Tristan Lake Leabu

Leabu is road-worn in a way that few would guess for being so young - born in California to a family of Texans. Fully emancipated at the age of 16, with his dad imprisoned on a bogus possession charge in Texas, he fell into that oldest of Los Angeles professions, acting in a bad soap opera and repeatedly crashing his motorcycle. And he wrote songs - hundreds of songs. Still underage, he joined a community of musicians around LA’s eastside that snuck him into bars and taught him the ropes - the late, great Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Circles Around the Sun), Chad Schlosser (ZZ Top), Jesse Hughes (Eagles of Death Metal), Adam MacDougall (The Black Crowes), Riley Geare (Unknown Mortal Orchestra), Michael Miller (Solid Gold), and countless others. His music is a fitting depiction of a musician who appears to have emerged fully-formed and confident in contrasts - muscular but intricate, howling but intimate - songs shot through with equal parts vulnerability and hopefulness.