Stacking The Deck with Leah Voysey

Stacking The Deck is a feature exclusive to Adam’s World where I bring packs of 1991 Pro Set Superstars MusiCards to artists, and we discuss who they find in each pack.

With her bright orange locks it’s easy to pick Leah Voysey out in a crowd. When she begins to sing, however, is when you truly can’t help but take notice.

A fantastic newcomer on the scene, Voysey is an alt-pop singer-songwriter whose voice is filled with character.

Originally from New Jersey, but now living in Brooklyn, she recently released her first single, “Poison,” and it’s a toxin you’ll be tempted to OD on.


Having given listeners a non-lethal dose of her “Poison,” Voysey recently put the finishing touches on her next single, “Keep It To Yourself,” which she promises is “a sexy song.”

I caught up with Voysey at Grand Central Station to open up some packs of MusiCards, and the artists we found sparked conversations about rawness and vulnerability in song lyrics, the long road to attending her first concert, and her secret dark side.



Madonna
The sound that (Madonna) was doing in her time is coming back.

I feel like artists like Madonna, and people who replicate Madonna, could easily be in mainstream music today. Lady Gaga is a perfect example of that.

That’s what I like about (Madonna), she was kind of doing her own thing, and she was paving the way for what pop music is now.

When you look at your own career, are you looking to develop your own sound, like she did?

I mean, I am thinking a little bit about that, but more than that, when I’m creating my sound I’m thinking of what will I be proud of, and what will make me feel most like myself. I’ve tried, in the past, to think about “OK, what’s mainstream, what’s happening now,” but it doesn’t feel as genuine, and I like to be as genuine as possible.

As long as I’m feeling like myself in my songs, then I’ll go whatever direction.

So your next single could sound nothing like your previous one?

Yeah, but for me it’s mostly the lyrics more than anything. The sound, I think that I enjoy a lot of different genres of music, so that’s really the kind of producers I choose to work with, but the lyrics … I put a lot of importance in the lyrics to make it feel like my own.

Have you been able to hit the stage a lot, and perform in and around NYC?

Not a ton recently.

I did a show last night, but that was the first that I’d done in a really long time, because I’m really just focusing on writing and recording at the moment.

When you put so much of yourself into your lyrics does it ever feel vulnerable on stage?

Absolutely.

The show that I did last night, my mom was there, and it was a really small venue, and I have one song where the lyric is “Why are we so complicated / I want to see your clothes on the floor.” That’s kind of the hook of it, and I’m singing it over and over and over again, and my mom’s sitting right there, and I’m like, oh God, this is weird.



Fleetwood Mac / Stevie Nicks
I love Fleetwood Mac. That was a band I was listening to for years and years and years.

I also think (Stevie Nicks) has a really cool style. She’s sexy, but not in a crazy way, like having less clothes on, or showing a lot of skin. That’s not Stevie Nicks, but her style is still … like the hat she’s wearing in this picture, and her crazy hair, I’m obsessed with it.



Jefferson Airplane
I picked this Jefferson Airplane card because I want you to tell a concert story. Before the interview started you mentioned you grew up on pop punk, but never got to go to Warped Tour.

Never got to go to Warped Tour.

Not even as a grown up.

No.

How does that happen?

I literally was not allowed to go.

My mom would not let me go to a festival. She just was so scared of me going to a festival, but there was even a situation where my friend and her mother had an extra ticket to a My Chemical Romance show – it was with someone’s mom, that my mom knew, and she still wouldn’t let me go.

It wasn’t until college that I started going to concerts.

What was your first concert?

My first concert was Lady Gaga, which was crazy, because she puts on a performance. That’s a show.

Which era of Gaga was this?

It was a week or two after she released Born This Way.

Have you now seen some of your pop punk favorites from your youth?

Yeah, I got to see blink-182 at a festival, Fall Out Boy when they were still cool. All Time Low I’ve seen recently. So I definitely got to relive that.

Even just going to festivals, which is my favorite type of concert to go to, no matter who you’re seeing, no matter what the genre is, you still kind of get that vibe.

Oh my gosh, another one – Good Charlotte. I saw Good Charlotte recently, and it was the best ever. It was so fun.

But back to just being in the general admission sort of feel, which you get at a festival – with people moshing, or crowd surfing, or being up on you – I love that. I love that so much, and I feel like you get that at festivals no matter who you’re seeing.



Eric Clapton
That song, “Tears in Heaven,” about his son, it’s so raw.

Music like that is so important, and I think it really is a service for an artist to release something with such personal emotion behind it. The fact that he gets up stage and plays that …

We were just talking about vulnerability.

Yeah, and the fact that he’d be able to get through that is crazy.

I like country music, as well, and when Blake Shelton was married to Miranda Lambert she released a song called “Over You” that they wrote together, but it’s about Blake Shelton’s brother, who passed away. When I saw Blake Shelton in concert he played that song, and he said the reason he didn’t release it himself, the reason he gave it to Miranda, was because when he first wrote it he knew it was a single, but there was no way he was getting on stage and playing it. He said there was no way he’d be able to make it through it.

I think the time that I saw him was when he was starting to play it himself, because he said he was finally at a point where he could get through it without breaking down.

I remember on The Voice he gave it to …

Cassadee Pope.

She toured with Fall Out Boy back when she was in Hey Monday.



Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne has done a lot of wild things. What would you say is the wildest thing you’ve done on stage?

Oh man, I haven’t done anything wild.

Haven’t bit the head off a bat?

No.

There’s no dark side?

Not really. Not on stage.

Secretly.

You gotta really listen to the lyrics to hear my dark side. {laughs}

What kind of dark side are we talking about here?

Like (my next single), “Keep It To Yourself,” I think the title says a lot. It’s about a secret relationship between two people who spend time together, people know that they spend time together, but in a professional setting there’s no hint, or inclination, that they’d be together.

The end of the second verse – “I don’t need to know your shit / your baggage is not part of this / you’re just a body / you’re just somebody / don’t think that you got me” – that’s kind of what that song is about; you’re just a body to me, and please don’t ever approach me in real life and think that this is ever gonna be more than what it is.


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