Leah Mason Changed Her Name, Her Music — and the Way She Thought About Her Future (Exclusive)

“I can have my cake and eat it too,” she tells PEOPLE. “I love writing and I don’t feel like I should have to give that up just because I’m doing a new genre”

The drastic evolution of Leah Mason may seem somewhat jarring to some — but not to her.

“When I first started making music, I didn’t even know who I was yet,” Mason, 25, tells PEOPLE in a recent interview. “I mean, I was 18. I was too young to pick something and stick with it for the rest of my life. It’s just not realistic.”

Not too long ago, the North Carolina native burst out of the country music gate as Leah Marie Mason, looking like so many artists before her, with the long blonde hair and the sweet smile frolicking in a field of flowers. But that persona began to line up with the woman she was becoming.

“My personal style was very different from what I was portraying as an artist,” says Mason, who released her debut EP Honeydew & Hennessy back in April of 2023 following the viral success of her first single “Far Boy.” “I don’t think I’m the only artist that’s ever done that. But you also want your branding to be cohesive. So even as I was changing and growing and leaning into different styles, my branding wasn’t changing.”

But eventually, Mason found her personal and professional footing. And in doing so, she found her pop edge. “I still love lyrics and I still love visual words, and that is still my bread and butter,” she says. “And I feel like that sticks with the new music I’m making, just in an obviously different way.”