The 28 musicians, filmmakers, actors and authors in this issue took wildly different paths to get to our “Best of What’s Next” designation. Josh Tillman of Father John Misty had modest success as J. Tillman and enormous success as the drummer for Fleet Foxes before quitting the band and embarking on a very different journey. Likewise, John Black jettisoned his given name (along with his native South and several years of touring with an acoustic guitar) to try something altogether new. Jneiro Jarel partnered with an established underground hip-hop icon to create JJ Doom. But many more are trying their hands at their particular artform for the first time, and discovering that they have something original to offer the world.
This is the fifth time in Paste’s history that we’re devoting an entire issue to up-and-coming artists, and it’s become one of my favorite traditions. Above all, Paste is about discovery, and we get great joy from sharing those discoveries with our readers. Past issues have highlighted artists like Josh Ritter, Kathleen Edwards, Sondre Lerche, Bon Iver, Janelle Monae, Dawes, Passion Pit, Frightened Rabbit, tUnE-yArDs, The Lumineers, Jesse Eisenberg, Erica Dunton and John Hillcoat.
As always, we hope that some of the artists in our Best of What’s Next round-up will become some of your favorites. And we look forward to seeing just what they do next.