- Leon Thomas released his sophomore album, Mutt, on Sept. 27.
- The Grammy-winning songwriter has since been touring the U.S. on his first sold-out string of solo shows
- “It’s a beautiful thing to be here now,” Thomas tells PEOPLE of the current moment in his career
For Leon Thomas, there’s a “science” to crafting great music. Just as he jokes there’s a “science” to conducting interviews mid-haircut.
While backstage at his sold-out gig at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in his home turf of Brooklyn, the 31-year-old R&B hit-maker couldn’t help but laugh about squeezing together two parts of his schedule in order to make things work — a quick haircut he needed ahead of some on-camera appearances the next day, and his interview with PEOPLE.
Thomas’ pre-show schedule adjustment only makes sense for someone whose career is taking off the way his has in recent years. While the multi-hyphenate has been a familiar face in Hollywood since his breakthrough work on Nickelodeon and a fixture in the music industry with his production and writing credits for the likes of Drake, Ariana Grande and SZA, his latest chapter is proving that he’s just as capable of dishing solo hits and commanding rooms of fans with a guitar and live band. And, from the look of his latest sold-out shows, the music is clearly resonating.
“The most interesting part of that science [of writing] is that you don’t have to play by the rules of what everybody else is doing,” Thomas tells PEOPLE in the venue’s greenroom on Nov. 13. “You can stand on your own two feet and dare to be different. And it may take a second, but people usually pick up that frequency of freedom.”
Raymond Alva
As he promotes his sophomore album Mutt, released in September, Thomas is now performing to fans across the U.S. on his own, and they’re showing out for him in numbers he hasn’t seen before.
“After the shows, I definitely have those exhale moments that are just so beautiful, seeing sold-out crowds and people enjoy the music and really identify with it. It’s something I dreamt of, something I have on my wall,” he says. “It’s a beautiful thing to be here now..”
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While the singer-songwriter has a long history of working behind-the-scenes and lending his talents to others’ projects, he says he’s become “comfortable” on stage solo, especially in Brooklyn. After all, growing up in Park Slope, he attended several local concert series with his family, and even caught a glimpse of a six-song Prince set at the age of 12. “It was s— like that that really helped me understand it and want to hit the stage, prepared and ready to go,” Thomas says of Prince, who he saw again years later at The Forum in Los Angeles. “He’s definitely my hero. I wish I could have met him.”
He may not have gotten the chance to rub shoulders with Prince, but Thomas’ list of collaborators (including people he refers to as “actual legends”) seems to grow longer each time he releases new solo material. Beyond Ariana Grande’s “Nasty,” Giveon’s “For Tonight” and Drake’s “Pipe Down,” Thomas notably co-produced SZA’s “Snooze” and earned the Grammy Award for best R&B song in 2024 as a result.
That trophy is now sitting in a cabinet in his home as a reminder of how far he’s come. “I really do my best not to let that get too in my head because it’s so much work to do,” Thomas says. “And it is a blessing to be up there [at the Grammys] representing SZA. But I’d really love to be up there as an artist one day. So I’m working hard.”
Raymond Alva
Awards mean a lot to Thomas, but he tells PEOPLE he’s keeping his current focus on “building a community” of fans with his solo material — something he’s continuing to do with Mutt.
The project, partly inspired by “psychedelic-sounding records” of the ’60s and ’70s, is a product of Thomas’s overall listening habits, relationship status changes and, in a sense, his dog. It also marks his first solo offering since the Grammy victory and his second album while signed to Ty Dolla $ign’s EZMNY Records / Motown.
“I’m trying to create that psychedelic feeling in R&B and it’s a really tough thing because the genre is pretty iron clad,” he says. “They like certain colors, certain vibes, certain things, but I’m doing my best to dare to be different.”
During the two-year process behind the album — which he ultimately started while wrapping up his 2023 project Electric Dusk — Thomas soundtracked his life with music from the Alchemist, Madlib, Freddie Gibbs and Griselda, while also diving into some Black Sabbath and Roy Ayers during the latter half of the creative process. He’s also been just as big on documentaries in recent years, including a documentary on the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But Thomas, while starting to record footage of his own journey, has a “theory” about keeping cameras around his orbit too much as his career progresses.
“It’s almost like quantum physics,” he says. “When eyes are watching, the molecule changes and I think the same is for making music. You might show off a little bit more. And I think it’s not about showing off, it’s about being vulnerable and real and honest and getting a genuine product. A lot of my sessions, I’m in a room by myself with ideas from people all over the world and I’m putting it together, but I need that solitude to do my thing.”
Whether or not fans will get to see some of Thomas’ behind-the-scenes process in the future, Mutt alone already showcases his songwriting at his most vulnerable. And fans are connecting with it. The title track has cracked 16 million streams on Spotify, has grown legs on TikTok by soundtracking nearly 20,000 videos and leads fans into an album that features a mighty string of collaborations, from the Wale-featuring “Feelings on Silent” to “Far Fetched” featuring Thomas’ pal Ty Dolla $ign.
The album title itself is thanks in part to Thomas’ own mutt: his German Shepherd and Husky mix, Terry. The pup was a gift from his ex-girlfriend, and while Thomas says he “represented the deterioration of that whole situation,” he’s enjoying seeing the dog’s personality as time goes on.
“I’ve been so busy with things, he’s not super trained, but he’s a good kid. I love my dog. A whole lot,” Thomas says, before sharing that he indeed sees a bit of himself in Terry.
He adds: “I’m a free spirit. I want to do what I want to do. He’s a good dog. He doesn’t always do the right thing, but he does have good intentions.”
Mutt — the album, not the dog — marks what Thomas is calling just “one chapter” in a career that’s sure to see more homecomings in the future. As he explains, he hopes people from “every walk of life” can resonate.
“It may not be the most PG album I’ve ever done, but I think there’s elements for different demographics, just knowing that I needed something for the young people and something for the real R&B heads, the OGs, the lovers of vintage funk and the real singers,” he says of his target audience. “Sometimes you try to guess what people would want from you, but I’m glad that I’m in a position where I could just honestly be myself and it worked out.”
“It’s really soundtrack music, so I’m just hoping people fall in love to it. Heal from breakups to it. If we can continue to build together, this will just be one chapter of many in a long series of books.”
Mutt is now available via Motown / EZMNY Records.
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