Moses Sumney

Moses Sumney has emerged in the past year as an independent artist to watch, riding a wave of word-of-mouth praise based on hushed recordings and dynamic live performances. Raised between Southern California and Ghana, he was so shy growing up that he would write songs avidly but hide them inside his mattress. After moving to Los Angeles to attend UCLA at age 20, he taught himself to play the guitar and gingerly started performing on campus, writing soul-infused folk tunes using guitar and layered arrangements built on loop pedals.
While Moses was searching to record his music for the first time, Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio) lent him his 80s 4-track cassette recorder. With this, he recorded his debut EP, Mid-City Island, isolated in his Los Angeles studio apartment. Since its quiet self-release, he has gone on to perform around the world alongside forebears like Beck, Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and Local Natives.
Recently, SPIN Magazine described him as a "soul-folk warrior," and Pigeons & Planes called his voice a "breathing instrument that suggests a depth of feeling lyrics can only partially express." Meanwhile, Moses is steadily working on his debut album.