Laura Lee says that when Leon Bridges isn’t singing, he’s dancing. “Leon is always immersed in a melody, whether it’s physical or verbal. Melodies and songs just blow him away,” she said in an interview for Rolling Stone the bassist for Khruangbin, a band from Houston. And this statement seems to be true. Face to face, Bridges can be shy, a little withdrawn and even nervous when he has to talk about his career or his work, but when it comes to singing and enjoying the moment, whether on stage or walking in a park, like in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City, surrounded by trees, near the water and the Abraham Lincoln aviary, his expression denotes his transportation to his own place of peace.
Peaceful place is the title of her most recent single, which marks her return to music and a mental and spiritual state that evokes her most intimate side. This first release is part of what will be Leontheir fourth album, which will be released on October 5th. Three years after the release of Gold-Diggers Soundthe 36-year-old singer born in Atlanta but raised in Forth Worth, Texas, opens a window into “his most personal project to date” with touches of soul, country and folk that take him back to his time in the city where he grew up.
Bridges, winner of the 2019 Grammy for best traditional R&B performance for the song Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand —part of the album Good Thing—spoke with EL PAÍS at the Sony Music offices in Mexico City, where he spent the last few months working at the El Desierto studio, located in the Desierto de los Leones national park, almost 30 kilometers from the capital city.
The singer, who wears a white cowboy hat, black sunglasses, a brown leather jacket and a mustard-colored T-shirt, bell-bottom jeans and loafers —a look modern Texan—says that many of the songs of Leon They emerged during the recording of Gold-Diggers Sound (2021), but they didn’t feel like they were part of the sound of that record. He started working in Nashville, then in Los Angeles, but he got tired of those places. He needed a change of scenery and always felt a connection to Mexico, so the disconnection provided by the El Desierto studio, its wooden architecture and being able to be immersed in nature helped inspire his musical process.
“Leon It’s a reflection of my home. It’s kind of a window into who I am. I’ve always been afraid of being vulnerable and putting myself out there, but I wanted to create a kind of environment that was healing for people. And sonically, the album is like gumbo. [plato tradicional de distintos estados del sur de Estados Unidos]with different sounds. There’s a bit of country, a bit of folk, but it still has its roots in soul music,” he explains.
Since it was discovered almost 10 years ago by Austin Jenkins, guitarist of the band americana White Denim, at The Boiled Owl Tavern —where Bridges worked—, a fast food restaurant tex mex In Fort Worth, the “city where the West begins,” the singer has always had conflicts with the price of fame, as he is committed to his art and to making known his deepest ways of seeing and understanding life, but at the same time he fights to maintain his privacy.
Ask. How do you manage to balance such a personal project with the inevitable fact of being a public figure?
Answer. I think it’s great to be vulnerable, but you don’t have to give everything to people. And I think a lot of the songs on the album are going to be very healing for me and inspiring for my family and my city. I think a lot of other people are going to relate to them. And I think that’s the beauty of being transparent in music.
In Peaceful place, The sounds that accompany Bridges’ voice include bongo percussion, handclaps, and a soulful guitar infused with soul sound.I’m in a place of peace. I found something that no one can take away from me.“He sings in one fragment, while in the video clip the singer can be seen traveling through Mexico City from north to south, from his recording process in El Desierto, dancing in a parking lot in the city, strolling through a street market, touring an old convent in the forest or traveling near the pyramids of Teotihuacán in a hot air balloon. “It is moving music in the most authentic sense; it is impregnated with my soul,” he affirms.
Each image in the video seems part of a creative process that Bridges has developed and has been constantly evolving over the past decade. “Normally when I write or create, I try to imagine how the music will translate live. I think, does it really compel me to dance and does it compel other people? Throughout my career I’ve always tried to reinvent myself with my music, but always keeping the foundation soulful,” he adds.
The artist’s real name is Todd Bridges, but due to his resemblance to actor Leon Robinson —star of Cool Runnings y The Temptations— People at the university called him that and that’s how he opted for the composition of his artistic name. Since he started with his first album Coming Home (2015), comparisons that consider him a “perfect mix” between Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye, two great soul artists, have always been present.
Bridges has seen the comparisons as “inevitable” as he was always surrounded by soul growing up, whether through his father playing Barry White or listening to Sade with his mother, but always using the genre as a vehicle to communicate. “It was kind of putting a spin on that sound and just writing my own stories through it.”
Since his last album, Bridges has sought to find a new frontier for soul and blues, genres that he believes lack the spotlight for new talent. “There are a lot of talented kids making music, like Lucky Day. I just feel like they don’t have a platform yet. I hope it continues to evolve and grow. I hope there’s more spotlight on these artists that are out there, because I think there’s still a market for that. Hip hop music is something that people are gravitating towards right now. So I had to go back to the reason why people fell in love with me, in the sense of making genre-less music and Leon being the sound of the band,” he elaborates on his response.
Part of Bridges’ drive to return to his roots was planted in the seed of collaborations he made with his friends and colleagues in the band Khruangbin. Texas Sun (2020) y Texas Moon (2022) took him down different paths and musical genres, as part of an experimentation and revaluation of certain types of music, as seen in recent cases such as that of Beyonce, venturing into country and “claiming” it for the black community, as he explained in one of his interviews for the release of Cowboy Carter.
“I love what Beyoncé did. I mean, she made an amazing album. Black country music. She’s also Shaboozey which is having a really good moment because of that. I even think it helps with the music I’m about to release,” he says.
Bridges has never considered himself an activist, but his repertoire includes songs like Sweeterfrom 2021, a response to police brutality regarding the murder of George Floyd; or the music video for the song Bad bad newsin which the artist speaks out about female empowerment and against harassment of women. Also, in other interviews, he has spoken about the fear that invaded him when the assault on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump took place. With the shadow of the Republican candidate once again hovering over the White House for a new administration, how important is it for an artist to raise his voice on social and political issues that are of interest to society?
“With the platform that we have, I feel that we have a duty to speak out about what is right and artists have historically always done that. For me, there have been a few moments where I felt compelled to write about the situation and hope that some kind of light would emerge regarding the situation,” he adds.
Bridges will return to the stage in October at the Austin City Limits Festival in Austin, Texas, and will later return once again to Mexico to perform at the Corona Capital festival, where his most recent creation will close the circle with the city that allowed him to rediscover himself musically.
