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Photos by Oliver Barile

Leah Sinclair isn’t afraid to say the hard parts out loud anymore, and she’s done pretending like ending a situationship doesn’t hurt. If she’s learned anything throughout the process of making Lock & Key, it’s that you might not always have the right vocabulary to explain it to your friends, but sometimes relationships come without a clean ending that makes sense, and they can still hurt even if ill-defined. 

Lock & Key, out August 21st, is five songs pulled straight from Leah’s situationship diaries. It’s an album all about the almost-relationships, those friendships that quietly turn into something else, and the grief that shows up when there was never anything technically to lose. Think back to all of the nights spent at someone's house who wasn’t your significant other, but they weren’t just your friend either, they remained labelless because they didn’t need one. 

Writing these songs before she even had any way to bring them to life, Leah got to carry them through different chapters of life and hold them close so they could grow right before her eyes. What resulted from this process was a version of Leah Sinclair that’s more confident than ever, and is tired of being afraid.

We caught up with Leah to chat about what makes a good song in her eyes, putting words to the intangible, and what it’s like to unlock a diary you swore you’d keep to yourself. 

OnesToWatch: Before Lock & Key, before the omnichord — what did teenage Leah think her life in music was going to look like?

Leah Sinclair: Oh my gosh,
I honestly don't even know if she had any idea at all. I mean, I knew that I really, really wanted to be in music. I really wanted to create. I grew up in a small town in Michigan, so the idea of doing that was so large that, I think when I came to New York and I started meeting people and I met my awesome producer, that reality seemed a lot closer. I think that she would only be freaking out if she knew what was happening right now. 

Your grandmother was a classically trained musician. Is there a specific memory of her you feel like you can actually hear in your songs now?

Definitely, I mean every Christmas, whenever we would go to Germany, she would be playing all sorts of songs. Like that was our routine as a family would be gathering around and she would play on the piano or the organ and it was kind of a thing that was so instilled in our family that I really wanted to translate some of that into my music. 


You danced ballet for years before any of this. Does that show up in how you write — like, do you think in movement before you think in melody?

It hits me in the same way that it does when I do ballet. It's such a guttural and visceral thing. Whenever I'm listening to my own music, like if it's not making me want to actually get up and move, whether it's a slow song or a fast song, whether I feel like I feel called to move is always an indicator of if I'm on the right path for myself. 

Let's talk gear for a second — why the omnichord? It feels like a very specific, very fun choice for a debut.

I thought it was so quirky and my dad referred to it when he first saw it as a toilet bowl seat. I loved how it's so beginner friendly, yet also so uniquely diverse with all the different things that you can play. There's so many different settings and I felt like it was something that I can really do whatever I want on this thing. 
If I want a keyboard, I can press the keyboard button. good to go. If I want the harp, I’m set. So I felt really called to have a diverse thing in one little toilet bowl looking thing. 


You wrote songs for years before you had any way to actually produce them. What was that limbo like, sitting on all these ideas?

I did a lot of creative writing growing up and I did a lot of poetry, so I had all these folders of just words and sentiments and I was like, okay, like how can I then start translating this into like musical lyrics? Then I started venturing down that path and then I was like, well, okay, I actually want a sound because now I'm hearing the sounds for it. I know what kind of instruments I want and I see the world of it in my head. 
How can I actually start to get this out? So it was like a very strong limbo period. I actually think having that limbo period helped me strengthen my writing because it was as time digressed, I would look back and be like, I see the vision on that, but maybe that's not where I want to go down anymore. Maybe I want to veer down here and see what this road takes me when it comes to saying what I want to say and sticking it eloquently and saying it efficiently. 

You made this with your friend Tarune. Is it easier to be honest with someone you already trust, or does that closeness make it harder sometimes?

