Kevin Atwater | |
|---|---|
| Born | Downers Grove, Illinois, US |
| Genres | |
| Instrument | Voice |
| Labels | Mutual Friends [1] |
| Website | kevin-atwater |
Kevin Atwater is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his indie and dream pop music revolving aroud LGBTQ themes. Born in Downers Grove, Illinois, and later moving to New York City, Atwater first achieved popularity posting comedy and fan edits on TikTok, gaining around a million followers. Posting music on a second account, he first received attention after his single ''star tripping" went viral on the platform in 2022. [2] [3] Atwater's lyrics frequently recount events from his own life in a confessional style, [3] [4] with frequently melancholy stories that "[turn] niche life experiences into relatable hardship". [5]
Atwater was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, and as a child learnt classical piano and clarinet; he also taught himself the guitar. [6] [7] Running a TikTok account that achieved popularity in the gay sub-community on the platform, he posted fan edits including "Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande ordering McDonald's from Doja Cat and Lana Del Ray". [2] Atwater began releasing music in 2020 with a single, "Freckles". [5] On January 21, 2022, he published an EP entitled "retriever", which he recorded in his bedroom and produced himself - Daniela Pippin noted in Chalkpit that "at one point in the outro you can clearly hear the static in the audio as Kevin sings directly to the listener. You get the sense that you are listening to a voice message left on someone else’s phone, an incredibly intimate moment that you shouldn’t be part of." [6] The same year, his single "star tripping" went viral on TikTok, gaining two million views and allowing him to grow his platform. [8] [9]
In 2023, Atwater a second EP, Downers Grove and a year later, he collaborated with other artists to create a "reimagined" version of the record; Allison Ponthier is featured on the rerelease of "star tripping", and Ella Jane on "KEEP IT COOL!". [3] Jackson Trotman of BVTack rated the original release of the album a 9/10, praising the lyric-writing throughout the writing, but noting that when listening through the album, its instrumentation felt "monotonous" and "very safe". [10] On 7 March, 2025, Atwater released a second album, Achilles, featuring songs written over a period of several years. [5] [11] [12] The album's first single, "the cage" was published a month before the entire release. With Achilles, Atwater performed a month-long headlining tour across the US, with subsequences in Canada and the United Kingdom. [9] [11] [13] [14]
In a 2022 interview with IntoMore, Atwater described his music as "folk with a queer twist", and mentioned Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers, and Nick Drake's album Pink Moon as musical inspirations. [2] Elsewhere, he has named Joni Mitchell, Adrianne Lenker, and Lomelda as influences. [11] [4] Atwater has been praised for his consistent clear diction and "flexible range", In particular, Atwater's lyrics writing has been commended: Noah Wade described it as "impressively concise, abbreviated, and illustrative."; . Atwater has been noted to use alternative guitar tunings, [5] and writing songs in quintuple meter. [13]