihyphenate simply dropped the music video for “Breaking Level” within the lead-up to his debut album.

Of what followers can count on to listen to on the challenge, Thomas says, “The primary theme is de facto based mostly on my expertise, my courting life, falling in love, and breaking apart and having to start out once more.” “I really feel like a number of these songs have been impressed by me making an attempt and failing and getting again up and making an attempt once more,” he provides. “That may even be equated to my expertise within the trade as properly, of making an attempt issues and possibly not at all times doing precisely what I needed to do or getting the outcomes I needed, however nonetheless having the resilience to rise up and do it once more.”