Leitmotif was produced and engineered by Dredg and Travis Crenshaw, and was recorded at Brilliant Studios in San Francisco, CA. As claimed in the booklet 'all instruments and sounds are real. All of the music on this album is created by Dredg, there are no samples. Most of the lyrics can be found at Traversing Archived at the Wayback Machine the lyrics to parts of several verses (and most of one whole song) are unknown outside the band. Aside from the difference in artwork, the two versions of Leitmotif remain nearly identical. The older case features the cover pictured, to the upper right, as well as more brown and blue topographical photos on the case and the booklet which are similar to the cover. Why can't we live like tribes?' printed on the inner sleeve a phrase used in the lyrics to Triangle on Dredg's next album, El Cielo. The newer case features the uniform brown paper package with white text as pictured, to the lower right, with only the phrase 'We live like penguins in the desert. Interscope Records re-released Leitmotif unchanged from its original version, both in the recording and in the booklet's text, essentially duplicating the band's original, independently released demo. A ' leitmotif' is also a recurring musical theme associated within a particular piece of music with a particular person, place or idea.

The album was originally self-released on May 30, 1999, through the band's own label, Woven Recordings, before being nationally re-released in the United States by Interscope Records, with different artwork, on September 11, 2001. Leitmotif is the debut studio album by American rock band Dredg.

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