Artist Close-Up: Khalid Is Synthetic Soul
I know when you see the words “synthetic soul” it may appear weird. Synthetic is a word, usually, associated with “fake” or “fabrication”. Yet, in a music world where EDM has become a cultural phenomena, you find genres, like soul, adapting to electricity as a form of sound. Making rhythms that seemed pressed by machines before that are pressed into your ears is natural for Millennial music purveyors. Hence, Khalid has a synthetic soul; a man that adds electric beats to his spirit to give you, the listeners, hymnals that could be played at both club and church.
In his newest release, “Shot Down”, Khalid has given the purity of his love to someone that has shot it down dirtily. Yet, rejection or displacement feels like a recurring theme for Khalid when you listen to his previous singles like, “Saved”, “Location”, and “Coaster“. Such a mindset is natural for Khalid whose childhood was spent between two continents. Khalid spent most of his childhood in Germany before moving to Watertown, NY for High School. The summer going into his senior year of High School, Khalid’s family was ordered to relocate to El Paso, TX. By 18-years-old, Khalid, who is classically trained, had found a stylistic voice that blended Europe’s idea of sophistication and nobility in sound with the honesty and vulnerability that is Soul. The result is a singer that is comparable to his fellow rising artists like Sampha and Brandyn Burnette in adding a realness and reliability to a sonic world that is purely computerized.
Khalid’s voice is so clear and clearing it falls upon your heart and mind like a waterfall. It froths with range and sentiments that peak through his vocal notes like soft bubbles connecting and flowing together. The result is songs that, for however deep they are in poesy and commentary, they display a sense of peace. Not too many artists can say they give music of spiritual value and effects of tranquility, but Khalid sure does. For More Information On Khalid Click Here. Buy His Debut, American Teen, on March 3.
