LEELAND is a Texas-based band made of lead singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Leeland Mooring alongside guitarist and co-writer Casey Moore. They came to the forefront of the worship music sphere in 2004 and debuted their first project in 2006. Fast forward to now, after seven albums, four GRAMMY® nominations, and eight GMA Dove Award® nominations under their belts, LEELAND have become one of the most significant and standout voices in a new generation of worship music. Their lives, ministry, and music are a true extension of their passion to simply worship God personally and in community.
“Although our genesis as a band was in the Contemporary Christian Music artist stream, we’ve always been local church pastor’s kids,” Mooring explains, who spent his childhood going from town to town with his parents who ministered music in tandem with being traveling evangelists. “Half of the songs on our first studio album came out of intimate youth group worship services in our house or wherever we could meet,” he adds.
Originally formatted as a pop/rock outfit readying commercial songs for radio, LEELAND released their debut album, ‘Sounds of Melodies’, in 2006. Spawning a GRAMMY nomination and multiple Dove Award nods, the record trailblazed a new path of artistic and Levitical worship led by the band. Mooring explains that the bulk of LEELAND’s songs have always been inspired by the communion of worship. More recently, Mooring co-wrote one of the Church’s most-sung standards, ‘Lion and the Lamb’, with seasoned worship writers Brenton Brown and Brian Johnson. The song cemented his personal status as a young veteran in the sphere of modern worship music, further affirming that LEELAND as a collective are drawn into crafting songs that court congregations across the globe to worship God through the act of singing – and singing together.
The last few years have been more hidden for LEELAND, allowing them to dig deep into rich ideas and the unending depth of the Scriptures. Carrying on the legacy of their unique voice in the worship world, they announce a new album in early 2023, ‘City of God’, leaning into a fearless exploration of a pastoral and prophetic voice of worship where songs are sung together and over the people of God. ‘Heart & Flesh’, the first single featuring TAYA, sets the scene with a track infused with meditative sonorities and soul-grabbing words that unveils the artistic and Levitical universe of LEELAND’s upcoming record.
