CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – This month, as most students are settling into their school year routine, one Crozet 13-year-old will be attending her own album release party at Starr Hill Brewery.

Leah Kagarise, an energetic, soccer-playing, singer-songwriter, has already accomplished what many veteran musicians aspire to do. She has performed at area venues like The Bistro in Lake Monticello, Pro Re Nata in Crozet, Starr Hill Brewery in Crozet and took the stage at The Southern Café and Music Hall in Charlottesville for their Singer-Songwriter Showcase.

Kagarise has accumulated over eight thousand followers on Instagram at Leahs lyrics, with one post achieving nearly seven-hundred thousand views. Her music is available to stream on Spotify and all major music platforms, making it easy for fans everywhere to listen and discover her sound.

She started developing that sound when she was very young.

“She just was always stomping around, clapping her hands to a beat, singing a song,” Beth Kagarise, her mother, told Cville Right Now. “She’s always just had it in her.”

Kagarise’s love of music and songwriting became more entrenched during the pandemic when she started taking guitar lessons.  Her first two years of lessons happened over Zoom, and she never met her first guitar instructor in-person.

“I think the fact that she was able to practice so much initially was what really got it to stick and become such a good hobby,” Beth Kagarise said.

It’s a hobby that led to live performances and then to the studio with an album worth of songs titled “False Love,” which drops this month.

“It’s called ‘False Love’ and that’s actually the name of one of the songs I have out now,” Leah Kagarise said. “I just thought that was a cool name, and I also liked it because most of the songs I’ve written aren’t actually real, so it’s like, ‘False Love.’ They didn’t actually happen in real life.”

Her songs come from storytelling. She said that she likes getting into someone else’s world. Leah writes songs that are mostly fictional. Although occasionally events from her own life have inspired her songs. Her idea for “Waiting Game” came from her experiences when she had a broken arm.

Kagarise hopes to influence other young musicians.

“It might be cool to hear that someone who’s 13 and is releasing music and maybe it’ll inspire other people who are younger to release their songs,” she said.

The process of recording a studio album has taken nearly a year. She recorded at LEV Records in Lake Monticello under producer Darryl Gibson. Kagarise said it was a very fun and good process to do. She is very excited about the album release which comes later this month.

Kagarise said she’s been “surprised” at the level of support she’s received for her album.

“Like my neighborhood, everybody, so many people have told me they’ve listened to it,” she said.

She hopes people will hear her music and think her writing is intriguing and relatable.

Even with an album already done at 13, Kagarise said she’s unsure if music will be her future career.

“I never want to get my hopes up too high, but if there is a day where music could be like my only job and I do that for a living? That would be so fun,” she said. “I’ll continue to write songs no matter what just because I love doing it.”

Her mother elaborated that the family is taking it very cautiously. They want to make sure there isn’t too much pressure and that Leah continues having fun with it.

“Even the videos she does online, we’re like, ‘You could stop today and it’s fine,'” Beth Kagarise said.

Organization is a factor for Leah.  After all, she is only thirteen and has homework and soccer practice, too.

“I definitely learned time management after middle school started,” she said.