20 March 6-12, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Back in the Saddle Singer-songwriter Frankie Leonie teases upcoming album with ‘Blue Moon.’ BY SEAN STROUD I t’s almost been seven years since we last checked in with the 16-year-old country singer who wrote “Johnny Cash” and held a regular spot at The Rustic. A lot has changed for Frankie Leonie since then. The TL;DR is that she grabbed her di- ploma, said, “Screw college,” and spent three years recording her debut album. Somewhere along the way she graduated to a horizontal license and was no longer branded with big Sharpie Xs on her way into the bars she performed in. “When I was finally of age to go out I started running into some of the musicians that I’ve been playing with since I was like 15 or 16, and they always ask, ‘What are you do- ing here?’ and I’m like ‘I’m allowed to be here now …’” the 23-year-old says with a laugh. While she hasn’t had too much trouble growing out of the stigma that might’ve sur- rounded her as a young performer on stage, she does realize that people may have given her a bit of grace in her early days. Leonie gained invaluable experience from her early start, but it’s also raised the expectations for her future endeavors. “When you’re 15 or 16 and you’re playing shows and putting music out, almost any- thing you do is impressive, or at least that’s how people respond to you,” she says. “As you get older, that goes away, so I’m young still, but I’m not this teeny bopper impressing peo- ple by doing the bare minimum.” Luckily, Leonie has always stood out with ease, and her latest single is no exception. “Blue Moon,” which was co-written by Beau Bedford and recorded at the Echo Lab in Denton, is the perfect soundtrack for an in- trospective rainy afternoon stuck inside. Le- onie’s steady voice carries the weight of an unrequited love, and the patient, intentional spacing between her words quietly conveys the heartache behind them. “My name slips off your tongue / Reminds me of when we / Were young / And dumb,” she sings. “Staying out ‘till dawn / In your daddy’s ‘61 / Only resting for the sun / When will you call me your own?” Just because “Blue Moon” is her first release in years doesn’t mean Leonie has been sitting around collecting dust. Most of, if not all the songs from Wasted Breath were written three to five years ago, and since then, they’ve all been put through their paces on stage and devel- oped into more complete compositions. “For the last couple of years, I’ve been playing mostly solo shows, which I do really enjoy, but most of the songs on this album are a lot fuller than that,” Leonie says. “I think there’s only one that’s just me with an acous- tic guitar. I think it’ll be a little bit different than people would expect based on what they’ve seen from me the last few years live.” She’s also been featured on two songs in the last two years. Her voice harmonizes beautifully with Justin Tipton’s on “Don’t Make Me Sleep Alone,” and “Love Comes Back Around” finds her trading verses with David Forsyth over a twangy guitar-led waltz. “That’s my favorite part of playing music: getting to sing with other people,” she says ex- citedly. “It makes it so much more fun when they’re your friends too. My favorite studio days are when nothing really gets done and you just kinda hang out.” Other than further establishing herself as a musician, Leonie hopes her upcoming al- bum will help get her on the road and in front of more crowds. “I would love to tour, so I’m hoping that this will open some doors in that aspect,” she says, describing her ideal tour lineup as an intimate singer-songwriter show with lo- cals like Wesley Geiger and Madi Davis. “Wesley is probably my favorite Dallas songwriter,” she says. “Madi is an incredible person and songwriter who has some Joni Mitchell qualities to her voice.” Leonie plans to release the full album sometime in the summer and has two more singles ready to tide us over until then. If the rest of Wasted Breath is anywhere near “Blue Moon’s” caliber, then we’re in for a real treat later this year. ▼ CATEGORY TK RAVE REVIEWS DALLAS-BASED HOUSE MUSIC FESTIVAL, TAKE A BREAK, PARTNERS WITH APPLE MUSIC TO BRING DJ MIXES TO STREAMING. BY SIMON PRUITT P icture a DJ. Not someone at your next corporate event trying, and failing, to get you on the dance floor with Linda from HR while “Hot In Herre” is bursting into your ear drums. Definitely not your un- cle Steve queueing up an encore of “Don’t Stop Believing” to a crowd of “I didn’t ex- pect to get this drunk at a wedding” adults. We’re talking true DJs, the kind that use the acronym as more of a verb than a moniker, and the