- Words Nicholas Douglas
LA-based artist Leonie Persch is breaking free from industry rules, while claiming her independence.
Leonie Persch has always felt that music has been her language, a way to process life, connect with people, and make sense of her feelings. However, one of the biggest challenges she has faced in her life has been learning to fully trust her vision.
After spending the last six years in Berlin building a career as a songwriter and vocalist, Leonie has worked with major labels, signed a publishing deal, collaborated with major DJs, and landed her first sync deal with Disney US.
Nonetheless, the preexisting structures that once felt exciting for her eventually became limiting. Leonie recently decided to move to Los Angeles on an artist visa, and started a new fully independent artist project – this time under her legal name – all to maintain complete creative control and ownership of her music.
One of Leonie’s core lessons along her journey has been to step away from the “comfortable deals,” as well as the external opinions and her own doubts, to play it safe and small to meet others’ expectations. As an independent artist and a female creative entrepreneur, she is working on building herself up and make a music career in Los Angeles.
Leonie’s new single, ‘Code Blue,’ was born out of what she says was an “exact moment of personal and professional rupture,” and captures the quiet, “necessary endings no one prepares you for.”
These endings, often when you’ve outgrown relationships, places, dreams, and visions for yourself, ultimately fuel Leonie’s music and her journey. After years of working for and collaborating with other artists, she now understands that her lessons have shaped her into an artist who leads not from external permission but internal clarity.
Stepping away from external validation has been another challenge for the artist as she works to break free from the processes that originally chained her in place.
As she describes, Leonie was “more of a contributor” to other people’s projects than an artist in her own right. Because of this, she often found herself co-shaping someone else’s vision and reached a point where she would have to rebuild her own world from the ground up.
“I’ve learned that drawing those lines, even at the risk of losing opportunities, is essential if you want to build something lasting on your own terms,” she shares. “The discomfort of holding firm is far less dangerous than the slow erosion that happens when you fold to keep the peace.”
Leonie is committed to creating authentic and impactful music, which coincides with her idea of speaking her truth and building a meaningful, values-driven community around her work. “In the coming years, I envision myself maintaining full creative freedom and ownership over my artistic process, supported by a trusted team of collaborators who share my values and vision,” she shares.
Additionally to her music, Leonie has founded her own community playform, ‘Indie Table LA’, and hosts monthly networking events to support other independent creatives in the music industry.
With plans to continue exploring communities to broaden her perspective and to give and fuel inspiration, Leonie is working toward her path as a female music entrepreneur, all while embracing her journey as an immigrant artist.