A relatively new musical duo — Stucky Leigh — will be bringing its “cheeky indie-folk” songs to Poway on Friday night.
Will Stucky and Lauren Leigh will be the lead act for the San Diego Folk Heritage concert at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 20 in Old Poway Park’s Templars Hall, 14134 Midland Road.
Opening for them will be Aaron Bowen, an acoustic jazz/folk artist with a European flair. His music is described as “Django Reinhardt meets Paul Simon.”
Stucky and Leigh have had solo careers for many years. While Stucky has been in duos before, Leigh said this is her first time for this type of collaboration.
When not performing as a soloist Leigh has worked with bands such as Carry The Stone (a Pink Floyd tribute band), Shag Rabbit (a ‘60s psychedelic soul band) and as a guest artist with Back to the Garden.
The San Diego native grew up in a musical family. Her father is professional guitarist Claudio Martin, whom she said is “beloved throughout San Diego,” and her maternal aunt is Eve Selis, a well-known singer in the region.
For over a decade Leigh has been a professional vocalist. She is also an award-winning songwriter. Her first album, “Flare,” was released in 2020. In recent years she has received five San Diego Music Award nominations and she won Best Pop Song in 2022 for her song “Trust Fall.”
Stucky, an Oklahoma native, moved to San Diego in 2020. He said his path to a singer-songwriter career began at age 5 when his parents signed him up for violin lessons.
He graduated from Oklahoma City University with a bachelor’s degree in music composition. It was there that his current path began.
“At the time, I thought I would become a film composer,” Stucky said. “But I started falling in love with songwriting late in college. After college a high school friend and I wrote together and I discovered writing with somebody was fun because I could bounce ideas off of them. Two people is better than one.”
The duo met a couple years ago when Stucky started attending the weekly Writers Round San Diego events that Leigh has been leading for the past year in Normal Heights. They became friends, realized their music styles blended and started writing music together. Months later their friendship turned into love, Leigh said.
“We were a couple of friends for a long time; (our relationship) formed very naturally,” she said, explaining that as they talked while writing music they discovered their lives were very compatible.
“I really loved his songwriting style, voice and when he plays the guitar,” Leigh added.
“I am really excited to write and perform with Lauren because she is a fantastic songwriter and an amazing performer,” Stucky said. “It was her performing that drew me in and I wanted to check out what she was doing.”
Stucky said his solo style is more pop rock, while Leigh’s is more pop-centric, pop folk.
Leigh said she started out as an Americana artist but in recent years has been more experimental with electronic songs instead of traditional Americana folk.
She described their combined music as “folksy romantic.” While a lot of their songs are love songs, Leigh said they do explore weighty topics. Their music is about “the nuanced ups and downs of life in a cheeky indie-folk fashion.”
According to Leigh, “Both of us have experienced varying levels of trauma in relationships, whether that was physical or grief. It informs our lyrical topics … and helps us process the trauma we have been through.”
Their early music, especially the first song they released late last year — “Feel This Way” — is very “flirtatious and cheeky,” she said.
While the Poway concert will feature a lot of their more fun, romantic songs, Leigh said because it is longer in length, somber pieces such as “The World is a Good Place” will likely also make it on the playlist.
“It was not fun to write, but definitely was part of my healing process,” she said. “(Will) helped me write it, to get out the thoughts I was having.”
The song was written for her now 15-year-old son, Jack, to reassure him that the trauma they experienced before leaving a domestic violence situation would get better, she said.
“My strength is lyrics and melody,” Leigh said. “We both play guitar and (Will) plays piano. … I love performing with him. We are natural and perfect together.”
Both said they enjoy songwriting best.
“Songwriting uses a different part of the brain from performing, which is personal and vulnerable,” Leigh said. “When on stage, the song does not belong to us anymore. It is a drastically different experience (from writing).”
Stucky said he sometimes feels “impostor syndrome” when in front of an audience.
“When performing, my songs are 90 percent very personal … It feels like I am reading a diary to a stranger, which is mildly uncomfortable for me. … In the back of my head, I feel like I am divulging too much information.”
But being so vulnerable and exploring all these nuances is what makes their music unique, Stucky added.
Tickets are $18 for general admission, $15 for SDFH members and free to youths 17 and younger. Buy at the door or in advance at ticketweb.com. There is a nominal extra fee when buying online. For details, visit sdfolkheritage.org.
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