Many struggling musicians dream of the phone call that radically alters their career. For most, it remains a fantasy. The phone never rings. Or seemingly promising conversations with industry grifters don’t pan out. For Morray, the 28-year-old North Carolina native behind some of the most soulful trap music in contemporary rap, the call came in […]
Olivia Rodrigo stares at her computer screen, desperately trying to focus on her homework. The 17-year-old is finishing her senior year of high school online, between busy shoots on location for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, the hit Disney+ show in which she co-stars. But who can concentrate when you’ve got the hottest […]
Eric Christopher—vocalist of Hospital Bracelet—was already considering music as a full time job before making it a reality. “I was debating this decision for weeks,” they tell SPIN over the phone on a December night. “Then, it was on our last day of tour and I ran into my friend at our last show. They […]
Only 17, Analise Hoveyda has already had a career that many music and Hollywood veterans would be envious of. When she was 14, she appeared in 2018’s A Wrinkle in Time alongside Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey and now, is looking to build on her music career that started when she was 12. Hoveyda is under no […]
John-Robert hates being a hopeless romantic. He’s tired of music poeticizing unrequited love. Instead, the singer-songwriter has been reflecting on himself, realizing that he should have “more self-esteem, and to ask more of a partner.” However, bad love does make for good music, and the 20-year-old (who bears a resemblance to a young Ryan Phillippe) […]
At 15 years old, reggaetón producer Marco Masís, artistically known as Tainy, couldn’t have imagined being the backbone of some of the new millennium’s biggest Latin hits. A fortunate encounter with the producer Nely “El Arma Secreta,” led to his demo being passed to Luny Tunes, the production duo responsible for Daddy Yankee’s ubiquitous “Gasolina.” […]
“Yeah, that’s my real name,” Golden Von Jones, better known as rapper 24kGoldn, tells SPIN over the phone from L.A., where it’s 10:30 am and he just woke up. “Being born in 2000, in the Chinese Zodiac, it’s also the Year of the Golden Dragon.” The idea came from his father, who was having second […]
When Bailey Bryan first came to Nashville in 2013, she wanted to be the next Taylor Swift. As she attended songwriting workshops run by a family friend and signed her first publishing deal, the then 15-year-old singer could already imagine her own country-pop origin story: She hailed from a small town in Washington state. She […]
“A self-centered way of life will bring all of us down in the end,” Made Kuti sighs on “Different Streets,” the saddest funky track to come out in 2020. The song [a cut off his forthcoming solo album, For(e)ward] starts off on an invigorating note, with an Afrobeat rhythm driven by a pulsing riff. Kuti delivers […]
“Dad’s coat,” one bubble reads. “Brother’s shirt, Mom’s pants,” read little arrows, tracing the origins of the tuxedo flailing across the screen. The belt, however, belongs to the body it’s on. As does the song it dances to and these helpful tidbits from the accompanying “pop up” music video — all from the restless imagination of […]