Making Music for Star Wars and Importance of the Live Show ft. Leah Culver

I made one dry sarcastic joke, too many. And um he was like, There's no female DJs in Atlanta. And I was like, I'm a female DJ. But I I said it really dry. And he was like, oh cool, well, you're booked Wednesday. The One More Time Music Podcast. Genuine Conversations with Genuine People about Music. Hosted by Henry with a three and playback Ben. Ladies and gentlemen, we are here for another episode of the One More Time podcast. I am excited for this one. I'm your Ladies and gentlemen, we are here for another episode of the One More Time Podcast. I am excited for this one. I'm your host, Playback Ben here with my co-host. Henry with a three, because the three. Sorry. The E was already taken. Was the three already taken? The three was not taken. And that's why I took it. If so, why would you go with that name? Let's steal it back. Oh my god, take the three. Where does he live? Let's start this episode over. I'm your host, Playback Ben, here with my co-host.

Henry with an E. God damn it. No, Henry with a three, because Henry with an E. was already taken. And Henry, who do we have on the podcast today? We have welcoming in Reese Witherspoon. It is so great to meet you. Oh my god, Reese Witherspoon. yes. You have a new movie coming out. Yeah. Legally blonde seven. Damn, I didn't I didn't see six, five, four, three. I think I did see one and two, of course, but there's a lot. No, no, no, no. This is the one and only, the most beautiful, the most talented Leah Culver in the building with us right now. Hi. Welcome, Leah, welcome Leah. So without further ado, we'll get right into it. So, the One More Time podcast, as you guys know, we're here to have genuine conversations with genuine people like our friend Leah Culver. We appreciate you coming on. Uh we wanna help artists out, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Uh wanna help artists and uh business people in the music industry tell the stories of where they've come from, where they're at, and where they're going. So, real simple mission.

We appreciate you coming on. Um, so getting right into it. What would you say the role of music was in your family's dynamic? Was it a big part of your family growing up? Yeah. Um, I would say, you know, growing up, I was surrounded by my my mom and my dad, and both of my brothers playing music, and I just wanted to like hang out with the big kids. So yeah, I just wanted to do anything they were doing or anything they told me to do. Like as the youngest, I could like fit in small spaces and like they'd just make me I think you can still fit in small spaces. I can, I can. I can, yeah. But yeah, definitely. Okay, cool. So were they playing music? Uh just like as com common listeners, or were they actually playing instruments growing up? Yeah, um, my mom played drums and bagpipes in like a bagpipe band, which caused me to play like Snare. Is she Scottish? Yeah, we're Scottish. Oh, okay. Yeah, that was it makes sense.

Yeah, I was like, You didn't expect to get a yes. God, stereotypes are true for a reason sometimes. Yeah, um, and my brother, my oldest brother played drums. My middle brother did DJing. So there was always like live bands around. And um that made me want to be like a front man in a band that played drums, guitar. Just wanted to hang out with them. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. So growing up, could you hear the drumming through the walls? Was it was was it a a problem sleeping? Could you could you be a normal uh kid? Or were you pretty much thrown right into it because you had no choice? Uh you could definitely hear the drums and the drum and bass. Like specifically, I remember the drum and bass more than the drums. Okay. Um the drums never bothered me. The drum and bass, like I because I it it was always it was like since I can remember 24-7. there was drum and bass because my brother John was playing when he was like 10. Okay.

Fun fact fun audio fact bass carries through walls and through distance better than anything else. That's why if you're walking up to the club, you always hear the low end, yeah. Wow. So you can't escape that. That is a fun fact, Henry. Yeah, I appreciate it. That's what I'm here for. We appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So were you guys singing growing up as well? Yeah. Um my um my first friend, her name was Ashley. Shout out Ashley. Shout out RIP Ashley, honestly. Oh, man. It happens. Um but we earliest I can remember singing was with her, and that was before kindergarten. So we were like making this like little band called the Galaxy Girls, and we would like Galaxy Girls. Was this in like the xenon of the 21st century type of time frame? That time period, For sure. Yeah. Sounds like it. Nice.

So we would like bring our parents into the living room and like bang on pots and pans and sing these songs. And um, I remember my first friend, my other first friend in kindergarten was a singer, so we were always singing, so she definitely influenced me as well. So yeah, singing was always a thing. Sure. So your mom told a story about you guys would be in the car, and to basically just shut you up, I think is the way she described it. She would sing a note and she would ask you guys to to match it. Yeah, cool. Do you do you remember playing this game? Um, kind of, not really, but I I there's a lot of things I don't remember, Sure. but um kind of I'm starting to remember that. Yeah, yeah, it's a good way to like long rides, probably keep using it. She she basically just wanted to keep you calm and not at each other's throats, you know, you and your brothers in the back seat. I did ask her who was the best singer of the bunch, and she declined to uh to answer that one. Yeah, good call mom. Yep, yeah, exactly. Typical mom.

No favorite too. She had no favorite child, and I tried to get it out of her, I couldn't. No way. That lady loves everyone. If you talk to my mom for an hour, you're her child now. Yeah, you could be her favorite child. I think I did make my way into the Culver family after uh you know, syncing up with her. And by that math, you're equal now. You're one of the favorites. I'm just as good of a singer as Leah. Yep. Right, that's how it works. Henry's a great singer too. Maybe I'll do a reference, but yeah, that's about it. So outside of music though, would you say you were generally into the arts? So, like, you know, painting, drawing, writing, like would you say you were always kind of into those types of things? Yeah, um, I I always thought honestly, since I was little, I pictured like wanting to travel and do music. So I've like always wanted this lane, but I also wanted to like write a book, and I was writing short stories, and I I was drawing and stuff, but I didn't take it so seriously until like maybe high school. Sure.

Yeah. What does the book title uh Heart Woman mean to you? Oh my gosh. Um well uh yeah, when was that? I wrote a little book called Oh, it's probably like Adventures of Heart Woman or something. It could have just been Heart Woman. Oh, maybe it was the Adventures of Heart Woman. It was like kind of like a comic, and it was just like I draw pictures and then write the story, and I'm trying to picture it. Um I remember she saved a bunch of animals and she flew around, but there's this one picture. I'll probably like find it and send it to you. I looked at it now, and it looks like Heart Woman is flipping everyone off. It's like definitely the most intentional. Of course. Yeah. That's awesome. So would you see a would you say that you identify with Heart Woman now as a person? Sure. Yeah. I would say yeah. Okay. Good intentions. Good deal. Good deal. So when did you be start when did you start writing songs? Since um, I mean that was with Ashley. Was

that in the band with the Galaxy Girls? That's when it started in my mind. So you were writing original music. When we were little kids. Wow. Terrible music. What was that like? You just invite her over and you know, your mom would be like, Well, well, you know, what are you and Ashley gonna do? And it was we're going to write some songs. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we were in the basement and we'd um do that or watch movies or you know, play with dolls and things, but usually it was the the latter two sound a lot more stereotypical. Normal kid. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, honestly, I I'm realizing right now that that's not normal. I wonder what Disney movie influenced us to do that. It's probably like Cheetah Girls or something. Oh that's a good one. Yeah, what made us do that? Well, probably my brothers, honestly, probably wanting to be in a band. It sounds like it was instilled in you pretty young. Yeah. The whole music thing. Yep. And and so you said your brothers both were drummers and DJs. Did you learn how to DJ by like being around your brother? Yeah.

My my brother, he is so nice to me. He would let me, he didn't want me touching his things. And of course, like I would go in there and touch his things because I was like a little sister. But um, yeah, he I mean, I learned 4/4 at a really young age, just um with my especially like my oldest brother who did like the the band and stuff. So uh John had turntables, so he's my middle brother who was a turntablist. Nice. and so he taught me how to like cue up songs. I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't have any plan for that to end up being kind of what I did. Literally what you do now. Yeah, but he'd put my hands on it and like would kind of teach me how to do it. And all I was interested in doing was the scratching and making noise. But he had all these cool um sound effects, like Henry? just like Henry. I'm done. Thank God, yeah.

That's awesome. And so who were some of your biggest, you know, musical influences growing up? Like, you know, who were you listening to? Um growing up, I mean, I'd I'd say my biggest influences have been like Hayley Williams of Paramore, like Lady Gaga, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Ariana Grande, uh, Whitney Houston. After seeing the Gaga documentary, I like oh yeah, really fell in love with her. Oh, yeah. I mean, I I already respected her as an artist and liked her music, right? Just you know, from a casual listener perspective, but like I guess that's why documentaries are so powerful, because they do give you that glimpse into who is this person, yeah, that's creating this music. I mean, she is obsessed with making just such a top-notch product. I mean, it was unbelievable. And and you know, we'll get into this later, but like her attention to detail with her shows as well. Oh my gosh, down to like the measurements of the jacket because the way she would put her jacket on would be a certain way when she was dancing versus how she could do it if she was, you know, whatever, right?

It was it was pretty unbelievable seeing that documentary. So that that completely changed my changed my uh perspective of of Gaga. So Haley Williams. Um I heard a rumor that you have drawn some paintings of Haley. Oh yeah, it did. Are those still around? Yeah, we get prints of those or sure. Um, so I was talking to what I don't know what this girl's job is. I think she's like her best friend, Lindsay Burns. I was talking to her on Instagram, and I'd like really want to get that painting to Haley. I haven't asked the question yet, but I'm going to write that on my hand to do it like maybe tomorrow. I'm gonna help you make that happen. I have to do that. They're in Nashville, they're right around with the club. I'll drive, I'll drive it up. I'm saying like I'll give it to her. I don't have to meet her or anything, like I just want them to have it, you know. Yeah, and Haley, we'd love to have you on the podcast. Yes.

That's incredible. So so when did you start to take music seriously, right? Because you mentioned you're you know, fooling around with your brother on the on on the turntables, right? You didn't really think it was gonna amount to anything. So I was there a defining moment you would say where like light bulb went off. I want to take music seriously, and I want to be an artist, or I want to be a DJ or or you know, what have you? I think to answer like really honestly, I was taking it seriously as long as I can remember, but it started working out in 2011. That's that's a fair that's a fair response. I always wanted it, always wanted it. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, because you know, some people, of course, kind of fall into it. They're doing other things. They, you know, their parents wanted them to do other things, what have you, right? But knowing from just before you can even remember quite literally, that's that's powerful. Yeah. I'm grateful. And being honest with yourself about the fact that it's been actually going somewhat well since 2011. That's that's cool too.

So what happened in 2011? I did fall into it. Um I was working with this dude, Justin, uh, who did Wobble Wednesdays in 2010. And I was like sending emails to DJs and like just helping him organize things. And uh I made one dry sarcastic joke, too many, and um, he was like, There's no female DJs in Atlanta. And I was like, I'm a female DJ, but I I said it really dry, and he was like, Oh, cool. Well, you're booked Wednesday, which was like three days away. But at the time I was living with DJs and I had my background of like um, you know, all that, and I'm a little bit like the person who will just try anything. I was like, screw it, I'm gonna learn this. And it was a good time for me to do it. Like I was coming out of a breakup and like new uh friend group and uh huge life shift, and uh I was just uh crazy enough to just show up and try. And I didn't realize that it was actually a really popping event.

