Epic Records artist Leah Labelle is featured in the latest issue of PYNK Magazine. The former American Idol (season 3) contestant did a photo shoot and an interview with the magazine. In her interview, Labelle spoke about how she got started with music, how she became affiliated with Pharrell and Jermaine Dupri, her debut album and more.
Check out excerpts from Leah Labelle’s interview with PYNK Magazine:
On her decision to pursue music…
I was always singing because my parents were musicians and there was always music around the house. At the age of three, they have a video of me dancing around and singing and loving every moment of it. And that’s how I knew that’s something I‘ve always wanted to do. I didn’t know I wanted to do it as a career until I was about seven and saw “Sister Act II” for the first time in theaters And I realized there was more to it than just singing around the house. I’m watching Lauryn Hill on the stage and I started figuring out that I wanted to add all the elements to singing that I could—dancing, being on stage, performing, entertaining for crowds.
On how she became affiliated with Pharrell & Jermaine Dupri…
I moved to LA five years ago, and I was just recording and doing what I had to do, trying to build my relationships and network, find people to give me studio time. I started singing background for people and going on tour and in the midst of all that I wanted a change. So, I started making You Tube videos and met a friend who was in the industry at the time and said, ‘I started making these You Tube videos, you should, too.’ So I started making them for fun just to build my fan base and it caught Pharrell’s attention and he said he’d been watching for three years and eventually he said it’s the right time to reach out to her. He called JD and asked what did he think of this girl and JD was like, ‘oh yea, she’s awesome, she’s awesome.’ They connected and reached out to me and that’s how that happened.
On her new single “Sexify”…
Sexify was the first song that me and Pharrell ever recorded together and we created it based off of cover titles off of Cosmopolitan Magazine. We were talking about the kind of woman that I am: fun-loving, free spirited, I embrace my sexuality, I love my friends, I love my life, and he was like, ‘that’s the cosmopolitan woman of today’. We tore all these cover titles from the magazine and put them on a white board and picked the ones that stood out the most and made them into lyrics.
Read the full interview here.