The closeness makes it harder sometimes because that person knows you, so you're not speaking to a wall anymore. 
You're speaking to someone who can really actually give you feedback, advice, thoughts and opinions. I DM'd Tarune on Instagram and I was like, "I have no shame, hello, do you want to work with me?" And he was like, "Let's me up at a cafe, see if we vibe, and we'll go from there." We met and immediately got into the deep lore of our lives. Immediately I was like, oh, I'm safe here. This is a partnership in which I can be fully myself and intrinsically honest.

Lock & Key is about a specific kind of heartbreak that doesn't have a name. How do you even write a song about something you can't fully define?

That's a great question. 
It actually ties into my poetry where it's so metaphorical, not knowing how to define this very specific nuanced feeling. So I'm going to do my best through larger than life, metaphorical things and just kind of see where it takes me. A lot of the things that I started writing were very poetic, almost Shakespearean in a sense. I love Shakespeare, so that worked out for me. It's all about finding ways to make those words stick onto something that is actually tangible. 

"Aries Venus" and "Something Better" both come from the same relationship unraveling in real time. Did those two songs come from the same day or did you need distance before you could write the second one?

Definitely some distance. 
"Aries Venus" came at the time of where I was like, okay, this is happening to me. How do I process this? "Something Better" was actually when I was kind of removed mentally from the situation and I was like, okay, I'm good now. What's the fun, positive aspect that we shared in that moment? I wanted that moodiness to still be there that so like, ah, there's something unsure here. 
There's something that's maybe not fully clicking. We're friends, but we want something better. 

Is there a version of you that almost didn't put these songs out? Was there a point where it felt like too much to say out loud?

Definitely. Especially the title track. That one I was like, okay, this is definitely out there, a little bit lyrically I'm laying it out and
bearing the goods here. There was a small part of me that was like, do I want to be this candid? 
Do I want to share this? But then I really thought about it and I was like, yeah, if I don't, then who will? What we need in the world, more than anything right now, is someone to be honest and be candid.
This is what's happening to me, and maybe someone out there is like, whoa, that just happened to me too. 

The tracklisting of course spans a relationship unraveling in real time, something not exactly tangible yet still leaves a hole. What made now the right time to go back there? 

I needed a little bit of time for myself to really sit in what I just created. 
I graduated from theater school mid-April and I’d spent all the rest of the time until June working on the EP before I went and did a Shakespeare show for 2 months. I talked to my producer about it and we really had a candid conversation and I just sat in it for a second. I'm glad that I got to sit in it and really hold space for it because I think that it actually gave me a much deeper appreciation for what I created. I feel really confident in putting this out right now. 

Lana Del Rey, PinkPantheress, and Final Fantasy is such a specific combo of influences. Where do those three meet for you?

I think that they all have a personality aesthetic that I just resonated with me. Lana is always very candid in what she's saying. I love how poetic her lyrics are and that's an avenue that I was definitely trying to drive down. With PinkPantheress, I love her Y2K drum and bass. I'm very much so into that, which I also feel like kind of meshes into the Final Fantasy that like Y2K grungy, underground beat, which funnels into my love for Bjork and Portishead. They all meshed together and and informed this EP. 

If someone's going through their own situationship and listening to this EP for the first time, what do you want them to feel by the last song?

I want them to feel grounded in their emotions, but I also hope there's a little sense of overcoming. Some of the songs have a little bit of that “I'm sad, but we're gonna dance” type of vibe. I did want a tinge of that feeling of taking back power I felt I was once given in my songs and in the music to feel like a little bit of a reclamation. 


What's something you're into right now that has nothing to do with music?

Fantasy novels.
I am absolutely obsessed and I just found out that one of my favorite authors, Sarah J. Mass is coming out with 2 more books that are a part of my favorite series.

Who are your OnesToWatch?

I've been listening to mono. They're an underground 90s hip hop band. I was recommended to them randomly one day by someone on TikTok and it changed my life. 

Anything you want to leave people with before Lock & Key is out in the world?

I just want to leave people with something new and unique that's an amalgamation of things that help them resonate with what I'm saying but also not wanting to be cookie cutter, not wanting to fit into one box. 

Listen to Lock & Key below: