Son Little

Son Little serves as the performing name for Aaron Livingston, whose music fuses acoustic blues textures, vintage soul phrasing, and conscious hip-hop rhythms into a sound that remains both outward-facing and intensely introspective. As a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, Livingston splits his energies between solo releases and work with fellow artists. His debut full-length, 2015’s Son Little, presented soul and R&B rhythms rooted in classic styles yet assembled through hip-hop-informed production techniques. After supporting the record with a live band, he captured 2017’s New Magic in a more unvarnished, band-driven manner. The 2020 album Aloha struck a balance by featuring Livingston performing nearly every instrument himself in pursuit of an earthy, unforced result, while 2022’s Like Neptune emerged as a reflective work shaped by his confrontation with earlier personal wounds.

Born in Los Angeles, California, to a mother employed in education and a father serving as clergy, Livingston relocated with his family to Queens, New York, during childhood, where urban surroundings quickly captured his attention. Following high school he attended Columbia University yet ultimately withdrew, holding various day jobs until he moved to Philadelphia and enrolled at Temple University. There he connected with members of the Roots, appearing on their 2011 release Undun; that same year he joined forces with alternative hip-hop artist Rjd2 under the Icebird moniker, issuing the album The Abandoned Lullaby. He soon issued early digital projects, among them Aaron Livingston’s Greatest Hits, Vol. -1, before adopting the Son Little identity in 2013.

Little joined Anti Records in 2014 and delivered the six-song EP Things I Forgot that November. In April 2015 he produced the EP Your Good Fortune for legendary gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples; the track “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” from that set earned a Grammy Award for Best Roots Performance. His self-titled debut arrived in October 2015, after which he toured extensively, headlining clubs and supporting Mumford & Sons, Shakey Graves, and Kelis. New Magic, issued in 2017, reflected a warmer sonic palette shaped largely on the road and informed by the experience of playing the material live with a band. For the third album, 2020’s Aloha, Livingston faced unforeseen obstacles when the original songwriting files vanished following a hard-drive failure, compelling him to reconstruct the material weeks before recording; the sessions also marked his first collaboration with an outside producer, Renaud Letang.

While developing songs for the subsequent project inside a cottage in Upstate New York, Livingston examined a collection of notebooks dating back to age nine. Revisiting those childhood entries surfaced unresolved trauma, including an incident of sexual abuse. He pursued therapeutic avenues such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), somatic healing, and psychedelic microdosing to address the lingering effects. These experiences shaped his writing, with initial ideas captured via rhythm programming and mobile recording applications before he entered a studio to expand the arrangements and complete the mixes. Like Neptune appeared in September 2022 and was followed by an international tour.