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Sub Urban is no conformist when it comes to breaking boundaries within alternative pop music. The 21-year-old singer, songwriter, and producer born Daniel Maisonneuve has spent the last few years writing captivating, otherworldly music as a means of processing the turmoil of a tumultuous coming of age. Even on his most beloved songs, he sings about heavy themes—addiction, anxiety, and the lonely weight of existence. But as he finishes the follow-up to his 2020 debut, Thrill Seeker, he’s fine-tuned his craft into a fresh and idiosyncratic musical concoction. “My sound has shifted and grown with me over the course of this past year and a half,” he says, “but to be honest, I feel like it’s what I should have done immediately after ‘Cradles.’ However, having taken all that time, I’m more certain in my sound than ever before.” Sub Urban’s first hit, 2019’s “Cradles,” paved the path for a new generation of alternative. Buoyed by TikTok virality and a stunning music video, the song hit #1 at U.S. alternative radio and has since earned nearly 400 million views on YouTube. Though Thrill Seeker was mostly made up of songs written before “Cradles,” it reinforced Maisonneuve’s imaginative worldbuilding; he’s only just started to dream of new wrinkles to add to Sub Urban. Even with his grim aesthetic, this new era is fueled by the mania of creation—the exciting energy of ushering in a whole new world.
