Finding an outlet, a sense of purpose, and a place of belonging in music — Leon Waldo has created his own lane in the industry. In this interview with Darius Caffey, he celebrates the release of his new album Queerwave, while sharing exclusive details of his creative process and where he pulls inspiration from.

You never know where that leap of faith will lead you until you take it.

Sometimes it’s scary; sometimes it makes you nervous; and sometimes, it’s so exciting that you get overwhelmed from thinking about all the possible outcomes that it could bring you.

Regardless, if it feels right, just do it.

You can figure the rest out later.

For me, it started with releasing the first guest interview for The Closet Unlocked. The mission of this platform has always been to share positive stories of Black, Queer folks. It’s always been about uplifting our community and allowing those included to show up as their most authentic selves. By creating a space that celebrates us for us, my goal has always been to foster a deeper sense of belonging amongst our people.

Black people.

Queer people.

It’s always been about us.

Not even a week after the interview dropped, I received an email from Tori Leche. As the artist manager for musician Leon Waldo, she found our platform to be a great space for him to share his journey in embracing queerness. It was also the perfect opportunity for us to discuss the details of his latest album ‘Queerwave’ on our Black & Queer at The Table segment.

This was nothing but perfect timing, so I eagerly embraced the moment.

As we begin, Leon shares with me a few of the many talents that he embodies as an artist. He’s a singer and songwriter who also produces most of his own music. The musician states that it’s something that he’s always loved and even grew up around, so it’s very evident how constant it has been throughout his entire life.

Growing up in the church, singing in the choir is a moment that a lot of black artists can relate to. Leon describes it being one of his favorite past times, spending at least 2–3 hours there a week. From joining rehearsals, being part of the crew in the pew, and eventually leading the group himself, he used those moments to truly find his voice in music.

He was always excited to sing when he was younger and even decided to take it a step further by learning how to play the piano. Waldo mentions that he would oftentimes spend hours in his room practicing until he got it right while the rest of the kids spent time playing outside.

Leon Waldo performing Heaven live

“Growing up in music gave me an outlet, a sense of purpose, and made me feel like I belonged to something,” says Leon. It’s important for Black kids, especially Black, Queer kids to find those outlets and spaces that help them feel empowered.

Finding your purpose is never easy, but it’s worth it to keep trying.

So, time after time, trying was exactly what he did. After finding his voice, his instrumental talent, and his passion to be on stage, it was finally time to figure out what all this meant for him. Luckily, he had his mother to always see his true potential.

She continuously served as a driving force pushing him to do the things that he loved, and even found different ways to help him along the way. She would take him to the club to perform so that he could practice in front of large audiences, hoping that he would bring some life to the party of grown folks dancing and drinking.

As the artist got older, he became less naïve and more aware of the power of his gifts. He had gotten to a point where he was excited to finally be creating music the way that he wanted to. He had found a way to express himself in ways that he couldn’t before, he just needed the platform to do it on.

Waldo Warehouse, LLC

After countless attempts of trying to get his songs on the radio and nobody complying, he created his own lane. Leon, alongside his mother, founded Waldo Warehouse, LLC: a recording company that he has since released all his music through.

He tells me that starting this company at 15 years old was a challenge. Yet, seeing something that they’ve built from the ground up 10 years later has been one of the most rewarding experiences.

He had a record deal with himself and creatively, used it to his advantage in building his career.

They had realized that “if nobody is going to do this for us, we’re going to do it ourselves”. This then led them to understand that “if nobody is knocking on your door, you have to open it for yourself” and they weren’t wrong.

Learning not to accept no as an answer when you’re putting your passion on the line is one of life’s greatest struggles. However, with enough dedication and support, anything is possible.

From that moment moving forward, Leon Waldo continued to use his gifts and open doors for himself.

With the release of his latest album ‘Queerwave’, his creative journey took on a different approach than his previous 3 projects. Being on lockdown during quarantine played its part, but he also wanted to break free from the mellow R&B vibes that he typically went with.

He wanted more culture.

He wanted to create music that brought life back into people.

He wanted to fill the air with energy that made you want to get up and dance.

