Leah Culver, a dance and pop artist originating from Atlanta, is seeing a massive boom in popularity. She’s gathered hundreds of millions of plays, performed at festivals like TomorrowWorld, and has worked with names like Marshmello and The Chainsmokers. Her recent activity sees her shuffle between production from Monstercat, On The One Records, and Circus records.
Leah was playing a set on Saturday at Imagine Music Festival on the Oceania stage. Her set had a mixture of heavy bangers and an accompanying live band, featuring Frank Zummo of Sum 41 fame. Respect My Region got the chance to talk with her about her time in Atlanta, recent collaborations, and what it is like putting together a set of this nature.
An Exclusive Interview with Leah Culver at Imagine Festival
Respect My Region: How was your Imagine so far?
Leah Culver: Imagine was really, really fun this year and exciting to have Frank Zummo on the set. He’s been an inspiration in Sum 41 for my whole childhood and I’m just really grateful for the turnout and it was a fun set.
What part of the set were you most excited about?
Honestly, there was a moment right after my second live section where it went into a Sullivan King song; I’ve been stoked, hoping that Frank would drum on that part, and he did. To me, in my metal heart, I was the most amped to see that come together and he was just, like, slamming it on the drums on such a sick song. That was an exciting moment to me. Honestly, also playing all these new live, unreleased songs and the songs that I released recently, that was exciting to see the crowd’s reaction, as well.
Courtesy of Imagine Music Festival // Don Idio // @divisuals
There’s a lot of different style choices with the blending of genres, like heavy and melodic styles. How do you usually go about creating a mixture during your sets?
[In] the most literal and technical way, I’m mixing everything in key and by BPM and things like that, but as far as like sound and sonically, those are just my influence[s] put together. I come from a lot of pop punk influences and pop and then I also really, really like the super metal heavy Dubstep. So usually, my DJing sections are just really, really heavy and then my live sections are all the music I’ve been making. That’s usually kind of pop punk, alt, and of course electronic.
You’re from Atlanta, yeah?
Born and raised.
Did Atlanta have like any major influences on your sound while you [were] here?
[My brother] massively influenced me to be the artist that I am today because I grew up in such a musical family. My family influenced me the most to be an artist in general. I wouldn’t be an artist if I didn’t have that surrounding and want to be like them, you know, as a little sister. So, I guess in some senses, Atlanta probably put a little bit more hip-hop and trap in me than maybe other places. I’m grateful for that too, but I can definitely, fully, 100% say my interests in music and bands and playing drums and playing guitar and being a singer all came from watching [my brother’s band].
How do you like the ATL crowd compared to anywhere else you played?
Nobody does it like Atlanta. That’s that ATL HOE.
So, yeah, you’ve been working both with all the musicians on the stage today and in the past, but with all the people you’ve worked with, are there any favorites to work with?
I’m genuinely so amped about Frank playing drums on this set, like my middle school heart couldn’t be any fuller. If you told me that would happen when I was like, middle school, high school, I would be like, what do you mean, how? So, I’m stoked about that.
Any favorite part of the collaboration process?
[Frank] sent me a bunch of his live drums and I’m a really big fan of live drums, and so they had tracked those in a really nice studio, and they were already, like, super mixed in and sounding cool. So, it was fun to get to put some live sounding drums in the song and we all wrote the song together on FaceTime.
What are you most excited for in the future?
I mean, that’s such a beautiful question because it’s like anything could happen. That’s the only thing I know in life is literally anything can happen. I believe in manifesting, and I’ve seen manifesting work beautifully. So that’s the most exciting thing to me; I guess to be a little less abstract. I’m excited to tour with Frank, and I’m excited for a lot of new unreleased music with Insomniac and Monstercat.
Any shout-outs before we go?
Before we go, thank you to anybody who loves music and who comes to these shows, to any artists shows, and specifically, thank you. If you support my music, you’re the reason I get to do what I like to do. So, I appreciate you and I hope that you find happiness in what you love to do.
