In a space where authenticity plays a central role in meaningful storytelling, indie singer-songwriter Leanna Firestone has set her tone with beautiful melodies, including her latest release, "Victory Lap." This piano-driven track carries each sincere lyric well and accompanies Leanna's luminous vocals in a mesmerizing way. The song comes along with the singer's forthcoming debut album announcement, "The Answer." You can also catch Firestone on tour this summer, beginning on May 22 in Dallas.
I recently had the chance to chat with Leanna about her latest single, "Victory Lap," the process that went into the single, and a sneak peek into her upcoming album. Here's what she had to say.
What initially inspired you to start writing music, and when did you realize it was something you wanted to pursue more seriously?
Leanna: "Well, there was never really a time when I was not singularly focused on being a musician. I heard "Our Song," by Taylor Swift, in the back of my mom's minivan when I was five, and I was like, "I'm going to do that," with no real conception of what "that" was. Then, for the rest of my life, I basically have followed through on that five-year-old's promise to do whatever Taylor Swift was doing. There were times when I thought about straying, and I once had a promise to myself that if I didn't make it in music by the time I turned 18, then I would give it up completely, which, now that I'm 25, I'm like, "Wow, you're dumb because you have so much more life to live." I did think about going into law, and I'm so glad I didn't though because that's not for me; that's not my path."
Your music often feels very personal and emotionally honest. Was vulnerability always a natural part of your songwriting, or did that evolve over time?
Leanna: "Vulnerability has always been a part of my songwriting, mainly because I never wanted to write something that felt untrue to me or lying, and more specifically because so many artists have other people write their songs. I was like, "If I'm going to write it, then I might as well be honest about my experiences. Otherwise I could just have somebody else do it." So every time I have written a song, even when the song is not directly applicable to me or to my life, I have found that I end up being very honest about the way that I am feeling at whatever current moment I am writing it at."
How did you balance storytelling with relatability so listeners can see their own experiences reflected in your songs?
Leanna: "I try to be as niche as I can be, and what I mean by that is I found that the broader you try to scope it, the more people you try to appeal to, or the more you try to be relatable too. It actually ends up having that inverse effect because you're getting so non-specific that people don't see themselves in your story. So, my main songwriting love and the reason why I write so vulnerably and the reason why I'm so honest in my songwriting is because I find that if I make the story very specific and if I'm very honest about exactly how things went down and exactly how I was feeling. Even if that story hasn't happened to somebody specifically, then they can read the undertones of the emotions I'm talking about or the dynamics that I'm talking about in the songs. Normally, if you try your best to just be true to your experience, you will find that is the most relatable thing rather than aiming for relatability."
What originally sparked the concept for your latest track "Victory Lap," and what does the song represent to you since it was released?
Leanna: "So, whenever I was writing "Victory Lap," I had taken some time off of touring. I was basically on tour for like, 2 full years and I was like, "I need to get my writing mojo back." I use to write every single day and then that dwindled as I was touring. So, I was going through a period where I was trying to write down everything that had sparked interests in me. Every phrase, every color, every movie, every picture, and every book. I was writing it all down and especially the very odd way that I came up with the concept for Victory Lap. So, I was trying to get tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter show and Sabrina had already been on tour, and it sold out the first tour, and on her "teen Sabrina" account they were like, "And then she's going to come back and do more. Even though the first one was sold out you can still try to get tickets for this one. This one's just the "Victory Lap," because she already sold out the first one. So, I was like, "Wait, write that down!""
"So, I wrote down the concept of taking a victory lap and was like, let me apply this to seeing your ex or somebody that broke your heart in person for the first time after your breakup, and being like, "Oh my god, you look so bad! You look so bad and I love that." It's actually making me feel way better about the situation because you look horrible and you look like your not doing very well without me. That's not ever been true to my life, but that was the narrative I created around this specific phrase that I saw in a Sabrina Carpenter post and decided to run with it. So, it's about when you break up more than anything else."
Were there any moments in the lyrics that felt especially important to capture in the song?
Leanna: "Yes. I toyed around with the bridge for a long time. So in the bridge, I have a line where I say, "Heartbreak is a panopticon." I'm getting really heady with it in that moment. I will admit it's a large concept, but it's a prison idea that somebody from the 1800s had that was like, "You should just put a big post in the middle of a bunch of cells in a circle, and then the prisoners will never know when they're being watched or when they're not being watched. " I was like, "That sounds exactly like when you get broken up with and you don't know where your ex is going to be or if they're going to see you online or how much they're keeping up with you." So you just have to be performing "being good" all the time and performing "being over it" all the time."
