Bartees Strange

A producer and songwriter whose unpredictable tracks weave through shimmery indie electronica, gritty alt-rock, folk, hip-hop, and additional styles, Bartees Strange first surfaced in Washington, D.C., during 2020. That October brought his wide-ranging debut album Live Forever. Two years later came Farm to Table, his inaugural release on 4AD, followed in 2024 by the vinyl-exclusive archival set Magic Boy, which gathered early and largely unheard recordings. Early the next year saw the arrival of Horror, another characteristically varied project.

Born Bartees Leon Cox, Jr. and raised in Mustang, Oklahoma, he spent his childhood traveling throughout the state alongside his family, performing in both opera productions and church services. As an adult he relocated to Brooklyn in search of a more varied music community before settling in Washington, D.C., where he took a position with an environmental nonprofit. In March 2020 he issued the EP Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy under the name Bartees Strange. The project stemmed from his experience as one of the few Black attendees at a National concert the previous year; it reimagined several of the band’s songs with fewer stylistic constraints while preserving the elements he valued most. October of that same year brought the full-length debut of original material, Live Forever, issued on the Memory Music label. The album earned widespread praise, leading Strange to tour alongside Lucy Dacus and Courtney Barnett. He also co-produced Oceanator’s April 2022 album Nothing’s Ever Fine. That year he fulfilled a longtime ambition by signing with 4AD and delivering his second album, Farm to Table. As stylistically broad as its predecessor, the record explores his family, his own path, and acknowledgments of tourmates Dacus and Barnett along with Phoebe Bridgers and Justin Vernon. April 2024 saw the limited vinyl release of the archival compilation Magic Boy, which collected ten genre-shifting tracks he had recorded prior to any public releases, eight of them previously unavailable. Issued on Valentine’s Day 2025, his third proper album Horror centers on the idea of confronting fears to cultivate strength and fearlessness.