Leonidas Lainakis was born in Chania in 1984. His father's friends, teachers and associates contributed to his musical education, "legends" of Cretan and folk music, such as Kostas Papadakis or Naftis, Giorgos Tsagarakis (or Tzimakis), Iordanis Tsomidis, Michalis Polychronakis, Giorgos Gombakis, Petros Karpathakis, and many other notable musicians, such as Lefteris Sartzetakis.

He was taught and studied a variety of musical idioms, most notably those of the Cretan music tradition, which he serves faithfully. He is particularly involved in the research, rescue and promotion of urban folk music of Western Crete, the so-called "Tampachaniotika" songs. He is an expert at playing the lute, the bulgari and the three-string bouzouki. In 2004 he created his own musical ensemble, which performs the Tampachaniotika songs, Kissamatic folk dance, traditional music from the rest of Crete and Greece, and old rebetika and traditional music from Smyrni. He participates in concerts and presentations of Cretan traditional music, in music and dance festivals, and he is the person in charge of coordinating the "Rotonda" music festival.

In recent years he has also been involved in instrument making, especially the restoration and revival of the original bulgari instrument, as well as the manufacture of lutes and other traditional instruments, giving priority to the highest quality in both music and construction. Additionally, he takes part in teaching traditional music by teaching the bulgari, the lute, and other traditional instruments in his workshop. He is also involved in music composing, having worked on music documentaries and films, while in 2012 he published along with his father and sister the book "Tampachaniotika, Urban Songs of Western Crete", along with a music disc with 16 well-known and unpublished tampachaniotika songs.