Building your technical know-how matters, but like any part of the musical process, it can just as easily get in the way if you put too much stock in it. Richmond-based bedroom-pop artist Bien Quiroz—known musically just as Bien—dialed in on technique in the making of his 2018 sophomore EP Better, but to follow it up, he took a deep, cleansing breath in his creative life and came back to a more intuitive place. “[It’s] less and less about getting better skillfully and more about genuinely expressing myself and being more in tune with my emotions, which was the initial reason I started making music,” says Quiroz.
That makes the lead single from his upcoming EP You Know, I Love You especially aptly titled. “Easy” is an elegant R&B jam that proves it sometimes takes a softer touch to groove that much harder, with melodies passing back and forth from sky-blue clean guitar to xylophone. “It’s something I wanted to feel,” Quiroz says of the fresh, breezy vibe. “I listen to my own music a lot; it’s why I make it. It’s what I needed to hear. This song is a reminder: to trust that inspiration is never far and it will be there when you need it most.”
Quiroz first learned to play guitar growing up in the Philippines before moving to Virginia, connecting with the Tribe 95 collective as a mixing engineer, and studying at the Berklee College of Music. Check out the video for “Easy” below, directed by Connor Barrett, and look for the EP on Quiet Year Records.
