June 9 2026 - Toronto, Ontario
Nashville indie-pop singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Leanna Firestone stopped at the Drake Underground in Toronto last Tuesday on her Victory Lap Tour, in support of her debut album The Answer, released on May 15 2026. Written through the lens of her friends’ relationships and breakups, The Answer marks a subtle but meaningful shift in Leanna’s songwriting. Expanding beyond her own experiences, she zooms out to examine love from the outside. We sat down with Leanna ahead of her show and talked about The Answer, her songwriting process, and how growing up in fan spaces informs how she interacts with her own fans.
HARMONIZE: Congrats on your debut album, The Answer, that’s a huge milestone! What does it mean to you to finally have it out in the world?
LEANNA: I’m at a loss for words, actually, I know I just said I love to talk, and yet here I am. It is insane, and there’s no better word for it than that. I feel very grateful that I have been able to make this my career, and I just feel astonished by the response to it. I’m very lucky to be able to make art in general, but also just to have people actually listen and care about it, it’s a whole other beast, and I am so blown away.
HARMONIZE: Have there been any fan reactions to the album, or to specific songs that stood out to you?
LEANNA: Yes, I’ve had responses to the album where a lot of it is about stepping into your power, and about understanding who you are, and what you want, and what serves and doesn’t serve you, and the best responses I feel like I’ve gotten from it is people leaving situations that they weren’t happy in. It’s so crazy to have that be such a swift and immediate thing. The album came out three weeks ago, and literally tonight people are like “I broke up with my boyfriend,” like, “I heard the album, I broke up with my boyfriend, it’s over.” I can’t believe that [people] are listening to this piece of art and engaging with it in this way that causes actual change and material change in their life, because they are connecting so much to this music.
HARMONIZE: I think I would be speechless about that too. What does it feel like to know that you’re having that kind of impact on people?
LEANNA: In general, it’s crazy. It’s so strange, especially to see it online and now seeing it in person is entirely different. I’ve put out a couple of projects very close to when I’ve toured them, and seeing the response online the week, or two weeks before I have tour is like, “oh, wow, that’s awesome, people love it.” But actually seeing, hearing, connecting with the people in person, in front of me who are telling me, “this has changed things for me,” is unreal, and the only words for it would be unreal and surreal.
HARMONIZE: You wrote a lot of this album through your friends experiences rather than your own, so how did that change your songwriting or your approach to making these songs?
LEANNA: Normally something really big and bad will happen to me, and it will become increasingly obviously apparent that the next thing I’m going to write is about that, no matter when it’s happening. And I know this will fuel the next musical project that I have because it’s like a well inside of you that’s immediately overflowing, and I have to deal with it coming out. I channel all of that into a project.
The well was half-full the longest time. I got to the end of touring and I thought any second now, something really horrible is gonna happen, and then it just never did. Which is awesome from a personal point of view and less awesome from a material point of view. So when my friends started having these back-to-back-to-back breakup and heartbreak experiences, I was like, well, I’ve never before attempted making something that wasn’t about me or wasn’t centered in my own experience, so that’s going to be a creative challenge.
But also, it seemed like the most obvious thing to write about was how my friends are experiencing their heartbreaks, and what I think about that from an outsider point of view, of course with permission. I did ask everybody before I did it, I was like, “I’m gonna make some shit up about you and your relationship, but is that cool?” and all of them were very encouraging to be like, “yeah, you gotta try this,” and so the project really just became about me stretching my fiction legs more than anything, and so it was not an entirely different writing process. It was more slow and I would say, and less obvious. I had to search a little bit more for what I was gonna talk about than I’ve ever had to before.
HARMONIZE: I know you’ve mentioned writing fan fiction before and I’m curious if writing those and being involved in fan spaces shaped how you write songs today?
LEANNA: Oh my god, yeah. I think also the way I interact with my fans has been totally shaped by my community in fandoms when I was growing up. What I had hoped and wanted out of those relationships that I had with those artists because they were making music that meant so much to me and changed my life. So now I try to, not that I’m a show writer, but I try to do fan service a lot for my fans in whatever way I can. I think all of that stems back from my participation in fandom, and the fiction, obviously. The writing in general was like writing fiction. I was writing about what I hoped would happen and what I wanted more than anything and then just changing places and names and stuff. It’s all about yearning and hoping for something to get better and for things to change, and so I think the album was really — the only way it could have come to fruition is if I had had that experience before, which thankfully I did.
HARMONIZE: I was really curious about that because I was also in fandom spaces growing up. So being in these spaces, you mentioned how it’s informed how you interact with your fans. I’m curious if there’s anything about the artist-fan relationship that you didn’t understand before, that you understand now?
LEANNA: Yeah, especially with growing up online and having to come up in an online space, there becomes a point in which you are in a fan group together and then when you surpass a quote-unquote, certain level of fame, where it’s like, “oh, our relationship has changed,” and I feel like navigating that relationship change is something that when I was younger, I had a much harder time being, like, “what do you mean these are not my friends?” And now, with separation and time and me growing up, I get it. But I do think I always want to service the idea that we are connected even if we’re not friends, and I give credit to that connection anywhere I can. It’s like “you are changing your life for me, I am changing my life for you,” and ultimately, there is something there, even if it’s not friendship. So I want to validate the connection that I have, which I feel like a lot of artists now, specificallly very, very big, big artists, have a great divide between them and their fans in a way I don’t understand as much. I understand that there’s a gap, but these are the people that give you everything, why do you not want to give them something back? What I do in my concerts and in my VIP, and with interviews is always give credit where credit is due. I couldn’t do any of this if they weren’t here, so that is something I feel is different than some of the other artists on the scene right now. I care a lot about the people out there.
HARMONIZE: Yeah it’s awesome to see that. My last question is with being on this tour, has there been any stand-out fan interactions or experiences that you’ve had?
LEANNA: Yes, there has been, I mean, there’s been several. Something that’s so awesome about touring and about doing meet and greets every so often is that I am getting to mark my life by these tours. Like what was going on with me at this time, and this time, and this time. When I’m meeting these same people, because it’s a lot of the same people over and over, I get to hear about their lives, and get the updates on their lives. So I feel like I’m experiencing it alongside them, and they’re experiencing it alongside me. One of the stand-out fan interactions, and I hope I’m not blowing up her spot by telling you this, but she was like, “just wanted to let you know that I found out yesterday that my boyfriend is cheating on me, and I broke up with him, and I came here.” I was, like, “Oh, my god, what? What are you talking about?” She’s, like, “yeah, girl, like, it was bad, he was texting other girls, so I took his ticket and gave it to my best friend. And I’m here tonight.” Which was an insane thing to hear, and also, I had another girl whose situationship broke up with her during the first song of my set. So she comes up to me and tells me, I’m, like, “so what happened?” and she’s, like, “I have no idea, he left during the middle of the first song.” So, yeah it’s always when something is happening actively in their lives that they are like “this is so big that I have to tell you about it.” Those are always the standout fan interactions, yeah, even if they’re bad, sorry for those girls!
The Victory Lap Tour is ongoing until the final show on June 20th in Orlando FL, check out the official website for more show information. Listen to The Answer here.
