Moving Forward

Leon Bridges eclectic third album Gold-Diggers Sound finds the acclaimed singer-songwriter further moving away from the ’60s retro-soul feel of his breakout debut

- DAVID CHIU

LOCATED ON LOS ANGELES’ SANTA MONICA Boulevard, Gold-Diggers is not your typical recording complex. Dating back to the 1920s, the East Hollywood building has gone through various incarnations: first as an inn and tavern; then as a film studio where scenes for Ed Wood’s infamous sci-fi flick Plan 9 From Outer Space were shot; and later as a rehearsal space for the likes of the Doors and Guns N’ Roses; After it was bought and renovated a few years ago, the property now houses nine studio recording rooms, an 11-room boutique hotel and a bar. For Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Leon Bridges, Gold-Diggers became a second home where he lived as well as wrote and recorded his latest music.

“A friend of mine and I threw a Grammy pre-party there,” Bridges, who discovered the place in 2018, recalls. “I was totally unaware of the studio-in-hotel aspect. Gold-Diggers had a history of being used as a soundstage in the ’40s for some films, and a strip club—a lot of crazy history about it. We felt the only way to unlock this unique sound was to fully immerse ourselves in a place that was aesthetically inspiring, considering we would be spending a lot of time in this place. It just feels like stepping in a time machine, and that was kind of one of the things that drew me to it.”

The result of that time spent at the complex is Gold-Diggers Sound (due out on July 23 on Columbia Records), Bridges’ third studio record. Like its predecessor Good Thing from three years ago, the new record marks a stylistic diversion from the early ’60s R&B sound of his breakout first album, 2015’s Coming Home. One can hear more contemporary influences like neo-soul, hip-hop and jazz on