Yeah, for those who don't know, it's it was like it's a rave event. Was it at Irish? It was um at Inferno Lounge, was I believe the first ones. So it turned into uh Wobble Wednesdays at Connect Lounge because Inferno Lounge burnt down, which is crazy. That's super ironic by the way. I know. Inferno, wow. That was where it started. Wow. Wow. So paint us the picture of that first DJ set. I mean, what what did you feel like before? Were you nervous? Excited. Yeah. scared. you know, what was it like during? And then how did you feel about the set after? Kind of walk us through that whole that whole first set. Uh so I borrowed this dude, uh, dude's um little tiny Hercules controller, which was literally this big. So it looked really silly. And I had really shaky hands, which probably looked even more silly, like shaking above this tiny little like board. Uh I was using a combination of songs that like my brand new DJ friends gave me to try out, and um, songs I found, but it was mostly Dr. P and like uh Flux Pavilion and um Skrillex and things like that, too, very 2011 stuff.

Pioneers though. Pioneers. Absolutely. And I was very scared. I don't have any memory of that. I'm pretty sure I blacked out entirely, and I think it went well enough because he started booking me more. And it was like, I mean, I didn't I mean it's such a ridiculous story. Like I I made my name like right before this the right when they made the flyer, What was your name? the next day. MK Ultra. MK Ultra. So how long did that name stick? Uh a few years. Okay. Um I I changed my name because there was this manager who had this really dope awesome uh duo that was doing really well. And he was like, I think you should change your name to your name. And I kind of agreed because if you look up MK Ultra, there's a lot that goes to it, and I got some crazies coming up to me at shows. And I was about ready to change it anyway. And he said, if you change your name, I'll be your manager. And then I changed my name. Wow. And he didn't be my new manager. Oh well, darn him.

Shout out. But it was good. It was good. Shout out that guy. Should we get him on the podcast too, Henry? You're not allowed on the podcast, man. That's messed up. Henry said no. You're blocked. blocked. So how important is the live show? To me? To you, yeah. It's the most important. No, to everyone. But yes, to you specifically. We are interviewing you, Leah. We do care about your opinion. There was a ghost back here. He wanted to talk. Hey, you. No. It's really important because that's what what are we doing it for? We're doing it for them. We're doing it so that they can escape the mundane, escape whatever they're needing to escape. That's what they're coming there for. That's what they're listening to music for, you know, to have fun. And so the the live show is important to me because you know, and for a few reasons. Like, one is like I want to bring back live instruments into like EDM events, you know, not bring it back, but make it happen, you know? Yeah.

And you are doing that. You are literally. Let me tell you about first time I saw her at Imagine Festival. There's one DJ goes on, he's behind the boards, another DJ comes on, he's there behind the boards by himself. Leah comes on, 10 piece band, like two drummers, like a string section, guitarist, a children's choir comes out for a couple of songs, extra dancers, like extra. I mean, like it was night and day from everyone else that I saw. I could not believe I was like captivated. Like, why did no one else's set look like this? Like, I didn't even know you could do this. Like, they would let you do this. Why are more people not doing this? She sits down and plays drums and and and then she'll go DJ and then she'll come out and sing. Like super interactive. It really was impressive. Like she puts on a crazy show. Seriously.

Appreciate that. Seriously. Yeah, I think we need to hear it one more time for the importance of the live show. One more time. So here on the one more time podcast, whenever someone drops a gem, we like to one more time. Drop the one more time. Oh shawty, one more time. And have you say that one more time for the people in the back? How about the importance of the stage production and the shows and why, yes. Um, because it's fun and it's fun for them, and I want them to get that live experience. Like, and I love just collaborating in general. Like uh, I mean, with with you know, all my influences really being like I mean, I can go into producer influences for sure, but like I love being like a front man, like I love kind of you know, you you know, like just singing is like it's in your spine, you know. That's always been there, so that's why it's important. It feels good to sing, it's vibration, and um, I don't know, it's it's kind of weird to be honest, because like I look back at those first shows, and it took me I think like three years, maybe to even introduce myself on the mic. Like, I would always hand it to somebody else, and they'd be like, give it up for him, Kilcher. And

I'd be like, Okay, starting. And like I remember one time I passed it to Glenn from Iris. Shout out Glenn Goodhand. Shout out Glenn! Thank you. Um shout out Glenn. Yeah, shout out Glenn. He uh handed the mic right back to me, and made you and made me do it without any idea. So what was that like? Good. It was like liberating? It's such a good thing to do. I hadn't been singing on my sets yet or anything. Like he just handed it back, and and I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, true, true. Okay, okay, true, true. You're right, you're right. I should do this. You're right, You're right, you're right. Okay, cool. Um, and I and what I learned over time was to I can show you a clip of what I'm talking about, but I learned over time that I have to change my voice for like singing, like or and and talking is what I mean. I used to be like, what's up, you guys? My name's Akeelra. Super high and like squeaky, and I learned now you'll hear me do it, and I'm like, what's up, you guys? Like, and it it carries.

It we're just talking about that. The low, the low carries better. I don't know what I'm talking about right now. No, that's interesting. It's true though. So you mentioned obviously the reason why you think the live show is important, is because it's all for them, it's all for the fans. I mean, you know, why else do you want to be a career artist? You know what I mean? If if you if you just wanted to make music, you'd do it just in your bedroom and you wouldn't release it. You just make it for you, but you make it for them, and that's why you also care about the live show. I feel like that translates to you as a person as well. I mean, you are if anyone follows you on social media, if you don't at Leah Culver music, correct? Um, you're extremely positive with the things that you say and the captions that you write, and so it seems like that that mentality of caring about fans stems from just caring about other people in general. Would you say that comes from your mom? Shout out, Lynn.

