Today we’d like to introduce you to Doug Leonard.
Hi Doug, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Santa Cruz, California. I started playing guitar at 7. Junior year of high school, after getting in a bit of trouble, I wrote and recorded my first songs. They were raps. I burned CDs and passed them out at school out of my backpack. Music was always me, but I’d spent most of high school as an athlete.
After graduation, I went to school up in northern California at Chico State as a Kinesiology major. I wanted to train athletes and own a gym. I spent the year outside of the gym, writing songs and teaching myself to sing. I knew it was time to change direction. A year later, I entered my first semester at Berklee College of Music.
In 2019, after three years of working hard (and getting my butt kicked) I moved here to Nashville and have been chasing music ever since. You can find me working in my studio, on stage with my guitar, or out on the town chopping it up. And you might catch me bustin’ a rap too.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
This journey had many ups and downs. It showed me the highest highs, and crushing lows. These are the moments that have made me who I am.
In those moments you really find out who you are. You also get to choose who you want to be. Then you get to test your metal. Do you have what it takes to become? Along the way, I’ve lost artistic direction, felt purposeless, and questioned it all. But it’s what you do in the face of all that that’s important.
It’s hard to be a genuine artist. There are so many roads to take. So many things to try. The voice in your heart can get lost in the noise. It’s hard to keep listening. But it’s so rewarding if you do. Having people who truly know you are important.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a singer, songwriter, producer, and instrumentalist. Primarily and as a sum of all those things, I’m an artist. I love and am inspired by many genres of music, so I try to make a lot of different stuff. My next album goes to a lot of different places.
It’s rock and roll. It’s a little bit country. There’s hip-hop production, and elements of EDM, and it all gets blended together. My favorite artists are the ones who don’t live within genres.
They just sound like them. The hope is to mix everything together that makes me, me, and make something new. Hopefully, when people listen they say “that sounds like Doug” I’d be most proud of that.
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why?
Being there for the people around me. Being a solid individual who brings out the best in them.
Being someone that people think of and say, “Yeah. They’re real. They’ve got my back. I trust them. If the zombies show up, we’re sticking together” I just want to show love and support.
That’s inspiring. I’ve been helped and inspired by so many along the way, it only seems right to try to pay it back.
Contact Info:
- Email: dougleonardofficial@gmail.com
- Website: dougleonardmusic.com
- Instagram: @dougleonardofficial
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/SCWhiskeyKids
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/dougleonardmusic?utm_source=mobi&utm_campaign=social_sharing
