August 3, 2020

Meet Leah Dunn

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Dunn.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started out taking singing lessons in elementary school. I didn’t take them very seriously until later in middle school when I was starting to write songs. By writing songs, I mean scribbling something in a journal and putting it to a C major chord progression. Once I’d reached a level of naive confidence, I decided I would go to an open mic. I found Bazaar Cafe in San Francisco when I was fourteen, and have been attending their open mics ever since.

Even though I was the youngest one there, and terrified to share my songs, the Bazaar Cafe community welcomed me and encouraged my writing. I kept writing on the side during my freshman year of high school and decided I wanted to apply for Interlochen Arts Camp that summer. Interlochen started as a summer camp in Northern Michigan, by Traverse City, and is now home to a boarding school as well. Since the boarding high school application wasn’t much more involved than the camp application, I decided to apply to both, because why not?

Somehow I was accepted into camp and the boarding school. For a while, I didn’t even know if I was going to go. It meant moving from the bay area in California, at age 15, to the middle of nowhere in northern Michigan to pursue my “dream” or whatever. I visited the campus for an accepted students day and realized that I couldn’t just look at this opportunity in the face then throw it away. So I went.

I showed up to Interlochen for the songwriting program and quickly realized I was one of the worst there. I couldn’t play chords in time, I could barely strum the guitar, and my singing voice still needed lots of practice. So I worked at it. At Interlochen, I learned that if I wanted songwriting and music to be my job, I was going to have to treat it like one. Through that experience, I learned the art of practiced inspiration: sitting down every day to write or play music allowed the space for inspiration, rather than waiting for it to strike.

I released my first EP, Oakland, the spring of my Junior year, and followed it up with a two-week long house concert tour down the California coast. I understood I was a small artist and wasn’t going to be able to book real venues, but who said I couldn’t play at my grandma’s house for all her friends? I toured with a classmate of mine, Hixon Foster, who had more friends and family in Southern California than I did. Combining out two sets of contacts, it was email after email until it was a reality. If you’re not at the point where opportunities are being handed to you, you have to create them for yourself.

Most recently, I released my debut album, Wetsuit, on June 26, 2020. It is twelve songs from my time growing up at Interlochen. The oldest song on the album, “Map”, is a dream folk tune written October of my sophomore year when I had just moved away from home. While the most recent song, “Disneyland”, is a shoegaze punk rock song inspired by a story I read about when Disneyland put Kim Gordon (from Sonic Youth) in Disney jail for smoking weed on Tom Sawyer’s Island. So, there’s a pretty wide range of styles and subject matter on the record.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been some challenges along the way, but never anything impossible to manage. I moved away from home when I was fifteen, and all of a sudden I was very alone. I was at a new school and hardly knew anyone. I have a hard time making friends because I spend so much of my time working on music, and I just enjoy being alone. So there was definitely a learning curve in figuring out how to adjust to a new environment without losing myself.

Also, this summer I was planning on touring (small venues and house shows) across the east coast and Midwest to promote my album, but I had to cancel because of Covid-19. I’ve been figuring out how to host online performances and stay connected with my other friends in music across the world. I was definitely disappointed not to be playing as many shows as I had hoped, but I’ve also been really impressed by all the people I’ve seen working to create music opportunities for themselves and others. It really gives me hope for the future of the music community.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
As a solo artist, I really do have to treat myself and my music like a business. I’m in charge of writing my material, prepping for live shows, finding other musicians to play with, booking shows, creating makeshift music videos, promoting my music, emailing blogs and playlist curators, and more.

Currently, I don’t have a team, or anyone else to help promote me. I have a hard time talking about myself, and being proud of my accomplishments, for fear of coming across as full of myself and annoying. However, I’ve come to the realization that if I don’t promote myself, no one else will: If I’m not for myself, who will be for me? There’s nothing wrong with being proud of a project that you put your soul into.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
So far, the proudest moment of my career was when I was put on Spotify’s “Fresh Finds” playlist which is updated weekly. It was incredible to see all my hard work of submitting to smaller playlists paying off because it caught Spotify’s attention enough to listen to my music, like my music, and add it to one of their own playlists!

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Julia Green

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