Earlier than Odie Leigh turned one to observe in fashionable folks, she thought she didn’t need to be a musician. Years in the past when she was finding out movie at Loyola College in New Orleans, she watched the music college students grind to be taught concept, play as many stay gigs as doable, and search out a workforce to assist develop their careers.

All she needed to do was write songs on an previous guitar and share them on the web, however the voracious effort of the individuals round her made it appear to be that wasn’t adequate.

Then she heard the harmless croons and acoustic choosing in Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains) by Connie Converse, and her mindset fell into place.

“I heard that music, and I used to be identical to, ‘Wow! Music might be no matter you need it to be.’ You don’t should have a whole manufacturing workforce. You don’t should have a music video. You don’t should have a supervisor. You don’t should have any of these items that every one these individuals round me in faculty have been scrambling to have,” Leigh tells Guitar.com. “You may simply categorical a factor and folks will get pleasure from it.”

Quickly just a few issues she needed to precise will take the type of her debut album, Service Pigeon. Leigh all the time needed to precise issues, however it took her some time to seek out her outlet. She had early publicity to music, singing in a church choir as a result of her grandfather actually constructed the church. Round eighth grade, she taught herself to play guitar, however she rapidly misplaced curiosity in it.

“I finished enjoying for the remainder of my life,” Leigh says. Following the cessation, she thought movie was going to be her supply of expression. Then the pandemic set in. Leigh discovered herself remoted like everybody else, however she additionally felt unusually free to precise herself. So, she picked up the guitar once more.

She was residing with two rappers on the time, and so they made a guess to see who may make a viral music on TikTok first. Leigh wasn’t initially included within the guess, however she joined out of spite…and gained.

She wrote a “polyamorous nation anthem” as her second video on TikTok, and it now has over 50,000 views. Since then her TikTok has grown exponentially. On the time of writing, she has over 132 thousand followers, 2.9 million likes, and quite a few movies with hundreds of thousands of views.

“[TikTok] made it the place I, somebody who knew nobody, by no means had any intent in being a musician, by no means had any expertise in music, and lived someplace with none trade was capable of be a full-time musician,” Leigh says.

Now as a full-time musician, she has a supervisor, agent, publicist, and a label. However she constructed these relationships on her phrases.

“In the event you use [TikTok] proper you now not really feel such as you want anybody for something. I do know that on the finish of the day, I bought myself right here and I have to proceed to work my hardest to get to the place I wish to be,” Leigh says.

Comply with Your Coronary heart

She additionally didn’t want anybody when she selected her guitars. For essentially the most, she doesn’t care concerning the manufacturers. She doesn’t know what guitars she used to file her album. The primary guitar Leigh discovered to play belonged to her brother. When she began enjoying professionally, she purchased a brown guitar as a result of she was sporting brown pants lots at the moment and he or she needed one which matched her outfits.

“After I would hear individuals speaking about gear, I’d simply be like, ‘Oh, I’m so silly! This stuff are past me. I’ll by no means be capable to perceive if I don’t even know what guitar I’m enjoying’,” Leigh says. “When in actuality it doesn’t matter what it’s. Simply go make one thing.”

On her current excursions, she has been enjoying a Gretsch Electromatic Double Jet in Tahiti Purple. She purchased it as a result of she thought it was fairly, however she doesn’t use it in her TikTok movies. She thinks the run-down guitars sound higher when she’s recording audio on her iPhone. In her viral video of Crop Circles, she wasn’t simply utilizing her previous acoustic, however she had the improper strings on the guitar as effectively.

“I’ve by no means been capable of make a guitar sound like that once more,” Leigh says. “The lack of expertise is what permits individuals to create unimaginable music as a result of for those who’re doing the whole lot ‘proper’ you’re going to sound like everybody else.”

Leigh doesn’t care about being “proper.” She was drawn to the concept of expression as a result of she typically felt fully overwhelmed by her feelings when she was youthful. She wanted a approach to get them out instantly.

“I write songs within the second to cease me from doing different loopy issues,” Leigh says. “Earlier than I write a music it’s this very intense seed of a sense deep within me.”

Each music she shares represents her instant emotions within the second. Particularly, lots of the songs on Service Pigeon are about her emotions in direction of a lover. They embody candid lyrics like on Both Manner when she sings:

“Do you wanna know me like I wanna know you?/I wanna know you, Do you wanna kiss me like I wanna kiss you?/I wanna kiss you”

Service Wave

Now as she’s on the cusp of sharing her debut album, she’s in an attention-grabbing place. Given the method of what it takes to launch a physique of labor, the feelings throughout the ten songs on Service Pigeon are from lengthy up to now. That’s the place the title comes from. The album is sort of a service pigeon, delivering what she was going by means of nevertheless many moments in the past.

“The expertise of the second is gone. It’s eliminated. For a very long time, I’d instantly write a music and instantly put it on the web. However now I’ve gotten a bit of bit extra skilled with the way in which I do issues,” Leigh says.

Nonetheless a few years after her friends made her assume she didn’t need to be a musician, she is doing what all of them have been striving to do. Odie Leigh could not have blown up the “proper” means, however she’s right here, and he or she’s expressing the issues she desires to precise.

Odie Leigh’s debut album ‘Service Pigeon’ is out now