Sequoyah Murray is a 21 year old vocalist, musician and producer from Atlanta, Georgia. Writing deeply confessional lyrics and creating abstract textured song structures, Sequoyah is a product of his time, place and borderless generation, making music that is both wildly experimental and unforgettably accessible, his lyrics proudly recasting his vulnerabilities as strengths. His debut release, Penalties of Love, showcases one of the year’s most striking and original talents, and presents a vision of soul music made for our fractious times.

Murray was born into a musical family in one of the music capitals of the world: his mother is a singer, and his father a percussionist, both having spent their lives playing in local bands. If his first loves were the east African music introduced to him by his father and his mother’s sumptuous falsetto, the booming baritone of Arthur Russell became one of his oldest friends and most important touchstones. Just like Russell, his music is at once a self-created world and the result of deeply organic collaboration. He produces all his own music, and plays most instruments on the Penalties of Love, but enlisted his family across the four tracks, with his father’s drumming throughout and his mother and little brother singing (on “Penalties of Love”, and “Second Born”, respectively).

In 2012, when he was just 15, he began writing and recording music, self-releasing tapes. Since then, he’s supported Xiu Xiu and participated in Redbull Music Academy in Berlin in 2018, where he was mentored by techno pioneer Mike Banks of Underground Resistance, and graduated from the same programme as Flying Lotus, Nina Kraviz and Hudson Mohawke.