Leuras of Los Feliz on Life, Lessons & Legacy

Leuras shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Leuras, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
Getting lost in a good album makes me lose track of time. It’s the same feeling I get when I’m in the studio rehearsing with the band. The significance of things that hold space in my mind before I enter the room just disappear. Suddenly, all that matters is the song we’re going to play and how it feels and sounds in the room. I just focus on figuring out the right mix for the studio we’re in that night, like getting the vocal effects right, or making sure I can hear the bass. These are the only things that matter when I’m there. I forget about everything else, including the time. There’s just a sense of knowing how the music should sound, or what needs to change, it’s intuitive, and I feel so comfortable in that space. For a few hours, nothing else matters. I get the same feeling when I get lost in a good album.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m an artist Leuras and I play with my band. We’re about to release our debut album ‘coffee and moonlight’ and we’ve spent the most part of a year producing it. It started out being an EP, and a follow up to my 2023 release. Then I wrote a bunch of new songs earlier this year and we decided to whack them together and make an album. I’m the main songwriter, but one of the songs is a co-write – it came from a jam sesh one night when Dillion, our bass player, said let’s just jam and see what happens. Then, My House was born. It’s a colourful, upbeat, alternative, almost post-punk revival song, inspired by guitar riffs from bands in the early 2000s. I wrote it about the present and not going back to things that should be left in the past, ‘the past is gone, the moon it shines, I’ve put to rest my deepest pines, skies are blue at my house’. Check it out in late December on all streaming platforms.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I’ve always done what I wanted to do, most of the time. I’m an individual in that sense. I didn’t really listen to who the world told me I should be, I’m more just curious about the world. If anything, the lack of gender equality in society and the fact that society still puts a lot of pressure on women to be a certain way and do certain things makes me want to push harder for equal rights and change social norms. There’s a lot of expectations of what life should look like for a woman, in ways I actually can’t believe. Somedays I feel like people are living and thinking like it was the 1950s… so much for women’s lib.

I knew I had to work hard if I wanted to experience the world and do the things I enjoyed. I made a decision to focus more on my music recently. I knew I would be disappointed later in life if I didn’t try to get my songs out to people. As a teenager, I played in a punkrock band and we did a lot of shows and played at a few festivals. I stopped focusing on music for a few years and I missed it! It’s been the best feeling coming back to it and just going for it. Having more life experience behind me means I have a lot to write about. So, I guess I feel like I’m just being me when I play music.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I think life will always throw curve balls, but they make us who we are today. A lot of creativity comes from the wounds of life experience, so I would say it’s through my creativity that I heal.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I’m very committed to recording and sharing my music. I’ve been writing songs for the past few years pretty consistently so I have a few albums worth of songs. I’ll aim for one album per year after the debut album ‘coffee and moonlight’ is released soon! Dillon, Joel and I had a lot of fun making this album with our recording engineer Jess Smallwood at BrandX Studios in Sydney, Australia. I’ve just spent the past six weeks mixing it with Matt Tuggle, a staff engineer at the infamous Henson Recording Studio in LA. He has an incredible discography under his belt! I really enjoyed the mixing process of making this album. I almost didn’t want it to end.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
I think I’m pretty intuitive. I feel like I can understand people and can see connections between things pretty quickly. I guess that’s why writing songs and playing music feels so natural to me. I’ve been playing music my whole life, it’s just something I’ve always done and always will do.
I’m also very interested in understanding how the world works, from people and society, to the environment and the interconnectedness of it all. Maybe that’s what I’ll write my next album about.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leurasmusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leuras_music
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@leurasmusic
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/leuras
• Other: https://leuras.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Leuras performing at Soda Factory, The Lansdowne, and Bootleggers in Sydney Australia. Photography by Junior Jin.