Isaac Dunbar Takes Our Pop Quiz
office gave Isaac an impromptu pop quiz where there are no wrong answers... except, of course, the wrong ones.
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office gave Isaac an impromptu pop quiz where there are no wrong answers... except, of course, the wrong ones.
He quickly felt isolated from his high school peers once arriving on the scene, he was tackling being a student and a sensation at once, but this was a greater escape than anyone could've foreseen for him. His first single, "dismay" landed in obscure and popular YouTube videos and quickly gained traction from there. Now he leads with his newest project, Things With Wings, and says the biggest difference between his music now and then is maturity.
Things With Wings is available on May 20th, 2022, but in the meantime read the interview with the artist below.
Can you take us back to the first moment when you believed that this could be your career?
To bring it all the way back, I believe that my entire situation was that I would scroll through YouTube a lot. I wanted to like find music because I would just either listen to the stuff that my parents put me onto, or the radio. I wanted to see since Tumblr was going crazy, and there was this whole YouTube side of people uploading music, I wanted to find stuff. And I found this one song where this artist, his name is Benny Mills, and this song was called "Western." It was like really literally hard rap song. And I was like, 'nah, I could do this.' And that was when I was like 12 years old. I was like still in middle school. And that's when I downloaded it, I felt it for the first time, but I really didn't start to experiment until I got into like high school.
Were you always a kid of the internet, and constantly scrolling trying to find new things to be interested in? Like, what was your Tumblr blog about? What were you looking at on YouTube?
I was looking at like monochrome pictures. I was looking at Renaissance art, I was a nerd. I was just looking at like the stuff that I thought was aesthetically pleasing because that's what Tumblr was for at one point. And people have so many different reasons for why they use it, but my sister had Tumblr and I was like, 'nah, what is this?' And it just put me on a lot of stuff, I didn't really blog like that, I was an observer, not a post-er.
I feel like Tumblr gives you such a superiority complex. I remember seriously being on there when I was like 12-14, and just being like, "no one understands me."
I have the same shit! Like, "no one gets it. I'm misunderstood."
So with being a kid of the internet, it can honestly make you feel a little bit isolated. Did you ever feel like music or feel like whatever art form you were into at that time was like a great escape from what you were doing in your daily life?
It was a total shift. It was an entire life-changing type of thing for me. It was an escape that you can't describe. Like, I was able to have an outlet where I could throw everything that like plagued me in a sense into one thing into one little file. And I was able to revisit it when I wanted to and share it with people, and know that other people who are doing the same thing as me and are going through the same stuff. It was very calming. It was a sense of feeling grounded. And that's literally all I had for my years in high school.
Do you remember who was plaguing you at that moment and what you would tell your younger self now?
From ages, like 13 to17, it was like there's something wrong with my brain and I need to figure it out. It was a lot of things, I had like raging OCD, raging ADHD. I had anxiety, It was like terrible. And it was a mixture of all those things, like every day. And it was just like a journey of figuring out, 'okay, this is normal. I don't know why I'm feeling like this, but this is normal.'
Do you remember what music was getting you through that time? Was there was a soundtrack for your life at that time?
Oh man, SoundCloud was the biggest fucking thing on the planet, like in my eyes. I was listening to like SoundCloud rappers that like nobody knew who they were. So like a lot of like rip turtle got me through a lot of shit, like PPGCasper. I was listening to like Carti, UNO, Fani, and indie music. So it was a mixture of like SoundCloud music and indie music. And that's all I would listen to literally.
There's such a psychology behind music and how it makes you feel, and how making music yourself should make others feel. Does that go through your mind when you're making music or do you just make music for yourself?
It's a mixture of two different things. I believe that music is something sacrilegious. It's not something that's just a creation and it's just like, 'oh, I made this song.' Music is a language. Music is like ways that you could talk to somebody that you have no idea who they are and they could listen to you. Even if it's like, oh, I like this song, but that's not really what people are there for. They're there to experience what the song is, even if they don't know it. Subconsciously they're tapping into your existence. And that's why I love music so much is because I've always had a problem with looking at people and being like something's going on in their brain. Like they're existing. They have a totally different life than I do. They have a separate life than I do. I don't know how they feel, but when I'm able to listen to somebody's music or vice versa, they're able to tap into my existence and see my world through my eyes. And I think that's beautiful.