Shout out Lynn. It's important, it's uh it's like all that matters. Like we all just woke up in these bodies one day and we're here for however long, whatever. What are we gonna do with it? Yeah. Are you gonna like anyone can do whatever they want? And this isn't me like saying anything about that, but me personally, I want to put goodness into the world. Because there's plenty else out there that's not. So you might as well. It doesn't have to be like super positive lyrics or anything, but if you I don't just write for them, I write for me too. But um I know that if I'm writing about something that I'm going through, someone else has probably gone through it or going through it. And I've gotten those DMs of people being like, wow, like I listen to this, it helped me. And that's what we do it for. We do it for the live show and the the help of them getting out there and like having a good time, but we also do it for the kid in their in their room that needs to feel connected to anything. Man, yeah, no, I it's I I wish I could be on the other end of that.

And and I hope that I do inspire people at at some point in my life too. But just being able to do it through music is so amazing, and hearing those stories of people that you got me through the day, you know, with this song or with that show. I had the best time of my life. I mean, that that must be just incredible types of feedback to receive, right? It's wild. Yeah, like um, I try to like um be as present as I can be. Um that's something we all probably have to work on sometimes, but I try to never take that for granted. Like, and and try to stay attached to the fact that that's what's happening. Yeah. No, that's that's awesome. So on a on a lighter note, but um, but equally important, I feel like there was a birthday party in this same room that we're hosting this podcast in. Is that true? Did we have a Leah Culver birthday party in this building? Oh, hell yeah. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah.

That's all I wanted. I was not present myself, but I think I do have two of the attendees of that party here. It was a rager. What was that party like? Tell the people. So fun. I mean. That was the best. Just great people. Uh some of them I knew I knew, some I didn't know, you know. And you know, Leah approached me with the idea. I was more than happy to do it. And we were, I think we recorded some freestyles, you know. We just played some music nice and loud. We had a little cake. Oh yeah, thank you. It's ice cream. Yeah. That's great. Of course it was. Baskin-Robbins. Shout out, Brewster. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. whoa. I gotta go, guys. I'm so sorry. Uh don't you dare say BR podcast is over. This is a Bruster's podcast. Sponsored by Bruster's. We'd love to have you on the podcast. We'd love to have you on the podcast. Bruce, uh, there's a guy who started it. His name's Bruce. Oh my god, that's incredible. Yeah. Um, so outside of, of course, you know, having a birthday party here at the studio, um, you guys have also collaborated on a project called The Honest EP. Yeah.

And I wanted to play a little snippet from one of Henry's favorite songs, Blue Eyes. Baby, your blue eyes, they take me all the way down. So that was a snippet from Blue Eyes off the honest EP from Leah Culver and Henry. Um, what was that project about? What inspired that project? It's a big one. Um, and where do I start with that? All right. Um, honest EP, honesty P is completely freestyled. We made, of course, no rules. There's never any real rules that are ever real. But like we You really let our guard down. We yeah. We decided that our quote unquote rules were that we weren't gonna write anything down. Um I was incapable of writing anything down at that point.

Um why's that? So, um so I had a longtime boyfriend that um was everything and then he died, and then uh I died and then I called Henry and I was like, hey, I gotta die and into a mic. You have a dope mic and you're dope, and I just need to do that. And you were like all the way there, which was awesome. Um, so what we did is I came over and we played some beats like that he kinda already had sitting around and and we just picked some and then just got in that booth and just did, and then we just picked the best takes and then put it together, and that's the whole EP is just uh it just came right out. And it and it would, you know. So that's I mean, honestly, all my songs are about him, but like that one was like specifically his project. But they're all they're all about one person.

Oh that's that's powerful. So would you say most of your music you're inspired by personal experiences like that? And I'm not saying like that specifically, but just you know, whether it's happy, sad, you know, angry, like are the emotions that you're trying to invoke based on things that you've you know been through? Um, I mean, for the most part, uh, I can pull from any any experience. I can pull from things I haven't experienced too. Like it's it's it's like um it's still being a storyteller. So like um like I can write about seeing somebody in the club, and like I could still be in the time frame of what just had happened, and I could write that song too, and it wouldn't be like super in my veins at the time, but you can pull it from anywhere. That's acting. You kind of transport yourself there, right? Yeah, put yourself in that. Because songs are job, like they songs can do jobs. So like there's a a song that's in the club, and the song's job is to get everybody to like have a good time and buy shots, and like and there's that song, and that's its own thing, and then there's like things that you pull from, like like that EP was completely like selfish.

It was just like into the mic, and um you can he really hear like the vulnerability, you know, the rawness of it, like certain yeah, little nuances that you know, like a polished record might not have, but that we thought was cool and kind of represented, you know, what she was feeling. It was a different mindset to be in. And and I'm sure it was different for you as an engineer. Like that was totally a different experience. He was amazing. I mean, he is amazing, like Henry. Shout out, shout out, shout out Henry. I think he shouted himself out on half the episodes so far. And he'll probably continue. Yeah, he'll continue that traject trajectory. I shout out everybody. Including yourself. I'm somebody. Yeah. But you don't really shout out me. I mean, you know, I'm not saying I'm not saying anything. Um so, you know, you mentioned that with your boyfriend passing, a part of you obviously passed as well, and you felt dead inside, you were in a bad spot. Mental health is something that's starting to be talked about way more.

