Name: Annie Leeth
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, composer, producer 
Current release: Annie Leeth's new album Saturn Return is out October 9th 2026. 
Hometown Recommendations: Richmond, VA - Belle Isle, Eclipse Pinball (and record shop) Athens, GA - Ben Burton, Hendershot’s 
Things I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: At some point while touring I got really into pinball. There’s this app called Pinball Map that will show you which pinball machines are in pretty much any city, and people will get so into it that they’ll even update the app with malfunctions/fixes. It’s a great way to pass time after load in, and helps me see fun parts of town I wouldn’t know otherwise. 

If you enjoyed this Annie Leeth interview and would like to know more about her music and upcoming live performances, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, and bandcamp. 



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

I really didn’t get interested in writing lyrics until college. 

Up until then, I was interested in writing orchestral music and film scores, and ended up going to school for music composition and violin performance. Even writing choral music was kind of uncomfortable for me. I knew I wanted to get better at it, so there’s been a slow transition from the more ambient, instrumental music from my first EP to now. 

Honestly, one of the reasons why I was excited about charge (2023) was because it was my first album where all of the songs had lyrics.



Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

My lyrics tend to veer towards trying to solve some sort of internal problem. Writing lyrics helps me to put thoughts together in a new way that I wouldn’t otherwise. 

Coming up with a small solution to whatever problem is presented in a song has become one of the ways for me to allow myself to move on to a new chapter.

Have there been song lyrics which actually made you change (aspects of) your life? If so, what do you think, leant them that power?

Driving to school with my mom as a kid definitely shaped some of my musical taste, especially with lyrics. I loved memorizing lyrics, even if I didn’t know what they meant. 

The first album that I knew all of the words to was Green Day’s American Idiot and first Broadway soundtrack was “Cabaret”. Meanwhile, the first song I knew all of the words to was Sheryl Crowe’s “Soak Up the Sun”, so I was pretty aware from an early age the wide range of emotions that music can display. 

I loved how music could change my emotions, and as I got a little older, loved seeing how different songs grew to hold different meaning.

It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

To me, music gives me the ability to add that extra emotional gravity that I can’t get with just poetry. The best example I can think of is the bass in scary movie scores that appears before something bad happens. 

Sometimes it allows me the room to be more obscure in my lyrics because the tone has already been set.

The relationship between words and music has always intrigued me. How do you see it? In how far can music take you to places with your writing you would possibly not have visited without it?

Having an instrumental behind me that I love allows me to feel pushed to be more honest in the lyrics. If an instrumental has a specific emotion behind it, I try to dig into that emotion with the lyrics until it almost feels like a character. 

Having that set amount of time and space to get my point across also forces me to be more direct than in everyday life.

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

Music has always been a form of journaling for me, and a way that I process different moments in my life. It feels empowering to me if I’m able to perform words that used to make me upset.

Anxiety, anger, and shame play a big role in this album, but my hope is that they can be received as a means of connection. 

My problems are my problems, but the themes are not unique and I find comfort in that.

On the basis of a piece off your most recent release, tell me about how the lyrics grew into their final form and what points of consideration were.

I wanted to be as honest as possible with the lyrics on this album, even if it scared me. 

“Hockey” is my favorite song off of this upcoming album. It is one of the only songs where the lyrics were written in the order you hear them. They were written on a sleepless night where I was wrestling with the lack of control I have in how I am perceived by others. 



The song ultimately feels like a place of acceptance for me: that although being a musician is difficult, sometimes in ways I never anticipated, it is the path I chose and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I'd love to know how you think the meaning or effect of an individual song is enhanced, clarified or possibly contradicted by the EPs, or albums it is part of. Does the song, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

I like to let my albums be a space in time. Enough time has gone by since writing this album that some of the songs in this almost feel like a different person. 

While writing this album I was constantly in conflict with myself, bouncing between songs that feel more empowering like “Sheep Skin” and admissions of defeat like “Effexor”. 



Despite that, the album does feel like it goes together, even if it is just in that the lyrics were written at a specific point in my life.

What’s your perspective in this regard of singing someone else’s songs versus your own? 

I love singing other artist’s songs. While it’s mostly just for fun, it also can show me how to write for myself in the future. 

Towards the end of tracking this last album, I was listening to a lot of my favorite high school bands. This definitely inspired me to add more grit to my background vocals on some songs, both in performance and timbre.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you’ve received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

I was kind of worried this album was going to just be putting a bunch of negative energy into the world. A lot of the lyrics are from a dark period of my life. 

It’s been really uplifting so far to hear from friends who have told me the songs have made them feel less alone. I love finding connection that way; it feels really healing!