"I'm a Producer, Not Just a Singer" with Yaz León
“Sometimes all it comes down to is the right place, right time. I’m working hard and I'm working to my best ability, regardless of whether I see the rewards now or in 10 years."
G: Will you start by introducing yourself?
I'm Yaz León. I'm a producer and artist from West London, Spanish and Iraqi Heritage, my pronouns are she/her, and yeah, really excited to be here! My parents are both not from this country, my mom's Spanish and my dad's Iraqi and they both met in London, but I’m British born and raised. And that's kind of how everything unfolded and why I'm still here.
G: Can talk to us about performing songs and writing lyrics.
I tend to be brutally honest in my lyrics. I feel like I might be scaring people off if I tell them that I write songs about them, so I don't tend to tell the people that the song is about them.
G: What kind of music were you surrounded by as a kid?
I was raised on Mariah Carey, George Benson, and the Isley Brothers. My dad was really into showing us a lot of seventies hits that he grew up on. And a lot of people were like, "Oh didn't you have any of your family's cultural music?’ but like Iraqis have no music. It's not a thing, especially because they tend to not sing. It's more like "You should just like read the word of the Quran." So he brought nothing but Western music to me. That sort of translated to a lot of soul being played around the house, and it gradually moved into me producing Neo Soul for myself.
H: Growing up in a household that has like two different religions present, does religion influence your work?
100%. I mean I didn't even notice it until I started talking to a therapist. That religious guilt is so real, man, especially from two different sides. Both sides of my family are really conservative and I didn't notice it was influencing my relationships, influencing when I lost my virginity, and it was just insane when I came out. It was very daunting. Like I would occasionally go to the mosque with my dad on Fridays and then my mom would drag me to church on Sundays. I don't know, I was a little bit too hyperactive to be sat still in those quiet environments.
H: Is there something about the music scene in London that you really enjoy or something that you really don't like? How do you feel about it?
London is genuinely the capital of the music world, I would say. You don't really see it at first, but then you start joining in with these little music circles and groups, and then you notice that like almost everything revolves around decisions that are made within this city. You make or break in the US if you can reach the UK audiences. Somehow I noticed recently that artists don't necessarily need to have reached America. Obviously, there's a huge pot of gold over there, but you don't necessarily have to make it in the US in order to get a more global audience.
H: What is something that people need to hear right now?
This is something I learned last year: You can't expect the same thing from all your friends. There will be a friend who is a great listener but won't show up at the times that you need them. There'll be a friend who shows up to support you in physical places all the time but is not a great listener. There are friends for certain things and when you stop expecting all the same things from all of your friends, you learn to appreciate them for the things that you can do for each other.
🎧 Listen to Yaz’s full interview on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
⬇️ Watch Yaz’s music video for ‘Silent Mode’ below.