And I think that's a great thing. Um I myself have a personal experience with, you know, someone who passed due to mental health. So I love the fact that people are becoming more comfortable talking about it, uh, especially in music and just in general. Um, how would you say that you deal with the stresses of life? Um, you know, other than music, or I guess music probably would be one, what else do you do to kind of deal? My life has been fucking crazy for like three years. Henry knows this. It's been insane. Honestly, like insane. I'm telling you, like at this point, like even just recently something happened that was like no one can relate to like the things that keep happening to me. That's the weirdest part about it. Is anyway, um, I'm becoming really resilient, if I'm being honest. Um and that's all right with me. Um but the way I cope with it of of course, music.

Um, there's only so much you can do. I mean, therapy, lots of therapy, lots of grief therapy, um, lots of different kinds of therapy for different like I mean, I have complex PTSD like out the ass. I'm serious. And there's lots of symptoms with that. Um so therapy is a huge part. I think I think if you are alive right now, you should have therapy. I think everybody could use therapy. And there's a difference between, you know, uh you put out, you know, all the most positive content. It's it's always has a great message, but you that doesn't mean you always feel that way. I'm sure you have your downs, you know, but you do just try to put out as much positivity as you can, even if you're maybe not in that mindset yourself. I think um when I first started, I was like more like I I mean I've I've had a lot of things happen, but like um I always try to be like real with it no matter what I'm saying. Um I try to be aware of what I'm saying when I'm putting out a message.

Um so yeah, I I like to be positive, but it's not like toxic positivity, you know what I mean? It's not like ignoring the reality. It's just giving space for people to be whatever they are. You might want to hear that. One more time. One more time. One more time. Um it's important to give yourself space to be real. And uh if that's being positive, it's huge, then great. And if it's not, great. And um, I I'm not one to just like only be positive because that's just not real. It's unrealistic. Yeah. Yeah. So however you feel is totally okay and valid usually. Um so it's and and I think the whole positive thing, because I've gotten that my whole career, people say that to me, and I kind of am not aware of that part, but I I like not aware of like that it's such a thing that other people have noticed, but um, I try to be aware of like the message I'm putting out. Yeah.

No, and and obviously you mentioned, you know, collaborating with Henry, um, even collaborating with your brother at an early age on the turntables. Um, how important would you say is a team and collaborating with other creatives, with other people that you know are helping you do what you do um on the music front, you know, how important is that? Um it's as important as you want to make it. Like um sometimes I mean sometimes I like to just make my own stuff and I don't collaborate with anyone for months and then sometimes like it's fun like when we do stuff. It's really just like honestly, it's just friends making music with friends for the most part. Um that's what uh matters to me. Um I don't collaborate with e everybody. Um and it to me it doesn't matter as much even about numbers. Like if I don't know somebody, I'm I'm more likely to like collaborate with Henry or like um people that I've met and that I enjoy. Yeah. But let's, let's not undervalue

who you've met. You have some collaborations with some big people. I I was like but but the thing that's cool is that from what I've heard from other people, these are friends. Yeah, that's what I mean. Right. No, but but you're not talking about Joe Schmo who's not doing you know, so yeah, but so so tell us about some of the people that you have collaborated with, um, what you've loved about working with some of these folks. Um, you know, give us a glimpse into you know who you've worked with and and why you've worked with them and and what you've liked about it. And how you met some of these people, you know, how does one even make that? How do you become friends with some of these people? Okay. Um how I met most of these people was doing shows. Uh that was probably, and then just like when I moved out to LA, like I met a lot of people out there um doing shows and going to shows. Um I mean it's Atlanta's awesome.

Like Atlanta, thank God, right? Thank God we were born here. Because like if we were born in like I don't know, like West Virginia or something, like what would have happened? I don't know. Not this. It can't be uh you want to move to Atlanta, probably honestly. Yeah, all throughout starting, I got DMs from people being like, I'm thinking about moving to Atlanta. I'm like, you should. The scene is awesome here. Yeah, um, so that helped. Sure. Um, and people I've collaborated with. Um who have I collaborated with? Uh uh, I always think of Virtual Riot because I adore him, which we have to shout out, Virtual Riot. Shout out! Uh we have to cut some more. There's two more lines we have to cut for that thing that we did last session. We got a session after this, so this is good timing. Um Valentino, Virtual Riot. Man, I'm the worst at this part. Um, Marshmallow, uh, Liquid Stranger, Illenium, Adventure Club, Yultron. I know I always forget people is the worst part.

I'm the worst at this. Um these are some of the who's who these are the on the flyers, the festival flyers. These are the guys whose names are very big. The ones you can actually read without zooming in. Yes. Yes. And and that's incredible. And so you've mentioned you spent time between Cali and Atlanta. Um, what took you to California the first time? I've been saying California since before I could actually say California. Like I've always had to be. How did you used to pronounce it? California. California. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And and so I guess what have been some of your highlights out there? Um, I mean, just I'm like born and raised Atlanta. So I've been here my whole life. Yeah. I moved to LA in 2015 with um the fellow that that EP is about. Yeah. Um, and uh was he also an artist? He he did like some singing and stuff.

He was like into hardcore music. Okay. Um, so yeah, he was like a front man in a band that was dope. Cool. Um but LA, I mean, LA is a wild beast, and it's really fun. And I'm I'm just grateful. Like I spent a ton of time in New York and in LA. Like I spent um, I was pretty much living in New York before I moved to LA and Bushwick. And so that time period of just leaving everything behind because you really sacrifice a lot when you move to like LA. You know, I don't have any family there. So you make your family, and it it's I have so many amazing fun memories. It's just I'm just grateful to have gotten out there, and um, I wouldn't change that for anything. It definitely changed my route, I guess. Yeah. Tell us about icon, because you didn't mention that as part of your LA experience, but I know that from what I know, it was a big part of you growing as an artist and really credentialing yourself to know credentialing. Is that a word?

