Biography

Partnership with American Songs

24-year-old Jean Dawson is equal parts musician and visual artist. Half Mexican and half Black, Jean was raised in Tijuana, and became obsessed with music on his daily five-hour treks across the Mexican / American border to attend school in the US.

Raised by a single working class Mexican mother, listening to rock and rap alongside the Latin sounds enveloping him, Jean Dawson began recording and performing at the age of 14, inspired by Nirvana, Mike Jones, Beach Fossils, Kanye West, The Smiths, Outkast, N.E.R.D. and 50 Cent alike. Attending college for directorial studies, Jean leaned further into art and exploration in his work, challenging the notions of hyper-masculinity underpinning his Mexican and Black cultures. His 2019 EP ‘Bad Sports’ discussed these concepts, touching on intimacy, discussing depression and heavily pushing back against social norms.

An extremely ambitious album for an exquisitely anxious era, Jean’s 2020 debut album ‘Pixel Bath’ pilots listeners to wild and dizzying heights, crafting a sonic dreamscape whose singles, “Bruiseboy,” “Power Freaks,” “Clear Bones” and “Starface*” have, without exaggeration, already inspired a generation of young artists and musicians. On ‘Pixel Bath,’ Jean Dawson melds aggression and emotion into a blistering score for our modern era, delivering diabolically catchy hooks with loving care, viciously poignant, cradled in digital melancholy. Each song is awash in guitars and synths, a gut-punch with a digital flourish, while Jean spits euphoric fractals, composed with the intention of creating “soundtrack for a black coming-of-age film that never ends.” On ‘Pixel Bath,’ expect thugged-out punk anthems, love songs and anti-cop ballads, towering, soaring, crashing infernos from the experimental pop titan Jean Dawson.

Along for the ride are comrades and collaborators like Zach Fogarty, who produced the bulk of the album with Jean, alongside A$AP Rocky, Psymun, Jim-E Stack, Hoskins, 23rd, Lecx Stacy, Blake Slatkin, Gabe Wax, Nick León and many more members of Jean’s musical family.

A lyrical Loki with a Melvins tattoo, flashing a grill with a rosary, while referring to himself as “Black Bjork” or “Bowie with a lil Kobe,” Jean represents more than a genreless musical movement. He’s a leader of a generation straddling cultures and worlds, without easy categorization or classification. His music serves as a score for the life-and-times of kids like him (us). He’s already received critical acclaim from The Needle Drop, NPR, i-D, The Fader, Paper Magazine, Pigeons & Planes, NME, MTV News, Remezcla, Hypebeast, Essence, Nylon, GRAMMY and performed alongside 100gecs, YEEK, Deb Never and many more.