That's so true about music being a language because I feel like I often view music as an experience and an activity. People always think of music as something that serves in the background of experiences.
It can't be, it literally can't be. There's no way that music can just be a brainless background thing. A lot of people like myself and a lot of people that I make music with it seems so brainless. And it seems so second nature, but subconsciously you're making the most exhausting, but rewarding and beautiful creation.
When did you start gaining recognition? What was the song? When was it and how did it kind of make you feel? Were you moving very differently in school?
I felt like the man inside! I felt like the man inside, I wasn't being like a dick head, you know. I was put on one of those like YouTube videos, It was a song called "dismay." I was put on one of those YouTube videos that are like "underground songs that you need to hear: month of July" And they just threw it on there, and it gained more traction. It was the first time I ever hit a hundred thousand plays for me. And I was like, 'nah, I'm that guy!' I was excited. It was something that I felt like was a piece of me that, it was like a diary entry that I was able to have people enjoy. And that's what just my music became at first it was just like, I'm gonna rap. And then it was like, oh, I'm going to pour my entire brain out into these songs. And then hopefully people don't think I'm a sociopath.
How do you go from hard-rap to hyperpop? Especially since hyperpop is a genre that's dominated by people who don't look like you.
It's crazy, right? There's not a lot of people who like me that are in that scene that — I'm very happy that it's dominated by a diverse and queer and POC area. But yeah, no, I mean, go by he/they. I am Puerto Rican and Panamanian. I feel good man. Like everybody inside of that area is just very welcoming and warm. Like that label for hyperpop is just a word that I think Spotify came up with. We're just all making everything because we bump music. It's just like every person that was in that community when I was coming up from transitioning into that side of the making hyperpop music, it was just like a situation that I was just trying to switch it up. I was bored and I was loving what I was hearing from a lot of the kids that were making music in this little corner of the internet that I never discovered. And I was like, 'okay, how could I do this? But not the same way.' And I implemented everything I love just like everybody else did because it's all a mixture. It's like an amalgamation of just 30 million different.
I feel like hyperpop comes with so many attachments to it. There's definitely a certain image. Did you ever feel the need to be pushed into that certain aesthetic visually?
I don't really think that certain aesthetic fits me, you know? There are people who push it on, don't get me wrong. But when it comes down to my whole thing is just the entirety of being yourself. Just being your absolute self and you know, me and my roommates and the people I make music are into our own things, and we have our own little aesthetic and the way that we look and hopefully that could be assigned to something that we do.
Going back from your last project to your newest, single, what do you think is the biggest growth you've seen within yourself?
I think I have learned to appreciate a lot of the things that are in front of me and be able to really mature through what I was making. I feel like when I was making my first project that everybody really listened to, it was an immature version of myself, I had a different outlook on the world. And now with this project, it is a more understanding, not a hundred percent mature, but definitely a more understanding and more vetted version of myself. It's stuff that I created with my like family, like the people that were around me and the people that helped me make music. This is our baby, this whole entire thing that we have right now. I think it was just a large jump of just creativity through maturity, growing and figuring out what life is about.
Can you paint the sonic landscape of your new track?
If I could paint you a beautiful picture of this album, I would say, imagine what audibly it would sound like of five boys just getting after what they always really wanted, and had an experience like no other for a year and a half. All of these songs are literally just packed into a .wav file of experiences of that bit. It could be us in LA, us in the mountains in Colorado, a random Airbnb, or a random studio somewhere. It could be something that I wrote after going to a party and meeting a person that I've always wanted to meet. After a cool dinner, after heartache, after an issue, after a victory, after a loss. It was all trial and error and all of the smile and frown moments a year and a half-packed into like 14 songs.
For the video, the concept behind it seems very dark and a visualizer for what would go on in someone's brain if they were living inside of a video game. Can you talk about the intention behind that?
