NAWAS

NAWAS crafts lean, brooding pop accented by R&B and carrying a potent hip-hop influence as a trio anchored by singer and songwriter Jake Nawas, guitarist Ben McDaniel, and drummer Joey Gonzales. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana natives first converged during Nawas and McDaniel’s college years, where music eclipsed academics and prompted the pair to begin writing material that led to local shows by 2013. Home-recording experiments introduced dense, atmospheric production and vocal processing that emphasized the melodies’ moody contours along with the androgynous qualities in Nawas’ voice. In search of expanded prospects and a more encouraging creative climate, Nawas and McDaniel relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where festival performances soon helped them establish a local presence. Gonzales joined in 2016, completing the trio, and near year’s end the group posted the tracks “Wrong” and “So Low” online. “Wrong” quickly amassed over half a million streams. NAWAS then signed with the EMI-distributed Harvest Records, which released “Make It Work” in March 2017 and “Who Are You” the following June.