Boy Pablo In Concert
Something in YouTube's secret algorithms must have a soft spot for warm, charming indie pop. Nothing else quite explains how Boy Pablo's "Everytime" blew up on the site in 2017 after infiltrating millions of users' "recommended" lists.
In the video, 19-year-old singer-songwriter Nicolas Pablo Muñoz sports a pink hoodie and short athletic shorts. He and his four equally casual bandmates squint into the sun as they perform Pablo's ode to unrequited love. Their viral clip of this gem of a tune eventually earned more than 15 million views.
Pablo's Chilean parents immigrated to Norway in the 1980s and took root in the rainy city of Bergen on Norway's southwest coast. Pablo began playing drums at age five and guitar at 11. He and his band of high-school besties attended music school in nearby Os. He began performing as Boy Pablo in 2015 and released the six-song EP ‘Roy Pablo,' which included "Everytime," on indie label 777 in May 2017.
Pablo records and produces nearly everything Boy Pablo releases. The rest of the group — Gabriel Muñoz (lead guitar), Eric Tryland (keyboards), Henrik Åmdal (bass), and Sigmund Vestrheim (drums) — joins him for live shows.
Songs like "Dance, Baby!," "Ur Phone," and "I'm Really Tired This Day Sucks" deliver teenage angst with plain-spoken lyrics, catchy guitar riffs, and slightly goofy rock abandon. "When I make music, it's like therapy for me," he told NME, "but I don't like things to be too serious."
In spring 2018, Pablo released the single "Losing You," which asks the musical question, "How would you feel if I walked up to you one day and ripped your heart out?" Boy Pablo began touring outside of Norway for the first time; a trip to America included a sold-out show in New York City.
In October 2018, Pablo released his second EP, ‘Soy Pablo,' whose cover depicts him sitting alone on a skateboard, electric guitar tucked under his arm. It offered another brightly delivered batch of sincere laments punctuated by disarming cleverness ("You were gone and my cell phone too," sings Pablo in "Feeling Lonely").
Boy Pablo may already have gone viral, but that's just the beginning for one of indie pop's most promising young dreamers.