{"id":226746,"date":"2025-12-11T04:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T04:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/226746\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T04:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T04:13:12","slug":"leon-thomas-on-grammy-nominations-mutt-and-repping-for-rb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/226746\/","title":{"rendered":"Leon Thomas on Grammy Nominations, ‘Mutt,’ and Repping for R&B"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAround this time last year, Leon Thomas<\/a> was feeling grateful just to attend the Grammy Awards, even if they seated him \u201cin the bleachers.\u201d This year, he\u2019s one of the top nominees, up for Album of the Year for Mutt and Best New Artist, among others<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tThomas, a New York native, has written songs with Drake and Ariana Grande (his old co-star on the teen sitcom Victorious), but it\u2019s his own work, like the Grammy-nominated \u201cVibes Don\u2019t Lie,\u201d and a thrilling live show that are turning heads. At a pivotal time in his career, Thomas, 32, says he\u2019s staying laser focused on showmanship and live instrumentation. \u201cI really want to be that for R&B,\u201d he says, \u201cbringing back some of those organic elements to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in 2022, you were freshly signed to Ty Dolla $ign and Shawn Barron\u2019s EZMNY Records as a solo artist. Do you remember what that chapter was like for you?<\/strong>
I was still finding myself. Being in the industry for so long and playing so many different characters, learning how to be yourself professionally can be a challenge.<\/p>\n

\n\tAround that time, dropping those first records was such an important thing. There was a lot of pressure behind it. I wanted to prove to the world that I could really do this music thing in a real way. I had done records for other people, but artistry is its own kind of art form.\u00a0 I remember driving in the car and listening to the record after it just dropped, and it wasn\u2019t a feeling of joy yet. It was a feeling of, I guess you could say, fear. I just really wanted it to work, and I\u2019m glad it took time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven how much time you\u2019ve put in behind the scenes, how wild would it be if you win Best New Artist?<\/strong>
I\u2019m just really here for the ride. Even though I\u2019ve been doing this a really long time, music felt like an amazing hobby that I was pretty good at for my early twenties. When I was producing and writing for other artists, I was also actively doing TV shows, auditioning constantly, doing movies. So, music sometimes would have to take the back burner. It wasn\u2019t until I was, like, 25, 26 that I had to start over. People who you think would give me a handout, made me work for it. And I personally don\u2019t mind that. I like a challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re really repping for R&B this year, and it\u2019s been a while since an R&B project won Album of the Year. How does it feel knowing Mutt is up for one of the biggest awards of the night?<\/strong>
That was probably one of the most surprising nominations, and it\u2019s such a big deal. I\u2019m a huge fan of everybody else who\u2019s up there, and just to be mentioned with them is a huge honor for me. I\u2019m just excited to attend the award show, and music is like a big high school \u2014 it\u2019s nice to be at the cool kids\u2019 table. You know, they had me in the bleachers last year, so [laughs] \u2026 it\u2019s going to be nice to be on the front row.<\/p>\n

Watch a video version of this interview as a VIbe Q<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat are the elements in your music that are the most bold?<\/strong>
This is live drums, it\u2019s live bass, real songwriting, the bridges, six-minute songs, so there\u2019s aspects of this that feel rebellious and disruptive. It\u2019s the process, too, like when we chose our lead single, \u201cMutt\u201d \u2014 a record with live drums, a live bass line, no Auto-Tune, and just pure vibes. Some of the people at the label were like, \u201cOh, we don\u2019t know, man.\u201d And I was like, \u201cNah, we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere were you when the nominations were announced?<\/strong>
I was in a hotel room in Nashville. I forgot that they were announcing nominations that day, so I woke up a little late. My phone\u2019s buzzing. By that point, I had been nominated for two, and I was like, \u201cOh, that\u2019s such a blessing. Thank you, God.\u201d I hear a knock at the door. My videographer and my social media manager were both there, and they had champagne.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m just so grateful. One of the first people I called was my mom, and we talked for a nice minute. She was crying and also just speaking so much power into me. It was a beautiful opportunity to give gratitude because I think that\u2019s the way this should be ran. A lot of people are hyperfocused on wins or losses, but I feel like being recognized is such a beautiful thing. Not to be on some pageant-show shit, but like that\u2019s really what it is. I\u2019m genuinely excited to be a part of this community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat are your plans for the day of the ceremony?\u00a0<\/strong>
I\u2019ve been getting back into meditation, yoga, mindfulness, being grounded. I think that\u2019s going to be a big part of my day, just being present, you know? I\u2019m hoping I get an opportunity to perform, so I know that\u2019s going to be running through my mind. If that\u2019s a thing that happens, that would be really dope. And also just making sure I\u2019m looking as fly as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tWith your most recent EP, Pholks, are you soft-launching your rock-star era?<\/strong>
Yeah, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll do that. Rock & roll has always been a part of my catalog. You got to spoon-feed people into that kind of genre switch. It\u2019s important that people see both sides because my hero Prince never hid his rock influence, and I don\u2019t think I should either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0If you\u2019re new here, get acquainted. Buckle up. I feel like art, especially in the way that I make it, I have the leeway to do what I want to do. I should definitely operate from that place of confidence and feeling free. I\u2019m a free Black man. Like, let me rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around this time last year, Leon Thomas was feeling grateful just to attend the Grammy Awards, even if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,62287,19,17,87387,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-226746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-grammys-2026","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-leon-thomas","14":"tag-music"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115698991660757127","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}