Therefore, in the album, you’ll hear more songs with a west African and dancehall beat. You know, something that always gets the party going. It was something that he took his time with.

Comparing it to his other albums, Leon wanted this one to be more about self-expression. By putting his whole self into it, he referenced embracing his queerness by telling himself that “I’m just going to go for it. I’m going to say the things I want to say. I’m going to make the music I want to make.”

Another difference with creating this album was that he usually does so with other people, his friends. The pandemic life made things harder for everyone, but especially for creatives who thrive in flushing out their ideas with a team.

He described sending beats back and forth with a fellow producer, Darius Shipp, over email as a very tedious process while they continued to make minor changes to different tracks on the album. The best part though was that they didn’t feel rushed while creating.

Queerwave, the album.

In the album ‘Queerwave’, Waldo has had the opportunity to take his art to a brand-new level.

With me knowing how critical artists can be of themselves, I challenged Leon to rate his music on a scale of 1–10. I gave him a list of songs from previous and current projects that I enjoyed, to see how he compared them.

Leon Waldo Track Ratings:

Pariah:

• N.R.4.L: 7 ½

• Saints & Stoners: 9

• *Running to You: 10

Lunar Confessions:

• Awake: 8

• Gone: 10 (also his mother’s favorite)

• *Dark Side of The Moon: 10

Songs of the Melanin Monk:

• Walk Like That: 8 (He downvoted only because he wanted to re-record the vocals)

• We Are the Culture: 10

• Make U Say Ooh: 9

• *Ain’t No Apologies: 10

Queerwave:

• Just Say It: 10

• Heaven: 10

• Hometown Stranger: 9.5 (Surprisingly, he thought that it would just be a filler on the album, but everyone seemed to love it)

*Additional artist favorites off the project.

By taking a trip down memory lane, he’s reminded of what inspired a few of the tracks. From artists such as Mariah Carey, Daniel Caesar, and James Brown, he tends to pull his creativity from a range of spaces. He also shares that the playlist he uses for inspiration is 100+ songs long, all ranging from 1930’s jazz to your recent K-Pop vibes.

Learning to be great is one thing but learning from the greats is what gives you the foundation to grow from.

Knowing that his biggest competition is himself, Leon reveals to me that he’s currently working on filming live performances for some of the songs off the album. He has already posted a few of them on his Instagram, so check them out to watch the album visually come to life.

As we wrap up our zoom chat, he shares a #ClosetMoment of being in high school and hearing encouraging words from his theatre teacher. He had just been caught with a guy he was dating at the time, and you would think that a scolding would have come with it. Instead, she only affirmed his experience by letting him know that everything was okay.

She helped him understand that “yes, I can just do me. I can just be myself and not feel bad about it”.

That’s what we need more of. We need more people to affirm Black, Queer folks in ways that help them feel comfortable in being themselves. We need more spaces that embrace Black, Queer youth and all the experiences that they come with. We need more people saying, “it’s okay; do yo thang” when finding others embracing their true selves.

As we continue talking about comfortability, Leon tells me that he has 2 items in his closet that make him feel it the most. One is an oversized Stranger’s Things sweatshirt that he wears whenever he’s hanging around the house. He says that it’s like a blanket wrapped around his heart, and if you’ve ever put on an oversized anything, you know the feeling.

Another item that makes him feel like a badd b*tch is a pair of gold shades that he got while living in LA. If you see him, you’ll likely see them, so just know that he’s probably feeling himself.

We end our interview with him sharing his plans of doing more live tours for the album, and possibly taking a trip to Chicago to perform for our community.

Spotify Playlist

Unfortunately, I don’t want you to wait that long to hear his art… so just go stream ‘Queerwave’ across whatever music platform you use the most. You can also check out more of his music on our #StarterPack playlist to hear the growth of his talent for yourself.

And although you’re reading this now, I still encourage you to watch the full interview on our YouTube channel. There are juicier details included, along with some inspiration that I didn’t want to spoil for you because it was just that good.

You already know that I’ll be back with more Black, Queer folks being represented at the table, but until next time friends… peace out.