It’s apt praise to call Australian-born singer-songwriter Leah Martin-Brown a breakout artist. But any surprise the term “breakout” implies is on us, because one listen is all it takes to know we should have been paying attention sooner. Hear first band Lilly Rouge was creating a buzz in the early 2010s, with successor Evol Walks building a robust following soon after. After touring clubs and festivals steadily since high school, the Covid pandemic imposed a studio-only hiatus, which she took in Stockholm, Sweden, where she would connect with super-producers Mutt Lange Tony Nilsson, and mix engineer Tommy Denander. Now a solo artist signed to Frontiers Records, Ms. Martin-Brown explores pop territory without sacrificing the hard-rock energy of her formative work. Her voice melts faces off, and the torches that channels its heat are AUDIX microphones: the OMX series (especially the OMX-E) onstage and the A231 for studio recording. Just after hosting the video premiere of her third single “Shush,” she spoke with AUDIX about her musical roots and her new favorite microphones.
“I didn’t know that I was a good singer until maybe fifth grade, when we had this assignment at school where each of us had to get up and sing,” she begins. “I sang the part, and my teacher reacted, ‘Oh, so you’re a singer?’ I was, like, ‘I am? Why yes, I am!’”
“I had always been aware of the AUDIX brand, starting with knowing they made great drum mics,” Leah continues. “last year I got a call from [engineer and producer] Kevin Majorino, whom I’d met backstage at a show in Utah. He invited me to do some recordings at Studio 606, which is Dave Grohl’s private studio. We did an acoustic version my second big single, ‘Hysterical Love.’ So, of course I went, and for handheld vocal mics we were working with the OMX series. I remember thinking, ‘These sound insane!’”
The OMX series comprises three dynamic mics. The OMX-E is designed for singers who vary mic distance; the OMX-T is best for sharing the stage with loud instruments; and the OMX-M fuses a medium-tight pickup zone with mid-high presence. It was the OMX-E that most captured Martin-Brown’s attention.
“The OMX-E picked up nuances of my voice I had literally never heard in an amplified context before,” she recalls. “It really captured the midrange as well as lower tones, making them very smooth and caramel-y. There was simply this depth. It didn’t make me sound harsh or strident, which some mics can do on my voice if they’re not mixed carefully.”
Where the Studio 606 sessions took a “live band in the studio” approach and hence employed OMX stage mics, studio recording and songwriting finds Martin-Brown singing into her relatively new A231 large-diaphragm condenser.
“I’ve previously used the German mic people most associate with studio vocals, but the A231 has been replacing it,” she says. “It picks up so much detail and has such dynamic range. I can whisper into it, then back off and yell. It responds well to me changing my proximity as a performance technique. The real point is about the emotions. I find the A231 lets me capture any emotion in the booth, whatever the moment of the song demands.”
Martin-Brown also finds that AUDIX quality and values match her own. “The truth is that today, being an artist is running a small business,” she points out. “You have to trust yourself more than you trust anyone else. But also, have faith that some people you meet along the way really do want to help. AUDIX certainly has. Believe in yourself, but you’re going to have to work really hard, because you don’t chart a song or play a festival by sitting in your room and believing.”
