THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Stephen recently invited me into the studio to hear the creation of this sophomore release, His Fire (out March, 2012) and I was rewarded in truckloads for my faith in his future. His Fire, unlike the first one, is a full concept album, meant to be heard as a complete piece. Says Leonard, "It is basically the story of a man confronting and defying freedom, fear, vulnerability, opportunity, lust, loss and death. I think these are all emotions that we deal with every day in our own weird ways and I really wanted to dive into those emotions." Those emotions, as gay men and women often turn into suicide and bullying. He's not afraid to go deep on this one, "I didn't want to write just from the perspective of it getting better. I actually wanted to dive a little deeper to what brings about those confused feelings, what it's like to approach death and loss and devastation and inequality and ultimately what it takes to derive strength to keep on keeping on."

In no place is this bridge between Stephen's personal approach to writing and his public social awareness more evident than in the track "In Your Way" (which I dubbed Radio-Hedwig or Midnight Radiohead; think Creep vs. Midnight Radio). He started it from a breakup standpoint, but soon found it had double meaning. "I was writing this at the time of all of the youth suicides, and I couldn't help but want to get into the head of the mothers or family members of those taking their lives, trying to save these boys from their soon-to-be mistakes." The effect is staggering, the double meaning obvious, yet personal to the point of feeling voyeuristic. His finest cut yet. And if "In Your Way" and some of the other new cuts are any indication, Stephen Leonard has no choice but to be the star he's meant to be. Keep an eye on this one.

Check out Stephen's debut CD at www.withapen.com/