Leon Bridges is happy he hasn’t spent the pandemic alone. Hunkered down in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas with one of his bandmates, the soul singer is gearing up for the release of his third studio album, Gold-Diggers Sound.

The 31-year-old made his stunning debut in 2015, with a vintage, ‘50s and ‘60s soul record. Coming Home was heralded as one of the best albums of the year by critics and fans alike, and shot Bridges to immediate stardom. His honeyed voice and richly textured, brassy sound gained him many a Sam Cooke comparison.

But even though Cooke may be an idol for Bridges, he soon tired of that parallel. His sophomore album, Good Thing, polarised fans with its brash, sexy, distinctly modern stylings. Some people felt he should stay in his lane, others welcomed the deviation. On Gold-Diggers Sound, Bridges seems to have found a happy medium between the two. But to a certain extent, he is cheekily buoyed by the words of his critics. The album is populated in large part by pop-tinged R&B beats and lyrics that tread the line between sex and romance. Bridges has transitioned from the bashful, hopeless romantic on Coming Home through the bombast of Good Thing, and into something a little more sleek and mature.

“The way this album was made is almost a rare thing today,” he says. “Basically, Gold-Diggers Sound is this multifaceted compound in East Hollywood. There’s a hotel, studio, and bar aspect, and I basically lived in, partied in and created music there. All of these songs were derived from improvisational jamming. It’s how people made music in the past, so it was really nice.”

Bridges used to improv with friends at college, so the medium was somewhat familiar to him.

“I feel like that’s what really sparked my love for writing and music,” he reflects. He was pursuing dance at the time, but during spare moments, would connect with musicians on the campus.

“We would all get together and do these little jam sessions. We would freestyle about everything under the sun,” he laughs.

“I’ve always fundamentally been a hip-hop dancer. When I got to college, I noticed that there were these kids, friends of my brother from the hood, and they were taking ballet classes. I’d never seen that before. I wanted to expand my dance knowledge, so I ended up learning a little bit of ballet, jazz and modern dance over the course of about three years.”

Growing up in Texas, Bridges had humble but happy beginnings.

“I was pretty much sheltered for the most part,” he says, “but I had a really awesome upbringing. You know, my parents separated when I was seven-years-old. My mother stayed in the suburbs, but my father moved to what is essentially the hood part of Fort Worth. I got to see both worlds. It was more of a culture shock when I moved to my father’s – being a shy kid in the midst of hood kids was definitely a crazy transition. But I had a good upbringing, in spite of that.”

Still a little shy, it takes a few minutes for Bridges to settle into a comfortable rhythm. But he loves talking about his home, and found new appreciation for it after spending so much time on the road.

“There’s a lot of people in Fort Worth who aspire to leave, and now I kind of have a different perspective,” he admits. “I appreciate travelling, but it’s grounding to know that I can always return to Fort Worth, where it’s really low key, really chill. The people here are super down to earth.”

His favourite tattoo is also a reference to his hometown.

“It’s 817, which is my area code. I went to Norway, and one of my good friends from home happened to be in town. I went to see his gig, and post-show, we shared a bottle of Jameson and gave each other stick and poke tattoos. It’s the shittiest tattoo on my body, but I love it.”

A church-goer as a child – “that was the thing to do, every Sunday” – Bridges ultimately established his own relationship with God when he turned 18. “That’s why I wrote songs like ‘River’,” he says of a stunningly intimate cut from Coming Home that straddles the ecclesiastic and romantic worlds.

“That was something that I had to navigate through initially – just being conscious of the songs I was writing,” he says. “They were definitely more romantically-oriented. I felt apprehensive writing those songs, and the fear of my church community and my mother hearing them. There was a fear of not being accepted, but luckily I was able to get through all of that.”

Some of Bridges’ harshest critics, however, aren’t folks from church. They’re those that dismiss his music as not being "black enough". It's a topic I’ve discovered is brought up often when talking about Bridges and his music. I wonder if that’s a criticism that one can ever simply forget about – or one that stops being hurtful over time.

“Hearing those things regarding me is disheartening,” he says, after a long silence. “I’ve had both sides of it. When I’m expressing myself, in my element, dancing with my friends to rap music, or wearing a grill... doing things that deviate from how people perceive the persona of a soul artist, it’s also viewed as disingenuous. Basically, anything that I create and put out is black, because it comes from a black man.”

If there’s something Bridges hasn't tended to explore with urgency (until perhaps this album), it’s politics. 'Sweeter,' which comes near the close of Gold-Diggers Sound, is one of the more notably political tracks in Bridges' repertoire. It might seem strange that it took Bridges so long to address these issues, but it also doesn't sit right to expect every artist of colour to become a spokesperson for their community.

“People want us to be the mouthpiece, you know?” he says. “I just want to be able to freely express myself, and not be held within the confines of where people want me to be.”

Does he think he’s achieved that on this album?

“Definitely,” he beams. “I’ve always been true to myself. Each album I’ve done in the past is a reflection of where I was creatively at that time, and this album is reflective of the things that inspire me currently.

“I don’t know what the outcome of it is, but I’m kind of over shaping the music in a way that gains it more black followers, or whatever,” he continues. “I wanted to make something that resonated with me. If it resonates with everyone else, then cool, but it’s a body of work that I’m really proud of.”

Listen to Gold-Diggers Sound below.