All Eyes On
Meet Me @ The Altar Are the Role Models They Always Wanted
From Paramore to Blink-182, it’s no secret that pop punk has long been dominated by white people. But Gen Z newcomers Meet Me @ The Altar want to change that and become the role models they wish they had growing up. “Even when we were 14 years old and the band just started, we were aware of the lack of representation in the scene well before anyone else was just because that’s who we are,” says guitarist-bassist Téa Campbell over Zoom from the band’s shared home in Orlando. “When a white man sees themself on stage, they don’t think about everyone else that’s not seeing themselves on stage, and obviously we did.” Like most people these days, Meet Me @ The Altar, met the only way people meet in the digital age: online. “That’s so Gen Z of us,” lead singer Edith Johnson laughs over Zoom...
The Rebirth of Tommy Genesis, Fetish Rap’s Royal Highness
Tommy Genesis’ upcoming album, Goldilocks x, is a loaded fairytale. There’s a track with a banging house beat; another she describes as her “Drake moment,” where she goes full-blown Tommy-the-singer; and an entire middle section she calls a “Charlie Heat EP” — a string of tracks produced by the in-demand beatmaker. After giving pretty much everything a try on this album, the project name was a no-brainer. She thinks she got the blend just right. “You know in ‘Goldilocks’ where she’s like, ‘It’s too hot, it’s too cold, this chair is too big, it’s too small?’” Tommy asks over the phone, shortly before announcing the record, out Sept. 10 via Downtown Records. “‘Goldilocks’ is the sweet spot. And the ‘x’ is experimental. For me, it’s about finding that sweet spot and all...
Cody Frost Isn’t Here to Please You
Many musicians have succumbed to the self-deprecation trend, where their attempts to appear “woke” or “vulnerable” comes across as artificial. That’s not the case with Cody Frost. The 23-year-old is a riot during our Zoom interview, casually poking fun at herself as her clown-red hair bustles with every chuckle. Chalk it up to England’s signature dark sense of humor (Frost hails from the country’s Midlands region) or her general self-awareness, but the queer British alt-pop artist’s unguarded nature bleeds into her debut EP It’s Not Real. Out on July 16, it addresses themes from coping with mental health (“Stomachaches) to giving a middle finger to higher authorities (“Verbal Warnings”) with production by Dan Weller (Enter Shikari, Young Guns, Babymetal). Frost’s music has a DIY approach, ...
Mariah the Scientist Is the Genre-Bending Artist Crafting Her Own Road to Stardom
Mariah the Scientist’s name has a mysterious aura, an ode to her background as a biology student, though she now experiments with music. The 23-year-old singer joins our Zoom call from her home in Atlanta, where she’s just finished touching up her hair. While her new project boasts features from artists like Young Thug and Lil Baby, the artist still views herself humbly. Still in the early stages of her career, she’s now released Ry Ry World, a project two years in the making following her 2019 major label debut Master. Prior to the mainstream leap, she was discovered through the release of her debut EP, To Die For, on SoundCloud in 2018. Having dropped out of St. John’s University in New York to pursue a career in music, Mariah casually details how a fun hobby changed her life traje...
Faye Webster Speaks the Truth, Bluntly
Faye Webster is one of the best singer-songwriters on the planet. The Atlanta native, 24, seamlessly channels anxiety and humor with a candidness that makes her music relatable. This is most apparent on her latest album, I Know I’m Funny haha. Written and recorded prior to the pandemic, it’s earned universal plaudits and captured the imagination of her growing fanbase. But Webster, who says she’s always been “introverted,” shrugs off the praise. “I could have put this album out, and [have] almost nobody pay attention to it, and I would still be a very happy person,” Webster tells SPIN over Zoom from her East Atlanta hideout. Despite the acclaim, it’s hard to know who likes and doesn’t like what she’s done — and she doesn’t really care. “It’s like, I’m writing these songs to express myself ...
Getting Real With Girlfriends
When Nick Gross and Travis Mills first entered the music business, reality was an afterthought. It was 2006, the height of Laguna Beach fascination, when a 17-year-old Gross signed his first major-label deal, due in large part to his bandmates’ newfound celebrity (See: pseudo-scripted romances) on the tastemaking MTV show. The group, an Incubus-adjacent outfit called Open Air Stereo, broke up two years later. And it was 2011 when Mills, a 21-year-old bedroom rapper with emo flare, inked a contract with Columbia Records under the name T. Mills, at the expense of his authenticity. “I wanted so badly to be successful when I was younger, that I would say things that weren’t necessarily true, or I would kind of embellish on things and create these fun, hype songs,” Mills tells SPIN. Flash...
