That instinct for the personal over the polished also shows up everywhere in how “Boston” came to life on screen. The video’s warm, intimate setting was no accident, it’s a direct callback to one of Lefty’s biggest inspirations. “I was raised on Hannah Montana; I’m a big Hannah Montana girl,” she says brightly. There’s a scene in the Hannah Montana movie where Rascal Flatts and Billy Ray Cyrus are sitting outside on the front porch. She notes, “I think about that movie a lot in terms of my music, because I feel so much emotion watching it. So I wanted to kind of imitate that feeling and how it was so natural and community-minded.” She also jokes about the barn dance scene, saying that a stage full of people all dancing together is pretty much her ideal live show.

Lefty is quick to include Grace Anger in the conversation, her right hand woman and, according to Lefty, her Lola to Hannah Montana’s Miley. “In my music life, Grace is my partner in crime, like how Hannah and Lily have each other,” she says. It’s a friendship woven into almost everything she’s released.

If “Boston” is about falling in love, “Good At Leaving” is what happens on the other side of that same door — and Lefty pushes back on the idea that it represents some big pivot. “I didn’t think about it as necessarily a departure. I love this song, I love the way it makes me feel, and I like the messaging because it’s a different angle of the story,” she explains. “As much as I love being in love, I still talk about being afraid to be in love. I think ‘Good At Leaving’ is just the flip side of the coin – when I’m not letting myself fall in love, I am this other person. Humans have many sides.”

The relationship with her fanbase, the Lefties, isn’t just marketing language to her and it showed the night before we spoke at the Rock ‘N’ Horse pop-up in Toronto. With pure connection as she spotted a Toronto fan she was messaging with before her performance. Ask her about it and she doesn’t hesitate. “The thing that means the most to me, especially the way everything has transpired, is my relationship with the fans, because ‘Boston’ would not be what it is without that. Without that none of the songs would be what they are, she says. “I feel connected to them. These songs are such a part of me and the fact that [fans] can relate and feel what they feel towards the song makes me feel very close to them. It’s, we’re besties.”

Through reddit threads and comment sections, Lefty is active to reply to questions her fanbase ask, yet one question continues to come up that the lefties are dying to know; What is Stella Lefty’s makeup routine? “My go-to right now — there’s not that many things involved,” she laughs. “The Benefit Cosmetics Hoola Mette Powder Bronzer, I’ve been using that basically since I was fifteen. REFY blush, Glossier mascara, and the Pillow Talk Lip Liner from Charlotte Tilbury.” She laughs again; “I’m not great at makeup, honestly, but those are the go-tos.”

What is wild about her story is, Lefty wasn’t even aiming for a stage with a considered glam routine. She wanted to be a songwriter, full-time. She remembers precisely what it was like to be told otherwise. “At the beginning I put myself into a box. I had really bad stage fright, so I was afraid of the whole artistry thing and I didn’t see myself as an artist,” she says. “I loved being a songwriter and I was fascinated by that world. So when my team told me they saw me more as an artist and not a songwriter, I was like, you don’t get to tell me what I do.” The irony, she admits now, is that it was probably the polite way of passing her on. But a month later everything changed when she was discovered by her now-publisher, Jay Cash. “He DM’d me in July. He brought me to Nashville and we became super locked in. He told me he saw me more as an artist too, but it felt more endearing.” Partially because of the relationship they’d already built, and partly because Lefty had already begun quietly posting songs she’d written for other artists.

“It became like – everyone was like, girl, what are you doing?” Stella laughed. 

“It changed everything, because it just opened my eyes to this whole world of things that I didn’t really know existed [for me],” she says. And even now, with rooms and stages ever expanding, she’s protective of the writer she was before all of this exposure. “This whole journey, especially since ‘Thinking About You’ came out in January, all I’ve tried to do is maintain the integrity of what was there when I was younger,” she says. “I’ve been trying to channel the girl who was in her bedroom writing by herself. Those songs were obviously not great, but I love that energy. I just try to preserve that as much as possible, because the things I loved when I was younger are still the things I love now. I’m just grown up.”

That’s part of why her recent single “Something to Lose,” written with her boyfriend Vincent Mason, feels like such a natural extension and not a novelty. “It’s so special to be able to have a romantic relationship with somebody, but also create with them. Not everybody gets to have that,” she says. “It’s so much fun working with him. I’m sure we’re gonna work together a million times over in the future.” We all know that the whole internet is by storm stanning her new boyfriend and hope to hear tons from them soon.

As the singles get more streams and the stages get larger, Lefty herself admits she still has stage fright before every single show. But her ritual has not changed much. “I do a tequila shot. That’s really what it is,” she laughs. “Every time I tell my band, ‘I’m totally panicking before I get on stage, I can’t go, I’m not going. But there’s something that comes over you the second you walk on stage and see people in front of you that are so excited to be there. It gets you fired up to be there too.” 

Nothing could test that ritual quite like opening for Mumford & Sons at BST Hyde Park in front of 75,000 people this past July. “You can’t mentally prepare yourself for that, for the stage fright or anything. It’s just terrifying,” she says. “But it was so cool, because they’re incredible artists and amazing humans, and I felt so safe being up there with them. You can even see it in the video, I’m like — terrified. But they have this incredible energy on stage, and it made me feel safe. I feel so lucky to get to look up to people and then also get to sing songs with them.”

Last weekend, she surprised fans with a pop-up in Toronto, played Osheaga in Montreal, and then closed it out with a Lollapalooza set in Chicago. All three cities served as little previews of the album she’s set to release, so she was understandably nervous and grateful the whole time. When asked what’s next, Lefty doesn’t have to overthink the answer. “An album. An album very soon. And then a lot more touring.” That album has a name now: Long Way Home, arriving August 21st, led by “Lean In, Kiss Me,” out today.

The album title is fitting for an artist who has spent this entire conversation talking about staying close to who she was before any recognition or fame. To remember the girl on the bedroom floor, the college student who didn’t know this could be a job, the songwriter who reluctantly became a star. All roads Stella Lefty has walked this year have led her back to the same place: herself, and the people who write, sing and show up right alongside her.

Photographer: Jack Balaban