Born in Boston and based in New York, Rothstein is the singer-songwriter who puts his whole heart and soul into his artistry. Following the success of recent soul-pop singles “small talk” and “chokehold”, he has announced his upcoming album, How Not To Drown.

Out on the first of September, the project was executive produced by Brasstracks and delves into strong themes such as vice, indulgence, and the space where beauty and evil meet. With the announcement, Rothstein released “don’t look down”, the lead single off of the album. If the full project contemplates how to stay afloat in this world, this track offers a simple solution: don’t look down.

We speak with Rothstein about his upcoming album, new single, and kicking off what is bound to be an exciting and beautiful journey.

Stream “don’t look down”…

Read the interview…

Hey! How are you?
I’m great! Thanks for asking. As of this moment I’m in a bathrobe, playing an enhancement hack of Pokémon Black 2, smoking powerful and exclusive weed that would send a lesser man to the shadow realm. No complaints.

When did you start writing music?
I started writing music in my early teens – I’d been writing (extremely bad, but precocious) poetry since I was tiny, and music became my means of translating that writing into a format that my friends and I enjoyed.

Who or what were your early musical influences?
Alison Krauss, Tracy Chapman, Donald Fagen, Future, Paul Simon, Charlie Wilson, Andre 3000, Joni Mitchell, Michael McDonald…. When I first got to New York, though, my hometown hero (a rapper from Boston named Cousin Stizz) dropped a project called Suffolk County that totally reshaped the way I looked at production, and a few of the guys who produced that record (namely Obeatz, Tee-Watt and DumDrumz) agreed to work with my on my debut project, HIGH WATER. Their output (and Stizz’s impassioned, molasses drawl) has had a permanent impact on my identity as a musician and a music lover.

Do you have a typical songwriting process?
I make almost all of my music either alone at my kitchen island or with Ivan Jackson (Brasstracks) in his basement. The idea always comes first — what am I saying, and why? Once the story begins to take shape, I do a lot of stream-of-consciousness work — freely riffing out melodies, cadences, structures, until the song tells me it’s time. The idea component is deeply considered but the musical component is totally natural; the best songs come to you, as if they were already there.

Congratulations on your upcoming album, How Not To Drown! When did you first begin working on it? What inspired the title?
Thank you! Ivan and I started working on How Not To Drown during sessions we were working for other artists in LA last February. Once the artists left, we’d keep working, making stuff that was weirder and more adventurous than we’d attempt were we still on company time. The title comes from a lyric — “there’s no middle ground… I am lost and I am found… when the blinding light goes dim, it won’t teach you how to swim, but you will learn how not to drown” — that song is an expression of the feeling that I’m only capable of deep joy and deep misery and nothing in between. The album, in broad strokes, is about vice, coping, getting your kicks before the inevitable happens: an instruction manual on how to operate your vessel to tragic but exciting ends.

What can fans expect of your upcoming album, and how does your new music compare to your previous releases?
How Not To Drown is by far the most polished, ambitious thing I’ve ever made. Fans can expect a heavy dose of the doldrums that permeate my earlier work, but much glossier, and more so informed by some of the influences I mentioned earlier. I spent most of my career making music alone in my bedroom, but now I have a phenomenal crew of musicians and engineers at my disposal, with a Grammy-winner at the helm. This has opened my world up, and HNTD is my first chance to show the world what I can do with all that. I think Ivan is the most brilliant musician in the world, and HNTD is absolutely inflected with his taste, but it’s way more brooding than a Brasstracks record and way shinier than any Rothstein record that’s come before it.

You note that there is a connection between darkness and beauty that runs through the project, can speak more to that?
This is the tightrope I’ve always been most interested in walking. I want to make things that are true, and the truth is beautiful and hideous. I’m not even interested in reconciling those things, I want to lay them plainly at the foot of the listener and let them exist on their terms.

What was the decision to release “don’t look down” in hand with the announcement of your album? How does it set the scene for the project as a whole?
If we turn the album’s title into a question – how don’t I drown? – “don’t look down” is the answer. Life is short and brutal and unpredictable and nevertheless worth enjoying, so don’t think about it all too much.

Is there a song on the album that you’re particularly proud of?
I love all of these songs so much, but “carolina” is my favorite. I’ve never heard a song quite like it.

Your album cover art is incredible! How did you come up with that idea and how did you accomplish it?
Hey thanks! I wanted to convey the album’s central theme / conflict as succinctly as possible – it was always going to be me, drowning, surrounded by opulence and beauty. I enlisted one of my favorite photographers, Justine Vanderpool, to find the seediest motel possible with the most ornate bathtub possible and we landed at a roadside couples retreat spot in Jersey, complete with heart shaped tubs, faux-marble pillars and mirrors everywhere. We were interrupted (or serenaded, depending on how you look at it) by the sounds of the couples in the rooms around us the whole shoot, and the hallways smelled like pure ashtray. It was pretty surreal!

What are you most looking forward to with this release?
I’m really looking forward to performing these songs live! In general, I just can’t wait to have them out in the world. This is the first thing I’ve ever made where I hit up all my friends like, “if I trip into the path of an 18 wheeler and am flattened like a cartoon pancake tomorrow, please make sure this comes out!” Even if I have to hawk physical copies on 8th Ave like a Broadway merch salesman, that’s what I’ll do. I just need people to experience it.