Odie Leigh to Release Debut Album, 'Carrier Pigeon'; New Single Out Today
Her album will be released on Friday, July 12.
By: Josh Sharpe May. 02, 2024
Singer-songwriter Odie Leigh has announced the release of her debut album, Carrier Pigeon, arriving via Mom + Pop on Friday, July 12. Pre-orders are available now. Produced by Bay Area producer/musician/engineer Derek Ted and Odie Leigh Carrier Pigeon is heralded by the new single, Conversation Starter.
“I am not a relationship girlie,” says Odie Leigh. “The ‘talking stage’ of courting always made me feel awkward and stupid, I just want to skip to the good part. With ‘Conversation Starter’ I tried to capture the feeling of playing the hottest, most cool-girl version of yourself to hide the fact that we’re all so awkward and insecure and it’s just so incredibly scary to get to know someone and let them get to know you.
“There’s a part of me that seeks conflict so I can just get it over with and enjoy a little drama before getting too invested (I’m good at turning nothing to tragedy / I’d rather get burnt now / I’ll light a fire just to snuff it out) but I also really like this person, so much that I’m almost regretting getting involved and wishing we were just friends because I cannot imagine a world in which it doesn’t blow up… but I’m in too deep. But also, this song isn’t not just about sexting.”
On the album, Odie Leigh notes: “I wanted to call it Carrier Pigeon because as I was writing these songs I just kept on thinking how silly it is that I'm writing all these thoughts and feeling down about someone and for someone who is only going to hear it months if not years after I write it,” she says. “I was like 'I might as well be putting letters in bottles and throwing them into the ocean or just strapping it to a pigeon and hoping it lands at the right house.' This album is the carrier pigeon and the songs are the messages.”
Carrier Pigeon is further preceded by recent releases, “Either Way” and “No Doubt,” the latter of which has an official music video streaming now on YouTube.
Tracklist:
A Good Thing
Already (On My Mind)
Party Trick
Conversation Starter
No Doubt
Finer Things
Either Way
Common Denominator
Idiom
My Name on A T-Shirt
Odie Leigh will mark the arrival of Carrier Pigeon with a busy tour schedule that features headline dates, a support run alongside Shakey Graves, North American festival appearances including Atlanta, GA’s Shaky Knees (May 3), Salt Lake City, UT’s Kilby Block Party (May 10-12), and St. Charles, IA’s Hinterland (August 2), and a series of eagerly awaited shows in the UK including a headline performance at London’s Omeara on September 4. For updates and ticket information, please visit www.odieleigh.com.
ODIE LEIGH - LIVE 2024
MAY
3 – Atlanta, GA – Shaky Knees Festival *
5 – Columbia, MO – The Blue Note †
6 – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall Ballroom †
8 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre †
9 – Fort Wayne, IN – Performance Pavilion at Sweetwater †
10 – Davenport, IA – Rhythm City Casino Resort †
10-12 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party *
11 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
14 – Nashville, TN – The Basement
AUGUST
4 – Saint Charles, IA – Hinterland Music Festival *
9-11 – San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands *
24 – Edinburgh, UK – La Belle Angele
29-9/1 – Salisbury, UK – End of the Road Festival *
30 – Birmingham, UK – Moseley Folk Festival *
SEPTEMBER
4 – London, UK – Omeara
* Festival Performance
† w/ Shakey Graves
ABOUT ODIE LEIGH:
Odie Leigh would never have called herself a musician before the depths of the 2020 pandemic when her rapper roomies made a bet: Whoever records a song that goes viral first, wins. Slightly ticked off that they hadn’t included her in the wager, she decided to hit them with her best shot, and Leigh was crowned the victor when a track she wrote blew up on TikTok. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna show y’all. I’m gonna win.’“
Four years after posting what she calls “that silly joke song” on TikTok, Odie Leigh has continued to transform and evolve as an artist — from what she calls “acoustic, ethereal folk sad girl music” to harder-edged tunes that flirt with early Aughts pop-punktivism.
Born and raised in Louisiana, Odie Leigh sang in the church choir, sure — her grandfather built the building, after all, and her family attended three times per week. But after moving to New Orleans to study English, she fully intended on making her bones in the film industry. That 2020 wager changed things, though, when Odie realized that she could win hearts in addition to bets.
Odie first real single, “Ronnie’s Song,” followed in 2021, a sweetly silly track she wrote to cheer up a friend. Coming from the film world, she found songwriting freeing, unbound from the rigidity of screenplay, and discovered that simplicity can be a strength.
She released her first EP, How Did It Seem to You?, in 2022, about a situationship gone wrong. Recorded everywhere from Louisiana to Miami, “that first EP was born out of desperation to feel heard and be connected,” she says. “Releasing that EP is probably like one of the scariest things I’ve ever done because it was just so real and embarrassing. All of my music is stuff I would never say out loud.”
In 2023, Odie Leigh dropped her second, EP, The Only Thing Worse Than a Woman Who Lies Is a Girl Who’ll Tell Truths, which was recorded in the woods of Tennessee. “That second project was definitely like the edgier, angrier step up from: I’m a girl that makes folk music,” she says.
After those releases began gaining steam on social media, Odie Leigh started hitting stages hard. She toured Europe, North America, and played Newport Folk in 2023, followed this year by gigs at Boise, ID’s Treefort Music Fest with more to come.
Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez
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