Credentialing. I feel like we make up words on this podcast sometimes. Someone has to fact check us. Is that a word? One more time. Yeah. Credentialing. not giving him the one more time. Yeah, you really credential yourself with uh the icon production school certification. Um, but but no, in all seriousness, um, I know the icon was a big part of where you really perfected your craft, or I would say, you know, grew up as a as a producer uh and an and and an artist, right? Yeah. Icon is cool because you can go there with any level of knowledge and get better. Yeah. Um icon collective in Burbank. Actually, I think they just moved to another location and it might still be in Burbank. I wish I knew. I'll find out. Somebody fact check that too. Fact check it. Leave a comment down below. Give us the address of icon production collective. Yeah, icon is dope um because you it is a collective. Um, and honestly, as a female producer, uh, when I was starting to really put out songs, like in the beginning, it was hard.

It was really hard. And people were mean. What were they saying mean? They just don't you couldn't possibly like put eyeliner on and know how to do something on your computer. Yeah, how? How would that happen? So that that's um, totally gets in the way of you being able to, you know, do you think it's a good thing? Yeah, you can't see anything. I don't know, it was a weird time, and it's not quite like that as much now, which is awesome. But when I was starting, it was like that. And um, so when I went to Icon, it was amazing to have such a supportive like um support system of men there. Okay. Cause it's mostly guys. But was there also a support system of women? Yeah, I mean, there just there's not a lot at the time there weren't many girls at the school. I think there were like four or five. Um who are some of your favorite women producers and/or DJs. So in in your scene. Grimes?

Period. That's it. Grimes. She's all you need to know. Uh yeah, Grimes. Grimes. We'd love to have you on the podcast. We'd love to have you on the podcast. We'd love to have you. We'd love to have you. Um Grimes was really cool. Um, Cruella was. I actually booked a Cruella show. They are some badass chicks. He used to book shows back in the day. Yeah, awesome. I booked some actually some big names in your space at the time. Yeah, I mean, I did everyone as big as Calvin Harris. I did, you know, Cruella, uh, bingo players were awesome. Yes. Um, so this is totally 2012, 2013. Was that in Athens? Uh no, I did shows at University of South Carolina, Clemson, uh, Georgetown, Indiana, Illinois. So I did shows up and down the East Coast. That was how I actually even remotely got into music at the time. Um, I was a huge fan, and a buddy approached me with the idea of, hey, let's put on concerts. And I was like, fuck yeah, that sounds amazing.

Hell yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I I did that. Um, and Cruella was one of our and you mentioned West Virginia. We did a show at University of West Virginia. Nice. Cruella was our second headliner along with uh bingo players and Zed and Porter Robinson back to back. So that was sweet, fucking awesome. And it was in a warehouse in Morgantown, West Virginia where most people had half of their teeth, and it was incredible. You only need a few. Yeah, they proved that to be true. Jell-O is very popular there, yeah. No, that's that's awesome. Um, so you know, fast forward to now, what what would you say some of your um, you know, what song would you say you're most proud of and why? Hmm. That's hard. Um is this like a mom picking their favorite child? Uh I I just never kinda okay. Um sorry, but I I have a project in my this doesn't quite answer your question, so I will attempt to after I say this, but I just I have this project I want to do of dream songs that have come to me in dreams, and I just record them into my phone, and I have like seven of them, and I want that to be a thing. And when I do that, I think I'll be the most proud of that.

Just because it was like straight subconscious. Are they dreams or nightmares or both? Dreams. All dreams whenever they're music, um, they're not nightmares. Awesome. That's really cool. to actually answer your question. Um that was a great answer. That was cool. Yeah, but but no, definitely continue. Um I I initially wanted to answer that by answering with what I think people have told me they like the most, which was I think get going. Okay. And I like get going because it's like whatever it takes to get going. I bet you got the most people hitting you up telling you that it really touched them That one. That one, yeah. Yeah. That one that's a cool way to answer it, and it really goes back to you caring about the fans again. I think that's a very central core element to who you are as a person and and as an artist, right? Um is that that matters. Most people might say some obscure song that was just their favorite that might not have actually been that popular amongst their fans, but they really liked it and they have the story about why they liked it. But you really saying that and some people would say, Oh, you just went with your most, you know, popular one or whatever.

But no, it's the reason why I say that is because it impacted the most people or that you had the most responses to that. Yeah. I probably would have said fly if it was like based on popular song. Shout out, Marshmello. Shout out, Nate. We'd love to have you both on the podcast. We have a long list of people we'd love to have on the podcast. You should try to get Nate. He's really awesome. Nate is incredible. I was watching his Twitch uh stream earlier, actually. I popped in. He's hilarious. Yeah. Any recommendations? Uh we'd love we'd love to have them. Get Nate. Yeah, here we go. Um, so what are you working on currently? What can the people get excited about? We are literally like after this working on immediately after this. Uh we've been working on like uh a nightmare collaboration with Flux Pavilion, um, a Dr. P one. Um what are we doing today? We're doing Heavy hitters. Heavy hitters. Um I've got some songs that I wrote on just like guitar lately that just like we always joke about the songs that come out the fastest are like the best, and it's been like stuff like that that I wrote in LA before things got really crazy recently.

Um so I got my guitar over there and we're gonna like track some guitar today. Uh I don't know, I'm just I think I fell into EDM when you know I did that joke, but like I've always been into bands, and a lot of my influences are like people like Harry Styles and his new album and like the Weeknd and like Lana Del Rey. And a lot of times when I'm producing, I'm making stuff that would fit them or fit me in that way. Yeah. Um, I kind of especially I'm if I'm being completely honest, after that person died, like it became harder to make dubstep for me. Um because you have to be in a certain space for that, and I've been in this other space since then. Yeah, for lots of reasons other than that. But um, yeah, I have to like really want to. I start with the drop on those. Because it's a different when you're in that scenario, and this is me not being a music, you know, artist or producer, right? Like you two, do you force it?

Or do you just make whatever you're in? Like whatever zone you're in. I've had to force it. Yeah. You want to hear something funny? I'd love to. Yes. Okay. This is ridiculous. I learned I can do anything after this. Um, so I'll stop talking about this after this, but um, when he did pass, it was like you don't have to apologize about that. Yes. It's okay that it's a big it's huge part of your story. Yeah, that's sexy. So you don't need to no one will no one's sick of hearing it. I promise. So my um in that time period, I was working on a project for Star Wars. Um, it was for Disneyland. And um my job was ridiculous as it was. I had to this is you won't believe this. Like so I'm like not getting out of bed for many days, and I'm dead inside. Yeah. But I had been working on the biggest project I'd ever been offered, which was um writing music in Ewok and Hatess, which I can't speak, but had to learn how to okay, had to learn how to speak, but also um This is incredible by the way. This was insane.

This was like math. So glad we have this on video. Ewok Ewok and being recorded. It was crazy. This will live forever. Uh it was so I was working with Valentin. I hit up Virtual Riot, Valentin, because he's like an insanely amazing producer, and I knew that I did not want to have the job of also doing the music if I was already doing learning a fake language singing a Star Wars created language. It was insane. Um and it had to be good. Like it their fan base is really deep. Your comments section would have blown up. You thought you got hate before. Right. So you're on pins and needles with this one. It was nuts because the deadlines were insane. I I remember I was in bed at like 10 p.m. And the deadline would a new deadline would be like 10 a.m. And I'd be like, I guess I'm getting out of bed now. Yeah, right. I'm gonna go. When George Lucas calls, you get the fuck up. Yeah.

When when you gotta sound like an ewok, it kind of takes you out of your mental space. And like the references would be sleep is dead if you get told you gotta sing an ewok. You don't need sleep. Right. Um, but yeah, it was just like the references were insane. It was like, okay, we know you're a white girl, but we want you to like write this song in Ewok, but also sound like Selena, like you're Latin. Jesus. And this reference is Madonna in the eighties. We know you were born in like not the eighties. so you got this, right? And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not crying right now. Yeah, you're crying. You're crying. Yeah. Can we get some do you remember? Can we get a little ewok right now? I'm trying to remember. Well my god, I can't. This was a jazzy one. It was like my o wabba usa ni bum ta oto chuba or something. I don't know. It was it is accurate.

That was about a relationship, and it was funny because those words right there. Something like I mean, that's subconscious, but um the there's a there's one website, and thank you to whoever made this website. God bless you. There was a website that tracked every instance that an Ewok had spoken and did the same for Hates, which is like the the most um common language amongst the Star Wars worlds. Oh my gosh. And so since I had that, I could plug and play. But you know, it's like if you're writing a song, it's like, okay, I start with melody, like we do a lot of ba-da-ba-da-da-da-da-da-da. And then we would put in like I'd have to look at like Eba Waba and like be like, okay, four syllables. I can't even look at it. Ending in ah. So I gotta find other ones. And it has to be accurate. It's a puzzle. It has to be a story still. Yeah. So you actually wrote real lyrics in this fake language. It was like the Olympics.

It was like I knew I could do anything after that. That's So incredible. Because of my headspace. In the headspace she was in. Wrecked. Yeah. Managed to get that done. So that might be my favorite thing I've ever done. Because that was insane. That's amazing. That is amazing. Eba Waba. so any um other projects we should be aware of you coming up? Um, I'm releasing three songs on Monster Cat. Shout out Monster Cat. Monster Cat. Monster Cat. and then doing something with this new artist, Astro, I gotta look up what his name is right now, actually. Shout out whatever your name is. Don't even say it right now. I can't be Astroglide, right? That's like it's that loop. It could be. Maybe it could be. I wanted my subconscious says it's Astroglide. so now that shows are starting to pick back up, can we look forward to seeing you live at any point soon? What a time. What a time to be alive. What a time. Uh yeah, I'm doing imagine and I'm talking we got two shows booked, I think Denver and somewhere else. Okay.

Um and now we're starting to do that gameplay of like seeing what's going on. Of how we top the 10 piece uh string orchestra quartet or not quartet, of course. Where do you go from there. Yeah. How do you level up from that? How do you do it? Oh, yeah, and imagine. Imagine's in September. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yep, we'll be expecting our VIP tickets. That's right. Right. Right. Okay. Cool. cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, now that that's decided. Um, well, Leah, I appreciate you coming on. I think we're at the final segment of our podcast. I'll let Henry take it over Rampage! Rampage! Rampage! It is time. Because I know everyone out there is waiting for the rapid fire rampage. Everyone's favorite. segment. You're calling it at me. This is Archer, by the way. It's a great show. Shout out H John Benjamin, one of my favorite voice actors. H John, we'd love to have you on the podcast. Well, now we have to license the fucking sound clip. But if you told everyone what it's from, we gotta pay our Archer.

Jesus, Henry. So basically it's uh it's a three-part rampage. Rampage! you can't even say that, seriously. Obviously. It's gonna be uh I'm gonna do some rapid fire kind of short answer kind of questions. And then I'm gonna do like a this or that, where you kind of pick one. Okay. And then I'm gonna do like a word association where I kind of say a word and you give me one word. Even though everyone that's been on so far has pretty much broken the one word. You can say more than one word, I guess, but the littler you think the better. I'm gonna try to just And we already determined that littler we talked about the word littler, Littler. maybe a word. The less you think. I don't know why I can't say the word less. Anyway, rapid fire rampage. It's a very tough one syllable. rampage. Here we go. Rapid fire rampage, Leah Culver. Initiate sequence. Initiating sequence. If you could steal one person's voice, who would it be? Ariana Grande. What are your favorite colors to wear? Red.

