Lennon Stella knows it’s been a while since she released new music — six years to be exact. But the 27-year-old songwriter needed time to relax and unwind. Or, as she puts it, slow the hell down. “I had taken some time for the first time, really in my
life,” she says. “I had been going since I was a kid. I definitely just wanted to be super intentional. The songs themselves kind of flew out, but the production, that took longer.”
The result is the enchanting Sleeping Lion, her new album out Oct. 23. It was worth the wait: the album, produced by Andy Shauf, features 12 autumnal folk gems best heard alone in your living room, with Stella delivering a raw and intimate perspective on relationships within her life. “My goal was really just to honor the songs and capture the essence of them,” she says. “Ultimately, I just wanted to make something that was very true and honest, and not let a lot of other things get in there — minds and opinions and all that.”
In the latest episode of the Rolling Stone Studio, Stella goes deep on her new album, detailing the six years it took her to get here. She also reveals the musicians who inspired it, from overlooked visionaries like Nick Drake and Connie Converse to contemporary rock stars like Geese’s Cameron Winter. Here are some highlights from the discussion.
‘Comedy Show’ Was Born From a Guitar Swap
“This one was very natural and kind of fell out,” she says of the delicate album opener, which she recently released as a single. “I actually had left my guitar a couple days prior at a different studio, and someone came to drop off my guitar that I left, and they swapped it with somebody else’s. So I had this guitar that wasn’t mine, and it actually came with the guitar part in it, and I just started playing it. I was like, ‘Oh, this sounds nice!’ And then I went a couple hours later to a session and wrote ‘Comedy Show’. So I feel like there was a nice synergy to that one. The song itself was written from a fairly low place — a heavier one for sure — a song that doesn’t really have a bow tie or a silver lining. I wasn’t feeling great. But yeah, it was a very natural one to write.”
An Original Version of the Album Was Scrapped
“I had written all the songs and I went in originally to produce them all with a band and another producer,” Stellan explains. “Everything sounded great, and we spent a long time on it, but we just got to the end and I felt like it wasn’t a hundred percent correct. And it felt silly after that much time, to put something out that didn’t feel like every fiber of my being is in this. I honestly think that somebody accidentally whispered that to me, that we could start again. And I was like, ‘Sorry, that’s a possibility?’ So I took that and I ran with it.”
It was around this time that Stella serendipitously linked up with Shauf. “I was in this very in-between period not knowing who to do it with,” she says. “I knew I wanted to keep all the same songs, but try it again and produce them in a different way. And literally in this very weird liminal space, Andy Shauf’s team reached out to mine and was like, ‘Andy’s looking to produce for other artists.’ I was like, ‘If I knew that, he would be my choice, my absolute pick of the litter.’ His records have been such a huge part of my life. So it was very magical timing, and it just made sense.”
‘Smartest Person in the Room’ Is About a Mansplainer
One of the album highlights is a sparkly upbeat track that Stella co-wrote with Ethan Gruska and her longtime collaborator Simon Wilcox. “That’s definitely the lighter of the bunch,” Stella explains. “It’s a mansplainy person that just likes to hear themselves talk and wants to be on the microphone all the time. And I feel like we’ve all been in the corner of that, where somebody is speaking to prove something to themselves. You’re being used in that moment. They’re not talking to you, and you’re irrelevant, and you’re actually the prop. That song was almost a lighthearted jab, but also in a very real way. There’s a lot of those around, and I think at some point it’s not fun to be around anymore. So yeah, that’s one of my favorites on the record for sure.”
The Album Cover Was Shot in Her Bathroom
The album cover, shot by Adam Alonzo, features Stella underneath the amber glow of a lamp, standing in her bathroom. “That was a lamp that I got at the Rose Bowl [Flea Market],” she says. “I wanted to shoot all of the photos in my house. It’s going with the record, feeling warm and cozy and intimate.”
She Doesn’t Revisit Her Early YouTube Videos
Stella and her sister Maisy started out as the country duo Lennon & Stella, which landed them roles on Nashville. But they also found success in the early days of YouTube, like their cover of Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend,” which they performed while using plastic cups as percussion. The video went viral, and currently has 31 million views. Does Stella ever revisit these videos? “Oh, never,” she says with a laugh. “Just never. That was such a whirlwind of experience. But it also happened to be right as Nashville... I mean, that’s too long of a story to even get into, but they helped each other. That helped us get our visas to be on the show. That YouTube video was pivotal for us.”
She’s Inspired by Overlooked Folk Artists
“I noticed a theme in the people that I’ve been listening to when I was making the record, and also just now,” she says. “A lot of the people that I’m drawn to are artists that didn’t get recognition at their time.” She cites Nick Drake (specifically the title track to his 1972 masterpiece Pink Moon), his mother Molly — a musician in her own right — and the mysterious singer-songwriter Connie Converse. “There’s a purity about those people that I’m really drawn to, and it really centers me,” she says. “When I listen, I feel really grounded. And honestly, it brings me to a very kid place, when I was making music for true, true, true love of it. Nobody’s hearing it, just me and a guitar.”
She’s a Big Fan of Cameron Winter
Stella also cites Heavy Metal, the 2024 solo debut from Geese’s Cameron Winter, as a huge inspiration. “I love, love, love that record,” she says. “That came out right before I was going in to re-record the record. And it re-inspired me. I was like, ‘Oh, this is so true and so pure and really exciting that this is being made right now.’ And then it started getting so much traction. I was like, ‘This makes sense.’ It’s a perfect record.”
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