Frances Forever Is Ready to Create a Conversation
It’s not easy for Frances Garrett, aka the burgeoning New England-based pop artist, Frances Forever, to complete anything. Diagnosed with ADHD, along with their battle with depression and “imposter syndrome,” Garrett feels real relief if they achieve a goal. But when they do, often a new world opens up for both them and their fans. Take, for example, their hit single, “Space Girl.” The romantic song, which boasts some 50 million Spotify streams since its March 2020 release, offers an imagined galaxy and authentic new territory for Garrett. But this act of space making isn’t a simple one for the musician, who prizes awareness of mental health often above all else. “Creating a conversation,” Garrett says. “Letting people know that they are not the only person feeling depression i...
Jxdn Is Next
Jaden Hossler will not bullshit you. “I didn’t grow up listening to punk music,” he says. “I didn’t fall in love with it immediately.” Just days before the release of his debut album Tell Me About Tomorrow — a deliriously catchy pop-punk effort produced and shepherded by Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker — the 20-year-old singer and TikTok star admits that only last year did he begin listening to bands like Taking Back Sunday, Finch and Silverstein. He discovered the Descendants only because he was about to wear the band’s t-shirt in a music video. He might have never indulged in the stuff at all, if not for his favorite acts — Juice WRLD, XXXTentacion and Lil Uzi Vert — declaring their preferred groups were all rock bands. Now, he’s obsessed. “I’m really just trying to learn more and more,”...
Curtis Braly Is Out There
“I get excited, nervous, scared out of my mind, and I feel them all at once,” Curtis Braly says about releasing new music. But this time seems especially important because he’s using this opportunity to address his experience as a gay country artist. “If you’re looking for the love of your life – or just looking for the love of your night – baby, that should be me,” Braly sings on his jaunty new single, “That Should Be Me.” This good-natured swagger has a serious undertone, though, as his overall aim is “about championing all of the outsiders and misfits who look to the naked eye like they don’t belong, but I want them to know that they do,” he says. “That’s the overall story that I’m trying to tell and prove with this song and music video.” Braly knows this bold approach might be a ...
PRICIE Lets It All Out
The multi-hyphenate PRICIE throws herself into every aspect of her art: rapping, singing, songwriting, singing and dancing. And that level of focus has helped propel her vibrant breakout songs: “too dang good,” which debuted on Australia’s triple j: unearthed, and her recent “FRIENDZONE,” featuring Genesis Owusu. “You can never plan how you’re going to write a song,” PRICIE tells SPIN about the making of “too dang good,” which first emerged in the final minutes of a studio session with fellow Melbourne artist Lucianblomkamp. “It came from a lot of emotion, and a lot of certainty. It solidified my confidence in making a decision when I was in a very awkward relationship.” This confidence shines through the song’s emphatic lyrics and delivery: “I look too good to be fucking with yo...
Willa Amai Is Ready to Speak for Herself
At first glance, Willa Amai’s album title sounds like something an overzealous child might brag about to their babysitter (as soon as their parents leave). I Can Go To Bed Whenever. And to some extent, the folk-pop newcomer means it that way. At 17, Amai views her debut LP as a coming-of-age story — an exploration of adulthood as she finishes her junior year of high school. The deeper context, however, speaks to the Los Angeles teen’s mental health journey, and how a childhood diagnosis of anxiety disorder manifested itself, even as then-13-year-old Amai was going viral on YouTube for her ethereal cover of Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” in 2017. “I had a fear of not sleeping,” Amai tells SPIN over the phone. “From fourth grade to eighth grade, I made my mom promise me that ...
Carly Pearce’s Candid Country
Carly Pearce has become a major country artist, with two chart-topping singles and more than a billion collective streams across the major streamers, but she isn’t about to start presenting herself as some glamorous star. “I’m really, really not trying to make you think I’m perfect,” she tells SPIN over the phone from her Nashville home. “I am just very unapologetically myself. I don’t think I know how to not be honest. I have to tell the whole truth in my lyrics to be able to really stand behind them. I have to really feel it.” Pearce proved this with 29, the EP she released in February, which chronicles an exceptionally eventful year of her life during which she lost her longtime producer busbee to cancer, and then she married (and, eight months later, divorced) fellow country artist Mic...
