May 25, 2023
Corey Leiter
Corey Leiter
Corey Leiter is a 30-year-old singer-songwriter and storyteller based Los Angeles, CA. Leiter is a shapeshifting and prolific artist that delicately interweaves brash folk, dreamy-pop, and psychedelic rock, channeling the raw, achy, tenderness of being alive and the blissful ethereality of spirit. Leiter’s music has become a form of alchemy that seeks to distill a vast array emotions, colors, and moments. It’s at times fragile and wispy, and others heavy and murky, but always rooted in honest heartfelt expression.
Raised in the humble small town of Aurora, OH, Leiter got his start playing guitar and writing angsty punk songs in bands in the early 2000s. After moving to Nashville, TN, Leiter started writing and recording his own records in 2015. His first full-length album, August Blanket was recorded in his Nashville home with producer and long-time friend Ian Miller. August Blanket finds a 24-year-old Leiter chasing a more polished country-americana sound, while hinting at the ethereal exploration that would come on later albums.
Leiter’s second full-length album, Son in the Sun, was greatly inspired by his anticipation of the 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse, which happened to fall on his 25th birthday. The sounds that ensued were informed by a newfound sense of spirituality in Buddhist practices, and a deeper exploration into Leiter’s love for etheric music and psychedelic rock. Son in the Sun was recorded at both the Bomb Shelter, and his Nashville home, again with producer Ian Miller. It features a long list of Nashville session players which gave the record a more live feel.
In 2018, after a three-month long tour across Europe with only a backpack and a guitar, Leiter landed in Echo Park, CA. The record that followed was Leiter’s first self-produced album, titled The Whale / The Calf / The Satellite. It’s a three-part concept album that leads you through the distinct soundscapes of sea, land, and sky, created with the intention to create musical environments wide enough for the listener to live in. It was recorded in collaboration with friends Raymond Joseph, Kosta Galanapolous (PWNT), and Luke Enyeart (Lukester), almost entirely in Leiter’s Echo Park bedroom, with some additional tracking done at Battle Panda studios with engineer Joey Kirk, and at PWNT’s warehouse studio in Van Nuys, CA.
On February 25th, 2022 Leiter released a tribute to Nick Drake’s 1972 album Pink Moon, recorded in its entirety on October 30 and 31, 2021, which was exactly 50 years from the original recordings and release date. It was recorded directly to tape in A-Frame cabin in the middle of Sequoia National Forest, and engineered by Brian Rosemeyer.
On November 4th Leiter’s album titled ‘Fire Season’ was released. It was recorded and produced by Ryan Pollie in Eagle Rock, CA. On ‘Fire Season’ Leiter blends intricate fingerpicked folk, with doomy fuzzed out guitars, scoring the juxtaposition of trying to stay true to yourself amidst the weight of pandemics and political upheaval. It’s a meditation on transformation, shaking hands with the shadow self, and looking for light in the darkest places.