GOLDEN STATE GROOVES PT. 1
BY BRENESSA ROACH | JULY 13, 2024
Introducing our new series “Golden State Grooves” where we will highlight and share all the amazing and emerging artists that are from and based in California. Behind The Beat has such a big following in California and we are constantly discovering new artists from there so we had to create this series.
Current Monthly Listeners: 646
Abigail Kim, also known by her stage name ábi is a Korean-American Pop/R&B singer and songwriter. She was born in Illinois in the U.S and relocated with her family to Daejeon, South Korea where she grew up singing in church. In 2012, she got approached by SBS’s reality singing show K-Pop Star, resulting in her participating in the show and ending as a top 19 semi-finalist. This show was pivotal for ábi as she decided to pursue music further by studying at Berklee School of Music.
She officially made her debut on July 26th, 2017 with the single “Traffic”. Following her debut single, she released “Red or White?” in November 2017. This song is her second most popular song with 24.4K streams on Spotify. She then released two singles in 2018; “Lay Low” in January and “Purple Shampoo” in December and one single “Sry” in July 2019.
On February 1st, 2020, she released the single “Amber Eyes” which was a pre-release track for her debut album P.R.A.Y. which came out on February 14th, 2020. In 2020, she also released the single “Circles” in October and collaborated with Karlee Metzger in November for the single “ELLA”.
On October 25th, 2021, ábi released the single “feverdream” which is her most popular song with over 37.2K streams on Spotify. Her last release of 2021 was on December 22nd with the single “white”. ábi only released one single “more” in 2022.
We started listening to ábi in 2023 after the release of her first single of the year “your ex”. So far for 2024, ábi hsa only released one single “getting in my way” which came out yesterday on July 12th.
Listen to “your ex” by ábi on Spotify:
Check out ábi on Instagram: @abigailkim_
Current Monthly Listeners: 228.7K
Born in Hong Kong and currently based in Los Angeles, raph is an artist making waves in the indie music scene. Growing up he played the violin and piano, started making covers and was singing at church and doing as many gigs as he could. After graduating high school, he moved to San Diego to study computer science, but later on transferring to Berklee College of Music to pursue music as a career. raph’s first release was a collaboration with lullaboy for the single “Tell Me” which has over 1.8 million streams on Spotify. Following that single, he collaborated with Gareth.T and puff in February 2021 for the single “Whole World”.
In 2022, raph released three collaboration singles; “catching feelings” with Thomas Ng in January, “HOPELESS” with kameko in May and “summer” with EJEAN in December. “HOPELESS” is his most popular song with over 4.3 million streams.
His official solo debut was on September 1st, 2023 with the single “ificouldbelikeu”. Since his debut, raph has amassed over 200K monthly listeners on Spotify. Following his solo debut, he released the single “homesick” on October 27th, 2023 and ended the year off with the release of “alright” – which is one of our favourite songs from his discography.
raph started the 2024 year off with the release of “fomo” on March 5th and “demons” on April 23rd. Both of these singles were pre-release tracks for his debut EP PRETENDER which came out on June 21st. We have been following raph since his solo debut with “ificouldbelikeu” and we are so excited to see him grow more.
Listen to “alright” by raph on Spotify:
Check out raph on Instagram: @raphxll
Current Monthly Listeners: 81K
Wes Patrick is an Asian-American singer and songwriter based in Orange County. His sound ranges from Pop to Hip-Hop to Pop Punk. His first release was on March 9th, 2020 with the single “MY END” which was in collaboration with Leo Barbara. Additionally, he collaborated with Leo again in July 2020 for the single “Lampshade”.
His official solo debut was on January 22nd, 2021 with the single “Eggs N Bacon”. Following his debut, he released four more singles in 2021; “Sugar Sweet Tea” in March, “Weak Link” in May, “Oopsie” in August and “Wake Up!” in December.
In January 2022, he collaborated with South Korean artist hevel for the single “HOTSHIT”. On March 4th, 2022, he released the single “SIXPACK” which since release has accumulated over 2.8 million streams on Spotify. His pop punk hit song “AIRHEAD” released on May 20th, 2022 and currently has a little over 3 million streams. Wes Patrick ended 2022 off with the release of “BIG SCREEN” which was the first pre-release track for his debut EP I BOUGHT YOU DAISIES which came out on April 14th, 2023. On June 2nd, 2023, he released the EP CHROMA AMERICANA. Additionally, he released two more singles in 2023; “UPPERCUT” in September and “PHD” in December.
So far for 2024, he released one single “HIGH AND MIGHTY” on February 23rd, 2024.
