Kevin Bronson on August 9th, 2016

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Faced with hearing pop song after pop song trumpeting the virtues of eternal youth, singer-songwriter Otis English was inspired to write. The result was his first single “Young Kids, Old Love,” a piano-driven romp that bursts with youthful energy while holding to some venerable wisdom. “I remember writing this song after hearing like five love songs back to back on the radio that were all about ‘staying young forever’ or ‘never wanting to grow up,’” he told Impose magazine. “It was my first time realizing how unnatural that idea felt to me. I wanted to write a song that said, ‘Fuck that. Lets grow old and learn together and become better with age.’ Nobody wants to just come out and say how shitty being 20 and broke is, so I’ll do it.”

The single comes via Crooked Paintings (Anabel Jones, STALGIA), the nascent label founded by executive/TV producer/songwriter Evan Bogart. Like “Young Kids, Old Love,” the rest of English’s EP is shaped by a tumultuous childhood, which included accidentally burning down his childhood home and living out of his car while his father’s health deteriorated. Most recently, he fretted while his family’s home was threatened by the Santa Clarita fire; it was ultimately spared. He seems the antithesis to the almost unnaturally happy early-twentysomething; perhaps the quote on his Instagram page is telling: “Being 18-25 is like playing a video game where you’ve skipped the tutorial and you’re just sort of running about with no idea how anything works.” We remember.

||| Stream: “Young Kids, Old Love”