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In July 2023, indie musician Blaize Jenkins was sitting alone on a bench in Washington Square Park, people-watching and listening to a group of jazz artists playing nearby, when a few guys with a big camera approached him.
Jenkins, who was 23 at the time, was working as a door-to-door pest control salesman in New Jersey and had come up to New York City to see the July 4 fireworks. The camera crew, Christian Baiocco, Jamiel Rahi and Grant Weintrob, who run the TikTok account Discovering Artists (@discoveringartists.irl), asked Jenkins if he made music and if he could play one of his songs at the end of the video.
He had been making music for a few years at that point. Jenkins had no idea why they asked him if he made music—maybe it was the MTV shirt he was wearing that day. “Ever since I was 19, I knew that one day people would listen to my music and enjoy it,” he says. “I just didn’t know how it was gonna happen or when it was gonna happen.”
The video went viral along with Jenkins’ dreamy song, “Phases,” a catchy bedroom pop tune that made its rounds on TikTok. Today, the TikTok video has 2.3 million views, and his song “Phases” has 6.3 million listens on Spotify.
“It was crazy because I had never experienced anything in the music industry, and then that video happened, and I had almost every major label hitting me up, calling me, and sending me emails,” Jenkins says. “It was just me and my mom trying to answer everyone.”
Two years later, Jenkins played with Kitty Craft on their first tour in 20 years and recorded several singles—one with a label, but mostly independent. He is now preparing to independently release his debut album, Spinning//Falling, on May 9, recorded, mixed and mastered by himself.
“I had no momentum at all, and then that viral moment happened, and now it’s sort of plateaued a little bit and I’m in this weird in-between spot where I know I’m not gonna be a viral moment forever,” he says. “I’m just trying to keep making music that I like and hoping other people will like it too.”
Originally from San Diego, Jenkins comes from a musical family. His mother was a classical pianist and taught him how to play at 5 years old, and he recalls some of his earliest childhood memories were hearing his grandma singing around her house. In high school, he learned how to make beats and started writing rap songs, but quickly settled into making indie rock music.
Other than his mother teaching him how to play piano, Jenkins is primarily self-taught. He recalls sitting in his car for hours, listening to Frank Ocean and practicing how to sing. Before he went viral, Jenkins had never played in front of an audience. “I was making music in my bedroom by myself, and then that video happened, and I was like, oh my gosh, now I’m gonna have to be a full-time musician,” he says. “I always wanted to, but I was really scared.”
After his viral success, Jenkins toyed around with shopping for labels and ended up recording the song “River” with Range Music. After a singular song deal with the record company, Jenkins decided he wanted full creative control and has been independent ever since.
In March 2024, he threw himself into Portland’s music scene. He’s recorded every song off Spinning//Falling in his house in Portland. Jenkins has released three singles off the album, “Joke,” “Constant Battle” and “Chinatown.”
He cites Elliott Smith, Alex G, and Clay Parton from Duster as influences, but what Jenkins manages to achieve in these three singles is a sound that is entirely his own. The songs stray from the soft bedroom sounds of “Phases” and lean more into loud acoustics and brilliant songwriting. “In the beginning, I was kind of more into the softcore stuff, and I hated all that distorted guitar stuff; it sounded gross to me, but now that’s so funny to me,” he adds.
His single “The Rat,” released last June, is all distorted guitar and garage noise accompanied by the heartbreaking chorus, “I wanna follow but I never wanna go there, baby.” The single couldn’t sound more different than the loud acoustic guitar on “Chinatown” or the more subdued “Joke.”
His lyrics are witty and illustrative, with lines like “I’m making a comeback much better than BJ Novak” on “Chinatown” and “Looking left and watching the cattle/White-haired horses don’t need to tame” on “Constant Battle.”
Jenkins claims he struggles with writing melodies, but I find that hard to believe. “Chinatown” and “Constant Battle” are absolute earworms—so much so that I find myself alternating between humming the two all day long. Having been done with the album for a few months now, Jenkins says he’s already excited about the new music he’s been writing. “I just want to keep getting better, keep writing, keep creating,” he says.