kind who go out of their way to dif- ferentiate between varying subgenres of electronic music. One throughline connects every DJ scene. They are all uniquely fleeting moments. In the platonic ideal of a DJ dance night, you’ll hear things you know in a way you’ve never heard them, never to be heard again. The DJ industry is built to rely on this paradox, with each new mix born and killed within the con- fines of a dark, sweaty room of dancers. It had to be this way since the advent of streaming, obviously, with nearly every club mix featuring either one or more copy- righted tracks being remixed. Apple Music recently reached out to Jake Gatewood, the 24-year-old North Texan en- trepreneur behind Take a Break, a traveling house music carnival that often features Gatewood behind the DJ deck. His DJing journey has been a wild ride, to say the least. As a young teenager, he made a name for himself as a hip-hop DJ opening at small local festivals. He lived out nearly every dream scenario for a mid-2010s high school boy, culminating in multiple nationwide tours as either an opener or backing DJ with Soundcloud rap-era artists like Chief Keef, XXXTentacion and Ski Mask the Slump God. But every rollercoaster has to stop, and this ride’s conclusion was Gatewood’s doing. “I just felt like I’d opened for every artist that I’ve ever listened to,” he says. “I reached the height of all that the story would be when I toured. It was awesome and a bless- ing. I got to see the USA, perform in nearly every state, it was insane. But I felt like that’s all it would be.” Most artists would be satisfied with half of Gatewood’s career to that point, but he decided to change course before he was even done with puberty. The touring was fun, but Gatewood sought a firm brand to lean on. In 2022, he launched “Take a Break,” a one-night house music festival hosted at Deep Ellum Art Co. that marked the brand’s first event and Gatewood’s musi- cal pivot toward house/dance music. “It’s a constant groove,” Gatewood says of the genre. “It’s relaxing, but you could al- ways find your footing in it.” The initial show was headlined by DLMT, and was successful enough to host a second night at Art Co. later that year on Sept. 17. The next event was at Trees in April 2023, and it sold out. The subsequent one-year anni- versary party of the brand did too. Weeks later, a Take a Break rooftop party at the Canvas Ho- tel made it a hat trick. The promotion has now hit capacity on six of its last eight shows. Take a Break isn’t leaving the Dallas scene, yet it might be going straight to your headphones. Gatewood, via Take a Break, was asked to be an official curator for Apple Music’s DJ Mix Series, making years of un- authorized DJ mixes available on streaming and marking the first time ever that DJs could earn royalties on their mixes, with the original copyrighted artist also getting a share of the dividends too. Gatewood curated a 10-artist roster, in- cluding himself, to release individual re- corded sets on Feb. 21. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, but not without its pressures. “I wanted to represent Texas,” Gate- wood says. “Take a Break as a brand is en- capsulated by house and disco music, so when I’m booking the lineups for our ac- tual events, those are the people I listen to on a daily basis.” Arranging a set of compilation albums proved to be a lot like booking a sold-out event. The initial release includes Dallas-based Trey Kams and Austin’s Boogie Traxx, both of whom have played sets at Take a Break. Trey Nakhoda, who goes by Trey Kams on stage, met Gatewood in 2019 and has watched him at every stage of the process. “I’ve watched him grow Take a Break,” says Nakhoda. “I think this new program is great, especially catering to DJs and being able to officially put out mixes.” Brandon Keeks, who goes by Boogie Traxx, also chimed in. He started his Daft Punk-inspired project in 2017 after growing jaded as a wedding DJ. “I think a big aspect of it is you look weird if you’re not dancing,” he says of the Take a Break events. “You’re not seeing a lot of phones out or people stopping to take pic- tures. I would describe his parties as like, ‘Prepare to get sweaty.’” Keeks, Nakhoda and Gatewood himself now all have official albums released on Apple Music where listeners can prepare to get sweaty from the comfort of their home, work or commute. They’re all available to listen with an Apple Music subscription, with more re- leases planned under the Take a Break brand. Chloe Barney/Palomedia | B-SIDES | ▼ Music The budding Dallas country star is back with new music. Adoniram Renteria Take a Break enters the streaming game.
