All Eyes On
This Is What a ‘Healthy Baby Boy’ Looks Like
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) has channeled his frustration — and perhaps any cruel intentions — into melodies. The Virginia native understands that people are unpredictable and he accurately portrays this in his music as lyrics build up the idea of a romantic storyline only to have it end in a dissatisfying way. Pulling from his personal experiences of one-sided love, songs such as the lead single “Adeline” or “Fav Boy” with Reed and Alessia Cara off his B...
Tainy Is a Secret Force in Modern Reggaetón
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.” Luny appreciated Tainy’s sleek production style and unwavering diligence. Consequently, Nely gifted Tainy the digital audio workstation FL Studios, and, after giving him a basic grasp on the software, Luny tasked Tainy with making a song to show his skills. After tenacious practice, Tainy’s test track ended up on Luny Tunes’ 2005 compilation album, Mas Flow 2. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tainy found himself in the cultural epice...
24kGoldn’s Call of Duty
“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 thoughts about the name until fate intervened with a 1978 classic by Frankie Beverly & Maze. “On his way home from work, he looked out over the sunset, and it was the most beautiful golden sunset he’d ever seen. And he goes and he turns on the radio, and the song ‘Golden Time of Day’ comes on. And he goes, ‘Oh, fuck, it’s a sign.’” CREDIT: Ricardo Gomes “Mood,” 24kGoldn’s collaboration with Texan rapper Iann Dior, has been No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four non-consecutive weeks since Octo...
Made in Nigeria: The Grandson of Fela Kuti Upholds His Family’s Afrobeat Message
“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 a freeform alto sax solo and lays down thick layers of drums, playing all the instruments himself. But when he sings, the Nigerian musician sounds defeated. “We must now understand just how scary it is that we are facing the same problems from the ’70s,” he murmurs during a mid-song monologue, his voice low in the mix as he echoes the frustrations of his late, great grandfather, Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. CREDIT: Optimus Dammy Throughout Fo...
The Making of Curtis Waters
“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 Abhinav Bastakoti, aka Curtis Waters. “Curtis Waters as a whole project has been around since I was a kid, a comic book character that I used to draw,” he tells SPIN. “I wanted it to feel like an alternate universe where there’s this character, but it gets kind of blurry now ‘cause I’m Curtis Waters full time.” Waters was propelled into the shoes of his persona by the success of his single “Stunnin,’” featuring his longtime friend Harm Franklin. Accumul...
Wolfgang Van Halen on Having a Hit Song, Lessons From His Father and a Prank From Van Halen’s Final Show
For the better part of the decade, when he wasn’t battling aging trolls about his lineage online, Wolfgang Van Halen was carefully crafting his own material outside the band that bore his famous last name. Going deeper into the family business, he decided to use the moniker Mammoth WVH — combining his own initials with a nod to the pre-Van Halen band of his uncle and late father, Eddie Van Halen. This week, Mammoth WVH issued his first song, “Distance,” along with its tearjerking video — featuring home footage of Wolfgang and his father enjoying candid moments, concluding with an intimate voicemail message from the guitar virtuoso. A funny thing happened following the release: The trolls went away, and the song shot to No. 1 on the iTunes music charts, staying there for a...
Infinity Knives on Defying Easy Description, Blowing Up on Bandcamp
“I used to skip class,” says Tariq Ravelomanana, recalling his adolescent years at Baltimore County’s Perry Hall High School. “We had a piano room that nobody used, so I could just go in there and play.” And even now, as a skilled musician who records under the name Infinity Knives, he describes what he can play as “anything I could get [his] hands on.” “I borrow instruments [to record],” he says. “I didn’t own a guitar until two years ago.” Ravelomanana, 28, arrived at his intuitive, self-taught musical approach during years of early travel: He was born in Tanzania, moved around Africa throughout his childhood and wound up in Maryland as a teenager. “My dad’s a conservative Muslim, and my mom’s a conservative Christian. So I wasn’t really allowed to listen to music, but I kinda snuc...
Arlo Parks Is Feeling It
Arlo Parks hasn’t enjoyed lockdown any more than the rest of us. But the 20-year-old, London-based singer/songwriter and self-described “social creature” has ridden out the year with help from the kind of oddly specific activities that populate her emotive songs. Recently it’s been photographing brightly colored flowers that has been keeping her busy. (She laughs, remembering how she asked that a recent press photoshoot be held at South London’s Rookery Gardens just so she could sneak in a few shots on her phone). There’s also been endless cups of tea drank alone, journaling, and reading list that has her tearing through David Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, and Joan Didion’s essay collection, Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Overall, she’d call herself happ...
Beabadoobee on Making Fake It Flowers for Her 15-Year-Old Self
Fake It Flowers, Bea Kristi’s debut LP as Beabadoobee, is the series of honest conversations she’s always wanted to have — drawing on childhood memories, new and old relationships and finding confidence in her 20-year-old self. The singer-songwriter emigrated with her parents from Iloilo City, Philippines to Camden in North London at age three. While she settled into her U.K. home, Kristi admits to SPIN that she was “embarrassed of how I looked and embarrassed about the lunch my dad used to pack me — rice and adobo or sinigang,” two popular Filipino dishes. And the desire to connect to her identity flowed into her first encounters with music. “I remember just being like, ‘Why is there no one who looks like me onstage?’” she says. “I had no one to kind of look up to, and it was strange.” Sh...