Behind the song, it's basically the journey of becoming a— I don't wanna say the word commodity, or I don't wanna say that I'm being exploited because that's a hundred percent not the case. But when it comes down to, you know, the way that things are looked at, it's a commercialization of a hobby. I love Interscope Records, they did something amazing for me and it was an absolute blessing. So they became my lifeline. It was very difficult for me and my roommate at the time, before we signed, to like pay bills, I went hungry various nights. It was a tough situation that I was in and I felt like my label was a lifeline and unfortunately, it can become a commercialization of yourself.
I'm painting the picture of basically somebody who has given up something, but for a greater cause. And what that represents inside of the video is that this like fallacy, which is the video game, this fake world that is being built around a real situation is showing you that it's all a game of cat and mouse. You're constantly running, constantly chasing, and trying to succeed. But you know, some shit can get in the way of making it a game over, unfortunately.
How do you find a way to balance that all and put boundaries between yourself and kind of the success that helps you, but also can harm you in a way
I think off of your question, what can help is trying to be as self-aware as possible, this is a very depersonalizing job. And it's very easy to disconnect from your own body because of the things that you do or the people that you meet or the situations that you're put in. So I would say it's a lot of self-awareness. It's a lot of grounding yourself. It's a lot of finding the common ground and not sticking on a black or white and being in the gray area as much as you can.
What is something that you're most looking forward to? I know you're going on tour.
Oh my Lord. That, the festivals, being able to see my fans' faces in real life again. This is my first headline tour, so, I've never had a situation where people have just come for me and I'm excited. And then the album, of course, for everybody to hear our child.
This is your world, this is your utopia. You make the rules. What does it look like? What's going on there?
In my utopia, the sky is absolutely like the pink sky all the time. Like, you know, when like the sun is going down sometimes and it's like orange and pink. It's always golden hour. I think the only music that's allowed to be played is like all like old eighties 80s like pop, Teena Marie era. Mm-hmm She's the only person that's played. Every human right that we think is a human, but the U.S Is like, "Nah, that ain't no human right" is a human right. In my utopia, everybody got a free crib. Everybody has free food. Like we're living in a sharing, harmonious, type of vibe in my utopia.
It is crucial to find moments of rest during Coachella and Pandora made sure to provide their guests with a relaxing haven amidst the weekend’s chaos. Along with the pool and shaded lawn, the Oasis was also filled with fun activations for guests to enjoy. Kicking off the weekend with a delicious lunch, visitors were also able to shop the new Pandora ME collection, watch amazing performances, and even get their ears pierced.
office got the chance to speak to some of the Atlantic Records performers about their time at the Pandora Oasis, check out what they said below.
Singer Raiche, who kicked off the performances at the Atlanic Records lunch, had a stellar first trip to the desert.
"I had an amazing time performing at the Pandora Oasis house. Especially premiering my new single “FOOL”. It was my first time in Palm Springs and the Pandora house experience definitely made it a memorable one."
Singer Ogi took everything the weekend threw at her and ran with it, turing a technical dificulty into a special acoustic performance.
"My performance at the Pandora Oasis house was one to remember. It unexpectedly turned into an impromptu acoustic set, but I was excited to exclusively perform new songs from my upcoming EP MONOLOGUES and connect with other amazing female artists. A special thank you goes to Pandora for creating this space for us!"
Orion’s meditative approach infuses her work with a distinct tenderness, now a signature to her soulful sound. As a fast accelerating alt R&B talent, garnering new fans and followers by the minute, Orion grapples with her online personality in an increasingly virtual world. Stubbornly viewing herself as a person and not as a brand, a thorny dissonance mounts between her life and social media activity. In this reality, an adoring fan quickly becomes a scorned heckler. Through the practice of boundary setting, Orion confronts Instagram with the same impersonal— yet innocuous—attitude of abstract curation and vintage aesthetics borne from her Tumblr days. Fans searching for incessant updates or thirsting for a peephole into her private life won’t find either. Her Instagram profile, a swath of muted tones and grainy pixels, presents like a dusty, leather photo album you might find in your grandmother’s attic. If her career was a Tumblr page, her music would match the sepia-toned graphics of her Instagram.
But with three formidable projects behind her, A Collection of Fleeting Moments and Daydreams, Hold Space For Me, and her latest, Getaway, Orion is still searching for unseen horizons. As a former Mae Jemison, the groundbreaking astronaut, stan and astrology lover, Orion once vowed she would rocket herself into outer space and traverse the unknown. She’s since traded vehicles: a rocketship for Ableton, propelling her listeners into alternate realms. In Greek mythology, Orion is a hero and huntsman who Zeus places amongst the stars. “Orion the Hunter,” visi- ble from almost anywhere on Earth, is one of the most breathtaking constellations in the celestial equator and home to two of the brightest stars in the sky. Indeed, Orion is on the hunt: for new music to devour, new projects to unearth and new friends to collaborate with. Even on a cloudy night, Orion’s star is luminous, blazing the way for a new generation of jazz, R&B, and neo-soul artists.
ALESSANDRA SCHADE—Where are you Zooming from?
ORION SUN—I'm in Brooklyn right now, Crown Heights. New York by way of Philly. But I was raised in South Jersey. So, the Tri-State raised me. What do they say? It takes a village?
AS—Yeah, exactly. You've lived in so many places. Is there one spot that feels most like home to you?
OS—It's interesting, because I've been going to Philly recently because of band practice, and I'm driving through Jersey and my hometown. And even though I love the familiarity of driving through New Jersey and being like, Oh, I don't need the GPS, when I come to New York, I'm like, Okay, I'm back. So New York feels like home to me.
AS—Your music is a sanctuary for so many, in part, because your songs just emanate this warmth and intimacy. So, I'm curious how you foster that within your own life... Where do you find refuge? Is there a specific place where you can completely unwind and just let the day go?
OS—I would say my apartment. But even, like, my room in my family house back in the day always felt like my space and most like home to me. I realized that I could cultivate that space anywhere. I proved that to myself earlier this year. In February, for my birthday—I never really have parties—but I just wanted to get together with some friends because of the pandemic and with so much going on in my life. It was funny, like going on the second day even, that space started to feel like home because of what it was filled with and the energy that was there. So, it can be anywhere I really choose to settle.
AS—You're a nester.
OS—I don't know. Yeah, I guess. I hope that's, like, a chill thing?
AS—It's like a little bird taking all the nicest twigs to make their home! Especially during quarantine, we all needed that. How did that time impact your creative process?
OS—During the pandemic and coming off the Hold Space For Me projects, I was working on things but nothing was really coming. And that was okay, just to be makin' stuff, even though there was nothing I really wanted to share. I was just like, Damn, this is hard! So, I needed to get back to myself. Like, what do I like to do? So, I started going outside and doing a bunch of shit and it made me real- ize, even though I love making music by myself, I just really missed seeing people that I just banked on seeing, based on, you know, I'm working, you're working and we're bound to see each other. You know what I mean? When are we actually going to see each other now? So, I was like, I have to make this happen. It's a mix between, yeah, I want to work with a lot of the greats, but I also just want an excuse to...
AS—See your people!
OS—Yeah! So, things started to come together. And I realized that I love making music in this way. I just have this desire to be in every single aspect of my art. And I found working on Getaway that that is still possible, while also letting go of certain things, and letting other people really shine.
AS—I want to congratulate you on Getaway. Literally from the first track "intro”—it wins you over in seconds. Is there one song on Getaway that's your favorite?
OS—I think “intro” might be my baby. I produced that one and I got Yuli [Margaux Whitney] to do the strings on it. She's such a genius. I'm gonna pray that she can do one of the LA shows—or both—with me. I haven't really met a lot of people like her. I showed her what I had chopped up maybe twice, and she just went in there and to this day, I'm still just like, Girl what the fuck? And the bass, oh my god! Everything really came together. I think that was my baby also because I had second guessed it, which is really funny in retrospect. You know how it feels when you overthink and then you start doubting yourself and then you just have to be like, Well, I remember a version of me that really liked it.
AS—What's the origin of the name Orion Sun?
OS—I've always been into astrology. I still remember my first experience with stars—I must have been in first or second grade. In the library there was this great big dome, and we just crawled in and oh my god, you're so small. A lot of my school projects were on astronaut Mae Jemison and stuff. I was so hellbent on going beyond the sky. So, fast forward to when I was trying to figure out my name. Life is a hunt to me. Everything in this creative process is like, Okay, do I have the best gear? Do I have the best wardrobe for this execution of this hunt? Do I have what I need? Do I have what I need mentally? So, I wanted to call myself a hunter, and not in an American sense—more primal, raw. I'm digging and trying to search—sonically, emotionally. And I get confirmation every time the night is clear and I can look up at the sky and see that constellation. That has helped me so many times when I wanted to give up, so I was like, This is my name. And then the sun part came in at a more insecure time and just feeling like Wow, I have the best relation- ships when I'm at a distance. If the Sun were any closer, we would die. But it's close enough where we can still feel it and get nutrients. We know it's there. And that's kindof how I view myself on social media, like, it can't get any closer than this, I'm sorry. I feel like a lot of my support- ers respect that and know that about me, and know that I give as much as I can in other aspects.
AS—I love its androgyny too.
OS—Thank you. I never really felt all the way femme. I mean, looking back there's definitely pictures of me doing ballet and like, in dresses. I actually remember feeling really light and pretty in dresses. But at the end of the day, I really just love pants. And I was like how can I wear pants in all the settings?
AS—Your music feels very unabashedly you. Was it always easy for you to embrace who you are?
OS—I love this question because I had to think about it recently. From the jump, ever since I can remember, I liked being myself. I remember one time I strayed away from that when everybody was wearing Hollister, and I was just like, Mom, please, I know we don't got money but, fuck, I need this! And I was one of the chubbier kids so my mom ended up getting one of the pink Hollister shirts, but from the guy's side. But I feel like the clothes are super gendered.
AS—Yeah, they definitely fit differently.
OS—Yeah, so I was like, Maybe no one will notice, and when I went to school, somebody was like, Oh, my brother has that shirt LOL. And I felt so bad. I literally only wore it once. I think my mom had spent eighty dollars on this one shirt. And I learned from that experience, that I just don't care. I don't care and it doesn't matter. No matter what you do, somebody's not gonna like it. So, I just felt the safest in my own world and in cultivating my own space. And the power of, if I decide this thing is cool and I really stand on that, then that could be cool. So, I just ran with that. And I think the next hurdle for me was my queer identity and what does this all mean? How do I feel about it? Based on how I grew up, like, are we good with this? Talking to myself. That was another thing that once I got over, I was like, Okay, I'm back, I'm me. Whenever I have doubts, I sort of just go back to little me. Maybe it's my Aquarius jumping out, but I'm always gravitating towards things that I haven't seen before and are teach- ing me something new. I sort of live in that space.
AS—Do you think your identity informs your music? And do you want it to? Or do you just want people to listen to your music and take it at face value?
OS—You know, I hope this is not a cop out, but I'm hoping both. Because on one end, it's really awesome to just connect with someone purely on sonics. Funny story, [creator/actress] Quinta [Brunson]—shoutout Abbott Elementary—she reached out to me via DM. And she didn't know that I was from the Philly area. And she was like, ‘Yooo!’ And I was like, ‘Yooo!’ And she was like, ‘I wanted to finally see what you look like because I've been listening to your stuff non-stop.’ And it's cool that I look how I look, from where I come from, and have the identity that I do. But I also thought that it was cool that she was rocking with me before she saw me. So, I appre- ciate both. I just want to connect. If I have to share my music to sustain a living because I have to make art and I can't really do anything else, then I want to connect with as many people as possible. Even if I get hate, that's a connection to me. To me, indifference is my biggest fear. That's when I feel like I'm doing something wrong. But anything else, I'm like, Hell yeah. The human experience is one of my biggest muses, and so when we can connect on that, on that level, it just makes everything worth it.
AS—You mentioned that you like to keep a distance on social media. So, I’m curious... What are your thoughts on social media and the prevalence of TikTok as a plat- form for emerging artists?
OS—Growing up, my mom was really strict. So, by the time I got to MySpace, everybody's bio was like, ‘I moved to Facebook.’ I was like, Damn, that sucks! MySpace really gave me the bug on cultivating my own little space online. So, by the time I found Tumblr, the rest was history.
AS—You were a Tumblr girl?
OS—Oh, I was a Tumblr girl! But like, I was not on the cool side of Tumblr with the hair and stuff. I was on the writ- ing side... But, Tumblr, before they got bought out by Yahoo, was my favorite space on the internet—hands down—before I found SoundCloud. It was just so cool. I still have some friends to this day—like one of my friends from Tumblr came to my test listening party that I had, which was like a weird collision of worlds. With that being said, I love social media to a certain extent. Moving into being a brand, and an artist or influencer type person, that's where I don't really have the best relationship, only because I view myself as a person. And I view myself with reasonable boundaries. For example, sometimes I view things as, if I get a message, it's kind of like getting a letter. So, I can kind of take my time. But with social media, when it comes to messages, it can get a little intense because people get mad at you and have these unrealistic expectations and entitlement that I have no desire in, like, diminishing, but also I just don't want to be a part of it. It's weird.
AS—How do you handle that?
OS—The whole content versus art debate is real to me. I have conversations with my little brother all the time and I always tell him, ‘Make sure you have something outside of social media.’ I always think about how many great artists we're losing in this era due to content. But I also think that great art will always come around. Social media has highlighted some really mid art, really bad art, but some really awesome art, too. And I would be really fake to sit here and not be grateful for it. I mean, SoundCloud is one of my favorite sites and it gave me an idea of how I wanted to live online. And really, online is kind of like New York, right? A lot of people move to New York, and they're like, Oh, God, I feel like I have to do everything.
AS—It can also feel lonely in the sea of content and options.
OS—Exactly, and that's why you need a little community.
AS—What’s your community like? How would you describe your fans?
OS—Creatives. Artists whether they know it or not. They care about nature, care about self-love and self-care. Based on comments and stuff that I read, they’re also emotionally intelligent or just, like, striving to figure out why we feel how we feel. And it's okay that we feel so much or not at all. I think my fans, including me, ‘cause I'm a fan, we're just like inquisitive and open to life, the good and the bad. And I view them like that, ‘cause I view myself like that. And I think that's why we connect so much—because we're on this quest, we really are hunt - ing, and trying to figure out what's gonna work, if we have to be here.
AS—Right, we're here whether we like it or not.
OS—We might as well have fun. Might as well live. Might as well tell the tale. No matter how small your life story is, tell somebody—you never know. I get so shocked when - ever I throw in this minute detail, and I'm like, No one will care, it doesn't matter, this is for me. And then someone will literally be like, Is this my life?
AS—Are there certain songs that you are writing to your fans? Or if not, who are you writing to?
OS—It's really just to keep me sane and to process. I didn't realize that until I started putting my projects up and looking at them. For example, Getaway was written while I was in a relationship. But as I listened to it, it really details how I was feeling during the relationship which ultimately led to the breakup. So, that happens to me, where I'm writing in the moment, it feels light, it feels great. But at the end of the day, at the core of it, it's like, Wow, I wish I was listening to myself in this moment. Not thinking that it was for someone else was a huge sign for me. A huge just like, Hey, you're not happy, something has to change.
AS—How does the Getaway project compare with your other work? How does it fit into your evolution as an artist?
OS—I think outside of the collaboration aspect, I'm getting more concise. A Collection of Fleeting Moments and Daydreams—it was more of just throwing paint at the wall. But also, just like, I'm drowning, I need sanity and art is helping. I was working two jobs. So, it was more chaotic in that way. Hold Space For Me, this was my whole job. This was everything. Sometimes when I hear it, I can hear myself thinking, because I remember just being so nervous to even be in a studio setting. With Getaway, I'm the most free I've been. Looking at some of the footage taken at some of the sessions, like, I'm an extroverted person, but I'm also pretty shy. Yeah, we were like drinkin’ and chillin’, but I did open up in this way that I feel is representative of just how open I feel, in general, as an artist. I actually feel like a professional. Instead of walking in fear, I have self efficacy running through me—I can defi - nitely do this. Now it's, How am I gonna do it? What instruments am I gonna use? It's more fun. I just feel more... I don't want to say more professional but—
AS—More confident.
OS—Yeah, I like that. More confident. Even working around Ableton and things like that. Getaway is this springboard going into my next album, with what I know, with who I know... So now, what are we gonna do?