There is an embarrassing amount of new music being released every day, let alone every Friday. It has gotten to a point where there is honestly more music than we can possibly consume. Every single second there’s a link to something and it doesn’t stop with music but really relates to content in general. When everything is so fast-paced and consistently moving, you tend to miss certain musical gems that you probably wouldn’t have a few years ago.

One of those gems, in particular, happens to be Leon John. I first heard about Leon from Yanga YaYa when we were having a conversation about how thee same music can have different meanings to people and Leon’s name came up. He later sent me a link to Leon’s debut EP titled ‘To Be Continued” but as I said in the beginning, everything is so fast-paced and consistently moving that I didn’t give Leon’s extended play much attention. Though I started seeing his name more and more, especially when he was campaigning for Afropunk’s battle of the bands.

For some time Leon has gone under my radar but this time I got a link to something he recently did that I couldn’t possibly ignore. The Johannesburg singer, producer and songwriter got together with songwriter and producer Bubele Booi for Leon’s latest single Pray For You. Bubele recently lent his pen game and production skillset to Beyonce on Find Your Way Back off the Lion King album.

The two collaborator’s hadn’t worked together prior to the making of Pray For You. The song is layered with textures of emotions as you feel Leon’s reflective pain through his vocal delivery. The song does introduce a feeling of solace to matters of emotional uncertainty. Leon’s ability to present his vulnerability candidly is what makes the gem a moving one. It is a neat presentation of dealing with situations that might hurt in any context.

We got to ask Leon about the inception of his new single and here are the questions and answers.

The song is pretty emotive, I would also really like how you were feeling emotionally when you were making this song? Is the song a direct reflection of your emotions at the time? Or you used your songwriting to output an emotion that your audience would resonate with?

Songs always seem to follow me in the wake of tragedy and ‘Pray For You’ was no different. We wrote the song in the wake of losing my cousin to suicide the previous day. The writing session with Bubele Booi had been planned for ages before then but when the day arrived, I couldn’t focus on anything else but his death. It kept running circles in my mind, especially what his twin sister had said to me on the phone when I had spoken to her the day before. It struck me as so profoundly, moving, brave and so wise that in the middle of grief, so raw and so new that she had the clarity of mind to console me and tell me that we shouldn’t judge or place blame on our loss but rather pray for him instead.

By pure coincidence, it happened that Bubele was also grieving life in his own way that day and from our mutual sorrow ‘Pray For You’ was born. Songwriting has always been a form of catharsis for me, a way for me to air out my fears, anxieties and confront all the feelings I would otherwise try and run [away] from in daily life. It puts my emotions out in [the] open so there isn’t anywhere to hide from them and [I] have no choice but to confront them and ‘Pray For You’ did exactly that for me at that moment.

Have you ever released a song like this before? And how was it like working with Bubele Booi? 

I’ve never released a song like this before. what sets ‘Pray For You’ [apart] from any other record I’ve ever made is that not only is this my first fully-fledged commercial pop project but this record was the first time the production on the record has been handled someone else.

I’m usually quite hands-on from the conception to birth of every song but working with Bubele taught me to let go and trust someone else. To let myself be guided not by my own instincts but by someone else’s and I’m so grateful because I couldn’t have picked a better person to have worked with if I tried. I was a fan of Bubele for almost two years before we even began to know each other, so getting to work with someone I admired so greatly was the privilege of my life.

Stream Pray For You below.