* En anglais uniquement
Pairing his soulful falsetto with intricate electronics, Los Angeles' moody alt-R&B-pop artist
Saro crafts songs that are as graceful as they are cathartic. He earned acclaim for the blend of danceable beats and cinematic moods he introduced on 2016's debut EP
In Loving Memory; by the time his
Boy Afraid EP appeared the following year, he was drawing comparisons to
Morrissey and opening for
Miguel.
Saro's music grew richer as he opened up about love and loss as a gay man on 2019's
Die Alone EP, and on 2021's "Daddy I Love Him," he combined pleasure and pain with therapeutic honesty.
While growing up,
Saro's Evan Windom sang along with his parents' favorites, which included
Annie Lennox,
Michael Jackson,
Gloria Estefan, and
Luther Vandross, but didn't start making music until he graduated from high school. In college, he took classical voice lessons, and when he was 19, he began singing and writing with his close friend Simone Battle; in 2014, Windom was about to release an EP under the name Evan Mellows, but Battle's suicide made him to rethink his music. Windom tapped into his grief and renamed himself
Saro as an homage to
the Smiths' "Pretty Girls Make Graves" ("And sorrow's native son/He will not smile for anyone"). He also became more open about his sexuality, and his viewpoint as a gay man became a vital part of his music.
Eventually, Windom connected with producers
Robin Hannibal and
David Burris, with whom he founded the recording studio and label Mateo Sounds. It was there that they recorded
Saro's debut EP, February 2016's brooding
In Loving Memory. The following year, Windom opened for
Miguel and appeared on the
Flight Facilities track "Stranded" before issuing his second EP, October 2017's
Boy Afraid, which ranged from danceable tracks to filmic atmospheres. After collaborating with Slaters on the 2018 track "One" and with
DVBBS on the following year's "Somebody Like You,"
Saro returned in June 2019 with
Die Alone, a slightly more hopeful but still cathartic EP produced by
Burris. As he worked on his debut album, in 2020 Windom appeared on
Tinlicker's "Paradise," ZES' "Floodgates," and a pair of singles by
Neek, "Limitations" and "It Hurts Again." In May 2021, the single "Daddy I Love Him" provided the first taste of
Saro's first full-length, which was expected later in the year. ~ Heather Phares