Leah Mason Changed Her Name, Her Music — and the Way She Thought About Her Future (Exclusive)

Leah Mason’s drastic evolution may seem a bit disturbing to some – but not to her.

“When I first started making music, I didn’t even know who I was,” Mason, 25, told PEOPLE in a recent interview. “I mean, I was 18. I was too young to pick something and stick with it for the rest of my life. It’s just not realistic.”

Not too long ago, the North Carolina native emerged from country music as Leah Marie Mason, looking like many artists before her, with long blonde hair and a sweet smile frolicking in a field of flowers. But that person began to agree with the woman she was becoming.

“My personal style was very different from what I represented as an artist,” says Mason, who released her debut EP Honeydew & Hennessy in April 2023 following the viral success of her first single “Far Boy”. “I don’t think I’m the only artist who’s ever done that. But you also want your branding to be cohesive. Even as I’ve changed and grown and leaned into different styles, my branding hasn’t changed.”

But in the end, Mason found her personal and professional foothold. And in that she found her pop edge. “I still love lyrics and I still love visual words, and that’s still my bread and butter,” she says. “And I feel like that holds true with the new music I’m making, just in an obviously different way.”

Leah Mason.

We’ll take over

Leah Marie Mason’s ‘Quarter-Life Crisis’ Results in Dynamic New EP ‘Honeydew & Hennessy’ (Exclusive)

On Mason’s debut album OFFENDEDa slightly darker side of the sweet girl is revealed, much to the delight of her loyal fans who seem to devour everything she puts out.

“There was a time when I just wasn’t exposed to all the possibilities of my music,” explains Mason. “I knew what was in front of me, so I used what I could with the colors I had and the brushes available to me. And then once I met my maker, a brand new palette, it was right in front of me.”

Leah Mason.

We’ll take over

That producer was Simon Jonasson.

“I felt very free in the way I made music with him that I hadn’t before,” Mason says of the Swedish producer, whom she met during a pop music camp in Nashville. “I didn’t even know I could do it for real. I just didn’t know it was possible.”

The sonic shift the two created resulted in “Spirits,” which Mason says “changed her world” — so much so that she decided to “take a big risk” and fly to Sweden to make more music with Jonasson.

“I didn’t even expect to make an album, but that’s exactly what we did,” Mason says. “It obviously spoke volumes for how we work together, but it was a crazy change.”

What hasn’t changed is the power and brevity of the lyrics for which Mason has long been known. “I feel like I’m blessed to have the knowledge to write music the way they’ve always done it in Nashville, but now I’m also doing what I want stylistically,” Mason says. “I feel like I can have my cake and eat it too. I love writing and I don’t feel like I have to give that up just because I’m doing a new genre of music.”

Even so, the beautiful way Mason finds a way to inject even the tiniest bit of vulnerability into his songs still shines through on songs like “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.”

“I was crying in the grocery store — and that’s how the song came about,” Mason says of the song she co-wrote with Jonasson and Sara Bares. “I’ve always had terrible anxiety and panic attacks all my life. It always seems to surface when you really don’t want it to, and usually in a public setting. And that’s what happened to me. So I thought, we have to write a song about this.”

Love also sneaks in HEXATED, it’s no surprise considering Mason is currently celebrating five years together with her boyfriend. It even inspired the song five OFFENDED called “Insomnia”.

“I’ve actually had insomnia my whole life,” Mason says of the condition that served as the original backbone of the song she co-wrote with Bares, Jonasson and Oliver Frida. “But when we started living together, I’ve never had such deep REM sleep in my life as with him. I feel very safe when we’re together. He’s definitely my Xanax in human form.”

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Source: HIS Education