"I really wanted to nod in that direction rather than being like, "I'm going to write a whole big concept song about that." I was like, "I just want to state my peace, which is really hard to constantly feel like you're being monitored and feel like I have to be performing, "being over it all the time." So that is by far my favorite lyric from "Victory Lap.""
How did you go about creating the overall sound and mood of "Victory Lap," and what was the process like bringing that vision to life in the studio?
Leanna: "Well, I knew that I wanted to do something a little bit more piano-focused and toned. A lot of my music is very guitar and acoustic guitar-based specifically, so I wanted to lean more in a sort of piano, more synth direction. So whenever I brought it into the studio, I led with that to my producer, Matt Barad, who did the song with me. I'm not very good at playing the piano. I walked in and said, "Let's make this a piano song." And he said, "Okay." Luckily for me, he was amazing at piano, which I did not know before I got there."
"So it was just a very lucky coincidence, which was what I hoped for, and he was so perfect at delivering that. The idea for the song was to make something that was going to stand out a little bit more than the rest of my music in terms of instrumentation. I wanted to get a little bit more experimental with the style that I was doing, and so I went for something very piano, very Bleachers-esque."
Now that the song is out in the world, does it mean something different to you than when you first wrote it?
Leanna: "It definitely means something different to me now. Like I said, when I wrote it originally, it was about winning this breakup and just seeing somebody out. It's about the emotional truth of that, which is like, "I hope that you're doing bad because I'm doing bad." I have never actually been in a position of being broken up with and being the one to come out on top. I am always the one that is struggling and suffering for many months at a time. So whenever I wrote this, I was like, "I'm sort of manifesting a better and brighter future where I come out on top and I'm doing better than I've ever done. And that's been so awesome for me, and I actually don't care about you anymore." I feel like even though the song is written in the confines of a relationship dynamic. Ever since the song has come out, I swear I have gotten good news, good news, good news."
"I feel like I really put it into the universe that I was about to take my victory lap and I was about to run circles around these hoes, and I did that. Immediately when the song came out, I manifested it, and it has worked. It's been one of those sound bowls for good luck or whatever. That has been what has happened to me since the song came out. It's been good stuff, good stuff, good stuff."
What are you most excited about as you move into this next chapter of your career?
Leanna: "Honestly, I took my break. I was away for a year to make this album, and I'm just very excited to come back in and feel refreshed and renewed in the vision and the journey. I feel like I was releasing music so frequently before that I never really had time to sit and stop and think about what I was doing. Now that I've sat with this album for, like, a year, I'm so confident in its merits more than anything that I'm just so excited for people to hear it and finally get to talk to everybody again through music."
If someone is hearing your music for the first time today, what do you hope they feel or understand about you as an artist?
Leanna: "I had a question, like, "What do you hope people take away?" And to that, I was like, "Have compassion for everybody all the time." That was my HR answer, and now what I hope people can take away from this album and this project is to just have fun. Have fun and don't worry about it, girl. If you don't like that man, don't be with him. If you need to see your girls, call them up. Stop being so scared of everything all the time; your life will be better when you confront it head-on. Honestly, I hope people take away that life is really about having fun and enjoying the time we have—because in the end, we're here, and then we're gone."
"Honestly, I hope people take away from this now is like the only point to being alive, the only reason that we are here, is to have fun and then die."
Is there anything else that you would like to share that we haven't touched on yet?
Leanna: "Yes. I'll talk about what I'm excited about for this tour. I'm starting at the end of May. I have not toured during the summer in a long time, so I'm very excited to be on the road when it's not freezing. I am also excited because it's the first time that I'll be on tour for my birthday, and I have some high jinks planned, dare I say. I have some bits planned for the shows that I have never done before, and I'm very, very excited for the fan reaction to my bit that I'm going to be doing on stage."
"Also, my album, "The Answer". It was the first time that I was writing any project at all where I wasn't facing some big, bad event in my life where I had been broken up with or my dad and I weren't speaking or whatever it was. There was no big, horrible thing that was sort of looming over that I had to write about, which was good for my personal life and bad for coming up with material. So it was the first time that I've ever really written something that sort of got into fiction more than my honesty, but I still tried to keep the kernel of emotional truth at the center of everything, like I said. But luckily for me, I think all of my very best friends who were in relationships all exited their relationships at the beginning of last year. So all of my songs on this album are supposed to be written and were written about that and about specifically the community that comes with heartbreak with your girls and coming together as a stronger group after those horrible things happen."
"So the theming of the album, "The Answer", is all of the stories that I collected over these months of heartbreak between me and my sisters. Although the stories of these songs are not about hanging out with the girls, they're all of the stories that I collected from really giving time and space and attention to my female friendships."
