Leon Bridges makes an intimate musical return to his Texas roots

Laura Lee says that when Leon Bridges isn’t singing, he’s dancing.

“Leon is always immersed in a melody, whether physical or verbal. Melodies and songs overwhelm him,” the bassist for Khruangbin – a band from Houston – comments in an interview with Rolling Stone. This statement seems to be true: face-to-face, Bridges can be shy, a little withdrawn and even nervous when he has to talk about his career or his work. But when it comes to singing and enjoying the moment, whether on stage or walking in a park – such as in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City, surrounded by trees – his expression denotes his transportation to his own place of peace.

Peaceful Place is the title of his most recent single, which marks his return to music and to a mental and spiritual state that evokes his most intimate side. This first release is part of what will be his fourth album, Leon, which will be released on October 5. Three years after the release of Gold-Diggers Sound, the 36-year-old singer – born in Atlanta and raised in Forth Worth, Texas – opens a window into “his most personal project so far,” with touches of soul, country and folk music that take him back to his time in the city where he grew up.

Bridges – who won a Grammy in 2019 for Best Traditional R&B Performance with his song Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand (part of the album Good Thing) – spoke with EL PAÍS at Sony Music’s offices in Mexico City. He was also recording in the Mexican capital at the end of 2023, when he spent a few months in El Desierto studio, located in the Desierto de los Leones national park, about 18 miles from the city.

The singer wears a white cowboy hat, black sunglasses, a brown leather jacket and a mustard-colored T-shirt, bell-bottom jeans and loafers. It’s a modern Texan look. He says that many of the songs on his latest album emerged during the recording of Gold-Diggers Sound (2021), but that they didn’t feel like they were part of the tone of that collection. He started working in Nashville, then in Los Angeles, but he got tired of those places. He needed a change of scenery and has always felt a connection to Mexico. Hence, the disconnection provided by El Desierto studio – with its wooden architecture and proximity to nature – helped inspire his musical process.

“Leon is a reflection of my home. It’s a kind of window into who I am. I’ve always been afraid of being vulnerable and exposing myself, but I wanted to create a kind of environment that was healing for people. And, sonically, the album is like a gumbo, with different sounds. There’s a bit of country, a bit of folk, but it still has its roots in soul music,” he explains.

Bridges was discovered almost 10 years ago by Austin Jenkins, the guitarist for the Americana band White Denim. It happened at The Boiled Owl Tavern, a Tex-Mex restaurant in Fort Worth, where Bridges worked. It’s the city “where the West begins,” the singer notes.

He’s always had conflicts with the price of fame. While he’s committed to his art and to making his deepest ways of understanding life known to the public, he also has to fight to maintain his privacy. How does he manage to balance such a personal project and the inevitable fact of being a personality in the public sphere?

“I think it’s great to be vulnerable… but you don’t have to give everything to people,” he replies. “And I think a lot of the songs on the album will be very healing for me and inspirational to my family and my city. I think a lot of other people are going to relate to them. I think that’s the beauty of being transparent in music.”

In Peaceful Place, Bridges’ voice is accompanied by bongos, clapping hands and a guitar, all imbued with a soul sound. “I’m in a peaceful place, I found something that no one can take away,” he sings in one verse. In the music video, the singer can be seen traveling through Mexico City from north to south. He’s filmed during his recording process in El Desierto, dancing in a parking lot in the city, walking in a street market, touring an old convent in the forest and floating near the pyramids of Teotihuacán in a hot air balloon. “It’s moving music in the most authentic sense; it’s imbued with my soul,” he says.

Each scene in the video seems to be part of a creative process that Bridges has developed and has been constantly evolving over the past decade. “Normally, when I write or create, I try to imagine how the music will translate live. I think: ‘does it really drive me to dance and does it do that to other people?’ Throughout my career, I’ve always tried to reinvent myself with my music, but by always keeping the foundation soulful,” he clarifies.

The artist’s real name is Todd Bridges, but because of his resemblance to actor Leon Robinson – the star of Cool Runnings (1993) and The Temptations (1998) – people at university called him that. This led him to adopting his stage name. And, since he got started with his first album Coming Home (2015), the description of him being a “perfect mix” of Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye – two greats of soul music – has always been present.

Bridges has seen the comparisons as “inevitable.” When he was growing up, he was always surrounded by soul, whether through his father playing Barry White’s music, or by listening to Sade with his mother. The genre was always a way to communicate. “It was kind of putting a spin on that sound and just writing my own stories through it,” he reflects.

Since his previous album, Bridges has sought to find a new frontier for soul and blues… genres that, he believes, lack a spotlight for new talent. “There are a lot of talented kids making music, like Lucky Day. I just feel like they don’t have a platform yet. I hope [the genres] continue to evolve and grow. I hope there’s [a bigger] spotlight on these artists that are in the field. There’s still a market for them.”

“Hip hop music is something that people are gravitating towards right now,” he notes. “So, I had to go back to the reason why people fell in love with me… it’s almost about making genreless music and Leon just being the sound in the band,” he elaborates in his response.

Part of Bridges’ drive to return to his roots began during collaborations with his friends and colleagues from the group Khruangbin. Texas Sun (2020) and Texas Moon (2022) took him down different musical paths and genres, as part of an experimentation and revaluation of certain types of music. This has been seen in recent cases such as Beyonce, venturing into country music and “claiming” it for the Black community, as she explained in one of her interviews for the release of Cowboy Carter (2024).

“I love what Beyoncé did. I mean, she made an amazing album. Black country music. And shout out to Shaboozey, who’s totally having a moment because of that. I even think it’s helpful for the music I’m about to release,” he affirms.

Bridges has never considered himself to be an activist. However, his repertoire includes songs like Sweeter (2021) – a response to police brutality and the murder of George Floyd – or the music video for the song Bad Bad News (2018), in which the artist speaks out about female empowerment and against harassment of women and girls.

In other interviews, the singer has spoken about the fear that invaded him when the Capitol was assaulted by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. With the shadow of the Republican candidate once again hovering over the White House, how important is it for artists to raise their voices on social and political issues that are of interest to society?

“With the platform we have, I think we have a duty to speak out about what’s right. And artists have historically always done that. For me, there have been some moments where I felt compelled to write about the situation and hope that some kind of light would emerge,” he adds.

Bridges will return to the stage in October at the Austin City Limits Festival in Texas. And then, he’ll come back to Mexico, to perform at the Corona Capital Festival, where his most recent creation will allow him to come full circle with the city that allowed him to rediscover himself musically.