If music disappeared tomorrow, what would you lean into? A casket. That's incredible. Give us one genre of music that you secretly like or that some people might not know you like. I don't know about secretly. Um I mean, I like, I mean, it's hard to say that okay. One word. Uh this isn't one word. This is short answer. Short answer. Um go into it. Well, in this case, it's a long answer, but yeah, I feel like medium answer. I I don't like the genres you probably think I don't like. So it's like um, okay. What do you think I might not like or what I would like? I haven't slept much. Um where are we? Um what day is it? What was the question? Is rent due? Um, first day of the morning. It is due. Um I don't know.

I like indie music. Cool. Yeah, cool. Okay. So tomorrow, Joe Biden exiles you from America. Where are you going to live? Costa Rica. I just went on a trip to Costa Rica. No one. And it was fucking awesome. No way. I'll go with you if you get exiled. Okay. Cool. Hell yeah. Yep. They got bananas. Henry, you can come too. Oh, thanks, guys. They have bananas and monkeys. you can come, there's bananas there. And monkeys. And monkeys. And waves. We'll we'll our potassium levels will be through the roof. Give us a festival that you would love to have a permanent residence at. Coachella. Mm-hmm. Give us one of the dumbest things you ever did. Oh, like everything. Like you know me. We were talking about how like last time I was in a session, I was like, most people don't know how actually weird I am. And like I was like, Henry knows how weird. Henry probably has like so many clips of weird. Um we'll leak a tape one day. Yeah.

Silly thing she says on the mic. But you know, give us one thing, like one dumb instance of something. You're like, why did I do that? Um, uh the first thing I thought of was uh when me and my best friend Kristen, everything we do is really dumb. Shout out, Kristen. I have lots of scars. I feel like we all have that friend that all the bad stories. We're just getting in trouble all the time. They yeah, they they trace back to this one friend. One time we decided it was a good idea to um get one of those. I I think it was like a trolley, but like it looked like it was handmade. I feel like I found this trolley at some point in time when I was moving, and we thought it was a good idea to lay on it, and she grabbed my feet and was spinning me in the parking garage. No one's manning where the cars are, mind you. And um, she just let let go, and I went loose and rogue and just like slammed into a car. I have lots of scars. I have scars on my knees from like one time we were um like racing on the floor on our knees.

Like we were it was just like who could get to that point the fastest. I didn't realize like how insane rug burn can be. Scarred. Scarred. Jesus. I've done way more stupid things than that. I'm being a little bit like safe right now. That will suffice. Scarred. I can't wait to hear her answer when the cameras are off. Yeah, there's way more dumb things than that. But let's flip it the other way. Give us one of the best decisions you ever made. Moving to LA. Give us something you look for in a romantic partner. Honesty and uh being funny. Give us one bucket list entry. Um I want to. I want to meet Hayley Williams. Shout out Hayley Williams. Shout out Hayley Williams. That's gonna do it for the first part of Rampage. Moving on to the this or that. Tell us, would you prefer? Mountains or beaches?

Beaches. Day or night. Night. Freestyling or writing? Freestyling. Beer, liquor, or wine? Liquor. Sports car or SUV. Sports car. Going out to eat or cooking. Out to eat. Cats or dogs. Hard. That's hard. That's hard. That's hard. I always have cats. Cause like, I don't know. Picking one makes you feel like you're dissing the other one. I have cats because they don't care about me as much and I go away a lot. But I love dogs. Because you don't want to break the dog's hearts. Yeah, I can't do that to a dog. I would choose cat dog, Nickelodeon. Shout out. We'd love to have you on the podcast. She gets it. She gets it. She's smart. This might be our smartest guest so far. Leather or denim? I'm asking the big heavy hitters today. I'm almost like offended. Uh ooh. Hmm.

I don't really agree with leather, but like I don't really like like denim jackets either. I guess neither. is an option. Neither one is real. like what is real? Um denim. Denim, it is. She was so reluctant. I guess she hated that answer. And that question. I mean, denim. singing or DJing? Singing. Boom. Boom. Part two of the rampage. Success. And then on to the final part of the rapid fire rampage. Word association. I'm going to shoot you one word. You give me one word back. Do not think about your answers. We just want to see what's going on in your subconscious. Here we go. Rainbow. Pete Davidson. Pete Davidson. That threw me off. Like that was the first one. Okay. Why was that so fast? So fast. And why? I will never know. Armpit.

Pete Davidson. No, I'm just kidding. Harry. Fish. Mexico. Studio. Good times. Children. Happy. Pandemic. Gross. Puppy. Pete Davidson. No, uh. But I mean, it did happen, yeah. Chihuahua. I don't know. Pete Davidson will work for that one. Um pizza. Pepperoni. Stress. Nah. Bass. Bass cannon. Politics. Ugh. Adele. Hell yeah. I don't know if I like that, right? Adele. I love how just I get emotion to them is the answer. Nah. That's perfect. Like that's what we're looking for. Yeah.

With the rapid fire rampage. Possibly our best rapid rampage. That was incredible. I think this was an Awesome conversation. Really got you know deep into the the mind and the story of Leah Culver. We really appreciate all the honesty. Appreciate you. and you know your story. Uh thanks again for everyone tuning in. Please like, subscribe, follow, drop a comment, wherever it is that you watch this podcast. It's available on YouTube and everywhere you listen to podcasts. And until next week, we are out. Ready to make some music? Yeah. Let's get it. Sh get it. Let's get it.