Leah Siegel wears many faces of what she calls “characters.” An active performer in Citizens Band and Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout, Siegel also has written a number of albums under her own name before she founded Firehorse. With Firehorse, she boasts a range of roles on the debut album, And So They Ran Faster, in the diverse tracks that explore pop, rock, jazz, funk and soul with electronic touches. The genre-leaping tracks showcase Siegel’s acrobatic vocals that lead her band into challenging sonic landscapes. From the sparse yet stirring “If You Don’t Want to Be Alone” to the hazy bliss of “Baby Bird,” Siegel and her bandmates, featuring members of My Brightest Diamond and Rosanne Cash, drive a tumultuously emotional experience. Her inspiration from Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake and the Velvet Underground show, but the songs sound thoroughly fresh. Firehorse is definitely a band to watch out for, and it doesn’t hurt that Siegel has receive Prince’s stamp of approval.

 What sparked the creation of Firehorse? Why did you decide to move away from writing under your own name?

I felt limited performing as Leah Siegel and was definitely limited as a writer. A lot of my writing comes from character ideas and “Leah” seemed defined. But what I really felt was confined. So I killed the whole thing and almost started from scratch. This is a very long story actually and begins in the darkest place I've ever found myself. It's hard to condense it all into sound bytes, but the moment I trashed Leah Siegel, I was on my way out of the abyss.  

 You are also involved with Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout and the Citizens Band. How do you stay focused on writing for Firehorse?

The Boogaloo's been around for 12 years, and it takes up almost no time in my life. We don't rehearse we just play. And when we do, I get such a kick out of it. I don't have to lug any gear at all, I get to play one of my favorite characters, and it's such a great party I basically feel like it's my birthday. The Citizens Band is a collective of creative professionals, so everyone's incredibly busy. The band hasn't performed too much in the last few years, but we're expecting to do quite a bit now that we're coming up on an election. So there's plenty of time to write. It's probably the session work that gets in the way of my writing the most, because it keeps me singing and writing and thinking, “Hey, cool, I just did a bunch of stuff.” And stylistically I'm using so many different voices in my sessions that it can be befuddling to then go home and be like, “Okay, so who am I?”

Tell me about Prince lavishing you with compliments.

He came to see a Citizens Band show and then came to the after party. A few of the cast members kept coming up to me saying that Prince particularly liked my performance, until finally Prince walked up to me and told me his thoughts. Lavishing seems like a strong word, but he was really sincere and he used the word “brilliant.” It was a Cinderella moment if I've ever had one. My mom told me much later that this was when she and my dad stopped worrying about me so much.   

When writing for And So They Ran Faster, did you plan to write a collection of such different songs? Is your music taste as eclectic as your album?

I can't say honestly that anything was planned regarding this album. I remember talking to Geoff the day before we started the post-production, and we were kind of thinking, “How the hell are we going to make an album out of this collection?” But what we were really questioning was public perception. We had no problem at all making the album we were already set out to make, and it made perfect sense to us in our heads. I think the real question at the time was, 'How much do we care about whether everyone else gets it or not?” And the answer was “not too much.” The other answer was The White Album.  Yes, my tastes in everything are just as eclectic. Music, fashion, dancing, décor – I have a huge appreciation for art. Life might be easier for me if I practiced a more judging way of being. 

Where and how was the album recorded? Any stories you want to share from the process?

The band and I tracked at The Magic Shop in NYC. The songs were tracked live except for the ones that had yet to be written. I hadn't written “Machete Gang Holiday” yet, but the sound was in my head, so I told the guys to jam on it with me. We had two feels: big feel and broken down. I wrote the first verse in the studio. When I met Geoff at his studio in Seattle, I finished the song. I also wrote “Our Hearts” and the rest of “If You Don't Want To Be Alone.” It was a long process. Made longer by the fact that I had recorded two albums, in fact, and we didn't know which songs would go on the first one. They were both meant to come out. But we've since dismantled the second record.  The public service announcement in which “If You Don’t Want To Be Alone” is used is so moving.

How did you get involved with the Topsy Foundation? Did you write that song exclusively for the Topsy Foundation?

I got into session singing about five years ago and slowly built a career in that industry. One of the studios I sing and sometimes write for asked me to submit a song pro bono for this PSA. When I heard about the drug, I was totally shocked I had never heard of it before and without hesitation I said, “Of course, I would submit.” I watched the video and cried for a long time. I knew exactly what sounds I wanted to make, and in about 45 minutes, I wrote the one-minute of song you hear in the PSA. I hadn't written with precision like that since I was a kid. Then I cried for a couple weeks. Then I received word that they were choosing my song for the piece. Then I cried some more. Jeez.