By Kathryn Reno<\/p>\n
Christian Leave, who has previously been labeled an indie artist since his first EP, is breaking away from the bedroom pop mold and going back to his roots. As he examines the inspirations to his inspirations, he is constantly creating a new sound and a new image. His new EP, \u201cDays Like Lost Dogs,” is like nothing we\u2019ve ever heard from him before. Christian is currently touring with Beabadoobee and he will be performing in Boston later this week.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0Kathryn Reno (KR):\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>So my first question was about your tour with Beabadoobee. How do you feel about working together? Do you think you have similar styles of music or similar inspirations? How well is the tour going so far?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Christian Leave (CL): I mean it\u2019s been great. We played our first show last night, and it was really surreal and kind of crazy. You know I spent the past year kind of gearing up for this moment. I\u2019ve been working on this EP and this night was kind of what I had been working up to. It was just a crazy feeling to get out and see everyone there and kind of feel accomplished in a way. It\u2019s great working with Bea. Her band is so cool. They are sick. Great players. They\u2019re really tight and they sound great. As far as inspiration, I don\u2019t know, you know? We both play rock music, so I think somewhere in there our paths cross, but I listen to really obscure music and I\u2019m sure she does the same, so at the same time it could vary, you know?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n KR: Do you have any pre-show rituals, like something you do every time before you get on stage? <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CL: Well, not yet, but I’ve been trying to develop them. I did a few jumping jacks last night. I like to drink a ton of water so that I have to pee, and then it makes me feel nervous and I move around a lot more. Touch my toes a little bit, but other than that no, not really. I\u2019ll get back to you, though. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n KR: Let me know, yeah! <\/span><\/strong>Do you think that growing up, you always thought that music was something you wanted to pursue, or did you view it as more of a hobby?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CL: You know, it\u2019s weird. I grew up with a singing family, like my mom and my grandparents were always singing. There was always a piano or something around and it was always something that I loved to do. From the age of 9, I said I wanted to be a rockstar. Which is like, just a 9-year-old thing to say. But then when so got older, I was presented with the opportunities to actually be able to play music, and then I started getting inspired by songwriters and wanted to write how I felt my perspective on things or just a funny or interesting idea I wanted to put down into a song, and I felt more passionately into the process of it all. I think once that started happening, it became a real focus of \u201cthis is what I want my career to be like, this is where I feel most comfortable,\u201d you know? And so I think probably both at some point. It still feels kind of like a hobby, but, you know, I survive off of it at the same time. It hasn’t felt like work. Even these past few days have been really exhausting. Everyone, before I went out, was like, \u201cthis is gonna kick your ass, it\u2019s gonna be pretty intense.\u201d And it has been, but it\u2019s been the most invigorating. It\u2019s been so fun so far. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n KR: What music did you grow up listening to, and how do you think that the kind of music shaped who you are as an artist? <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CL: Well, I wasn\u2019t really allowed to–my parents are pastors–and so until I got an iPod, I wasn\u2019t really allowed to listen to any secular music. And so I grew up listening to a lot of really tame 50s\/ 60s pop music. I couldn\u2019t even listen to The Beatles, though, so it was mostly Crooners or Five Part Harmonies and stuff, and I think once I got my iPod and I started listening to everything, that was the antithesis of that. It kind of opened up a world to exploration. I think I fell in love with rock and how dirty and gritty it could get, and then I started to learn of all of these rock stars, like Sonic Youth, who have been a big, big favorite band of mine for a long time. Or even someone like Yo La Tengo. They\u2019re all inspired by the same thing, by like 50\u2019s\/60\u2019s pop. It\u2019s still the things that they listen to and being able to hear them say that, then listen to it and hear it in the music, I think that\u2019s what recently really inspired me. I still feel influenced by Southern gospel or things like that. It’s cool to kind of pull that in and wrap it into the music. Sorry, that was such a weird answer to that. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n KR: No! I really like that! <\/span><\/strong>How do you think that social media has helped you change and grow as a musician? I know you were on Vine and I\u2019ve seen your TikToks, too. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CL: I think the internet, in general, has given me this really big archive or library of things that I would have never been exposed to otherwise like, again, not being able to listen to specific kinds of music. Once I was able to have my own private time and search things on Spotify or Youtube, that\u2019s when my world and discography kind of opened up. My influences completely changed. I grew up in these really small towns and the world around me just completely expanded. But with social media, in particular, my life would be completely different without it. It\u2019s given me such great things, you know? It\u2019s given me the ability to communicate with people and be seen and be heard when, in a world without it, I feel otherwise I wouldn’t. Yeah, I mean, it\u2019s completely changed my life in every way, shape, and form. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n KR: I think it\u2019s interesting how people I\u2019ve talked to here either know you only from social media or only from your music. I didn\u2019t even know you did Vine until researching for this interview. It was so crazy, I didn\u2019t even know you had TikTok until now. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CL: I did Vine when I was really young. I was 14 when I started, and I probably stopped doing it around 16, maybe even 15, and that\u2019s when I really started focusing on trying to do music. For a long time, it was hard, because I didn\u2019t want to be seen as a social media person. Before about three years ago, traditional media was still the way to go, and that\u2019s what I wanted to be. I didn\u2019t want to be an influencer or some comedy kid or a Vine person. I wanted to be someone who connected people through music, so for a long time, I worked away from that. But now it\u2019s this weird thing of everyone\u2019s turned into the kind of an influencer. The job itself is just all involved, and I think that I had a lot of loathing for it for a long time, but now I’m coming to love it. It\u2019s coming full circle where I\u2019m like, I\u2019m finding myself as a 14-year-old again. But, yeah, it\u2019s a funny thing because I\u2019m meeting some people who are like, \u201cI grew up with your music!\u201d which is like a crazy thing to hear or it\u2019s like \u201cDude, we are the same age and I\u2019ve known you since I was, like, 14. I grew up watching your videos.\u201d Both things are an honor to hear, but it is a funny thing to meet someone who\u2019s 3 years younger than me, and they don’t know me from that era of my life.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n KR: Are you a person who likes being put into a genre of music, like you\u2019re more comfortable being labeled as one type of artist, or do you feel like you want to do multiple things at once?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CL: I don\u2019t know. I think I’ve come to a point in my life where I just listen to so much music, it\u2019s the only thing that I do in my free time. I always have earbuds in, and I think it\u2019s kind of to drown out tinnitus or something but I do it all the time. I listen to so many different types, that it feels genre-less at this point like it doesn\u2019t matter to me. It\u2019s more about the emotions that it evokes. Right now–at least for the past three years–I’ve been really into rock and roll, but not even rock and roll, more like rock pop, the mid to late 90s and late 80s rock, punk, and grunge music. I\u2019m really in love with shoegaze. I like the idea of being seen as one of those types of people, but at the same time, I don’t like the idea of having an expectation of only putting out that kind of stuff. I think that, as I\u2019ve moved forward, I’ve tried to make it a point through the projects that I’ve made to be kind of fluttering in both worlds. On this new record, it\u2019s very rock-oriented. Every song has a guitar. The last song is like this big, orchestral, 1967, close to Minnie Riperton vibe. It\u2019s a left turn, but I still think that it works in some ways, as far as the complete story is concerned, so the little things like that I tried to do to keep myself out of it. Long story short, yes and no. It doesn\u2019t really matter.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n KR: Is there any advice that you would have for younger artists who are on the path of social media popularity who don\u2019t want to be known for that or who want to get more into their own art?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CL: Focus on the art. I think that would be the first thing. Focus on what you want to say. Make sure that you like it because at the end of the day, numbers are just numbers and notoriety is just notoriety. I think there\u2019s a level of passion that you should feel within yourself and confidence that you\u2019re good regardless of what other people are saying. As long as you like it, that\u2019s the point. As far as beating the artist struggle, just keep going. People come. Eventually, it works.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n KR: Is there anything else you\u2019d like to add? <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n CL: Let the people know that they should come to a show while we\u2019re on tour. <\/span><\/p>\n (November 5th at the Royale in Boston)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Kathryn Reno Christian Leave, who has previously been labeled an indie artist since his first EP, is breaking away from the bedroom pop mold and going back to his roots. As he examines the inspirations to his inspirations, he is constantly creating a new sound and a new image. His new EP, \u201cDays Like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19284,"featured_media":28698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,1523],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28694"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28697,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28694\/revisions\/28697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}