The Boundless Tour: Leon Bridges with special guest Little Dragon

Leon Bridges – Grammy Award Winning R&B Artist, Songwriter, Dancer, Actor and Philanthropist.

Leon’s Boundless Tour will see the Grammy Award winning R&B artist and songwriter bring to the stage all elements of his career spanning experiences, inspirations, and award winning catalog of songs. From working as a dishwasher and busking on the streets of his beloved Fort Worth, TX to being signed to a major label and performing at the White House for Former President Barack Obama within a two-year span, Leon has continued to push the boundaries of his career.

Leon is currently nominated for two Grammys for Best Traditional R&B Performance and Best R&B Album for his newest full length release Gold-Diggers Sound which the singer toured across the US to instantly sold out audiences, while also giving back to clubs, crew members, and venue staff via NIVA and CrewNation. Gold-Diggers Sound, serves as the follow up to his sophomore album, Good Thing, which saw him win the Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance in 2019. Between album releases Leon has issued a steady stream of music including tracks with John Mayer, Lucky Daye, Kacey Musgraves, Jazmine Sullivan, and Diplo as well as Texas Sun, a collaborative project with fellow Texans Khruangbin with new EP Texas Moon out on February 18th. Leon’s musical growth has brought him around the world headlining festivals and selling out shows in the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, Japan, Mexico and more including sold out shows at the Hollywood Bowl and back-to-back nights both at Radio City Music Hall and London’s O2 Brixton Academy. Other career highlights include his breakout track “River” being certified Platinum, portraying Gil Scott Heron in Damien Chazelle’s First Man, and being the face of Wrangler’s 2022 global campaign.

Forming in Gothenburg, Sweden, when lead singer Yukimi Nagano was just 14 years old, Little Dragon have forged a path as one of the most consistent, respected and universally loved bands of recent times. The current album “New Me, Same Us”—released on Ninja Tune—represents another chapter in the continuing evolution of Little Dragon, finding new direction in their unique style of unhurried, off-kilter r’n’b, pop and electronics. Entirely self-produced and recorded at their long-term home-built studio in Gothenburg, it’s the sound of a band going back to basics and falling back in love with their instruments: drums, bass, keyboards, harp, guitar and voice, to produce some of their most focused and inarguably best music to date.

Having grown up with a passion for writing poems and lyrics from an early age in her diaries, Yukimi Nagano shunned formal vocal training, instead joining up with school friends Erik Bodin (drums and percussion) and Fredrik Wallin (bass) to sing on the various musical projects they were involved in. They were soon joined by Håkan Wirenstarnd (keyboards) to form the quartet that persists to this day. The now much-mythologised legend states that the band took their title from a nickname given to Yukimi for her fiery temper during those early days in the studio.

With a sound that is notoriously hard to pin down, Little Dragon have always been a unique melting-pot of their individual influences and styles, previously referencing artists as diverse as Brian Eno, Snoop Dogg, D’Angelo and Alice Coltrane as touchstones of their musical tastes.

Their first breakthrough as a band came with the single ‘Twice’, initially released by a friend of theirs at the Swedish label Off The Wall Records it was picked up a year later by UK label Peacefrog, who went on to release a collection of demos from the band which would form their eponymous debut album in 2007.

Though fairly guarded when it comes their own output—having only worked with a handful of external musicians and producers on their own albums—they quickly became one of the most sought after bands to work alongside. Chalking up an enviable list of collaborators throughout the years, they have worked with equally groundbreaking artists like BADBADNOTGOOD, Gorillaz, SBTRKT, Flying Lotus, Flume, Kaytranada, Big Boi (who was first put on to the band via fellow Outkast member André 3000), De La Soul, DJ Shadow, Tinashe, Mac Miller, Future, Raphael Saadiq, Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio), Faith Evans and recently with Kali Uchis, Moses Sumney, FKJ and Yo-Yo Ma.

Equally, their hugely popular and highly regarded live performances have spawned a global, decade-spanning touring career which has seen them perform at some of the world’s most revered festivals such as Coachella, Glastonbury, Bestival, Lollapalooza, Melt, Dour and Sonar Festival, as well as recently co-headlining a show with Flying Lotus at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl.

While still courting little recognition in their own country—they first played a gig in LA before Sweden—another turning point came with the release of third album “Ritual Union”. Reaching No.22 in the UK album charts and breaking the Billboard top 100 for the first time, it marked the first of 3 straight entries into the top-5 of Billboard’s Dance & Electronic chart, and was included in Rolling Stone’s top 50 albums of 2011. This was followed by “Nabuma Rubberband” in 2014. The album further cemented their commercial successes, going top-15 in the UK charts, top-25 in the US and earning a Grammy nomination for ‘Best Dance/Electronic Album’.

Being in a band with some of your closest friends for so long, often spending more time with each other than with your own family, they’ve had their share of disagreements over the years. “New Me, Same Us” however finds them with a renewed sense of kinship. “This album has been the most collaborative for us yet.” they explain, “which might sound weird considering we’ve been making music together for all these years, but we worked hard at being honest, finding the courage to let go of our egos and be pieces of something bigger.”