Listen to “AIRHEAD” by Wes Patrick on Spotify:
Check out Wes Patrick on Instagram: @wesxpatrick
Current Monthly Listeners: 5.4K
Javlin (pronounced JAY-vlin) is a Filipino-Chinese independent artist hailing from Las Vegas and currently based in the Bay Area, California. Growing up, Javlin performed in plays and musicals and was heavily influenced by Hip-Hop artists. He eventually moved to LA to pursue a degree in film and fell in love with Electronic Dance Music while being there. This led him to becoming a photographer for a local DJ group, BTO Collective and he eventually he joined a local indie production company as their DP/Editor.
He officially debuted on March 10th, 2018 with the release of “Right Here & Now”. Following his debut, he collaborated with Osi Mac for the single “Have It All” which came out on March 13th. He also released two more singles in 2018; “Let You Go” on March 27th and “Never or Now” with ONE9ONE on July 31st.
He didn’t release any music in 2019 and came back in January 2020 with the single “Don’t Play”. While releasing his own music, Javlin stayed active in the EDM world and co-wrote “Tell Me” with TWSTD ZOO which came out in February 2020. His last release of 2020 was in September for the single “All Night” which was a pre-release track for his debut album Homecoming which came out on January 13th, 2021.
On November 11th, 2022, he collaborated with Dane Amar for the single “CRAZY4U”. His next release was on June 23rd, 2023 with the single “OUT THE BLUE” which was in collaboration with Hannah. On November 11th, 2023, he released a double-single EP RAIN IN LA which included the songs “RAIN IN LA” and “GET HOME SAFE”. These were the first songs we ever listened to of Javlin’s.
Javlin started 2024 off with the release of “ALL I NEED” with Dane Amar on May 3rd. His latest release was on June 21st with the single “WYA” which is in collaboration with John Concepcion and is one of our favourite releases so far.
Listen to “WYA” by Javlin and John Concepcion on Spotify:
Check out Javlin on Instagram: @xjavlin
Current Monthly Listeners: 25.9K
8rae (pronounced “Brae”) is a Filipino-American rapper, singer and songwriter based in Orange County. His first release was on November 18th, 2020 with the single “Sanity” which was in collaboration with Kyle Wilkerson. His official solo debut was on November 20th, 2020 with the single “LMK”.
In 2021, he released three singles; “Wildest Dreams Part II” in March with Jortzy, “Summatime” in May and “Oregon” in October. His first release of 2022 was on February 11 with the single “Lust”. Following that single, he released “Keep Ya Distance” on March 4th. On March 25th, he released the single “F Valentine’s Day” which was a pre-release track fro his debut album WHO TF IS 8RAE? which came out on October 28th. This album also includes his hit song “Lost Cause” which has over 1.1 million streams on Spotify.
We discovered 8rae in January 2023 and have been following him ever since. He released “off a few” on April 7th which we absolutely loved. Additionally, he released “bust” with Kevin Powers on August 4th, 2023 and this became our favourite 8rae song. His last release of 2023 was in October for the single “loves me (not)”.
He started January 2024 off with the release of “iamsick” with Shir. His latest release vanessa atl which includes “vanessa atl” with Illusion Hills and Luis Alo and “serena downtown” with Illusion Hills came out on April 16th.
Listen to “bust” by 8rae and Kevin Powers on Spotify:
Check out 8rae on Instagram: @8raeden
Current Monthly Listeners: 18K
Donny is a R&B/Pop singer and songwriter born in Hong Kong. He moved to the United States at 4 years old and now lives in Los Angeles. He made his debut on October 15th, 2021 with sweet dreams which included the singles “rush” and “oowee”. Following his debut, he released the single “MISSED CALLS” on February 3rd, 2022 and “ANGELIC” on June 25th, 2022. “ANGELIC” is his most popular song with almost 1.1 million streams on Spotify.
We actually discovered donny daydream in February 2023 when we featured him on our first “Up & Coming Asian Artists | 100K AND BELOW” blog. On March 24th, 2023, he released the single “Honestly Impatient, followed by “Wasted Time” in April and “Lord Forgive” in May. All three of these singles were included on his debut album don’t you go running off now which released on June 23rd, 2023. On August 15th, 2023, donny daydream performed at EXPOSITION’s Expo Showcase in Los Angeles. His last release of 2023 was in November for “MADE TO BE”.
His first release of 2024 was on February 15th for the single “Heart 2 Heart”. He then released “Lovelorn” on May 17th and “Pure Bliss” on June 27th – which is his latest release.
From the time we featured donny in February 2023 to now, he has went from 12K monthly listeners to 18K and we are so excited to watch him grow even more with the years to come.
Listen to “Pure Bliss” by donny daydream on Spotify:
Check out donny daydream on Instagram: @donny.daydream
Check out our “GOLDEN STATE GROOVES” playlist on Spotify:
Got an artist or song submission? Visit our Submit Music page.