Spotlight: Yxngxr1 Has Found New Love in His New Album 'Teenage Motel'
FINDING NEW LOVE IN AN EQUALLY AS NEW ALBUM — Yxngxr1, pronounced Younger One, the moniker of Timothy Francis Lee, releases a marker of change, Teenage Motel. Out today, Yxngxr1’s album arrives alongside a few key moments in Lee’s life. While the artist grew up in Cardiff, Wales, he recently made the move to the big city: London, England. The change is following years of living in his small town where he first began to work on his scuffed indie pop music, which he originally released on SoundCloud. Now Lee has over 1.6 million Spotify listeners and released hits such as “Rather Do” and “Tyler.”
Looking back on his roots, Lee recalled the times in which people doubted him, as well as his name choice at the start of his career, a stage name he chose on a whim. “At the very start, people were like, ‘You are not going to get anywhere with a name like that.’” But it looks like Yxngxr1 proved them wrong, and Teenage Motel is just his next project on the way to the top.
During our interview, Lee sat in his partially empty new apartment, which he recently moved into with his girlfriend, Morgs; big windows welcomed an uncommon London sun. He couldn’t have been more excited to share the news of his new single “Nice Guy,” which was released on April 15, and his upcoming album. “It's so easy to promo this album because it's actually the love of my life — other than Morgs,” Lee shared with a laugh.
Inspired by nostalgia, Lee’s album title follows his successful first EP from 2019, Childhood Dreams. “I wanted a little follow up to Childhood Dreams and have a teenage motel where everyone comes to find love and then heartbreak. And it's kind of like everyone leaves and everyone's sad or happy at whatever happened.”
Teenage Motel blends Lee’s classic themes of love and heartbreak, yet it still feels unexpected. Each song feels like a mix of a different genre — you never quite know what you will hear next. “Call Me If You Want” begins with Lee’s classic layered vocals and blends almost-cinematic melodies, while “Teenage Motel Lobby” is meant to sound like elevator music and “BMW” has jazzy undertones. Each song brings a little something different to the table — something you don’t think to anticipate.
Of all the songs in the album, Lee has two favorites. The first is “Nice Guy”: “Honestly, [it’s an] underrated banger, even though it’s probably madly overrated… but I think it’s underrated,” Lee shared with a laugh.
His other favorite is one he produced alongside rappers Lee Scott and Black Josh titled “Room 2”: “It’s so fucking good,” Lee said enthusiastically. “Both of their parts are so perfect.” Lee was sure to share how proud he was of each featured artist in the album, as well. “Every feature just nailed their part, like … understood the assignment.” But there is one other song off the album that holds a special place in the artist’s heart.
“Because that song has predicted mine and Morgs’ future, it's actually really weird,” Lee explained seriously about “Night of Your Life.” “There's like a whole verse, which I wrote ages ago before I even met Morgs, before I even knew who she was. And the verse is like, ‘So we should stick to the basics, basis for spaces, make out when your mum's out, in your mum's house in the basement,’ which is what we did.”
The song continues on to mention them finding a place in London, which they clearly have. “We always play it together and we're like, ‘How the fuck did I do that?’ It’s so perfect,” Lee said, smiling over Zoom.
With a new album and a move into a new city, one would think Lee has enough on his plate. But he isn’t stopping there. With his European tour starting in June, Lee is excited to perform his new songs off Teenage Motel. “We are hopefully going to go perform in the US at some point as well, which should be kind of cool,” he said. “I've always wanted to do LA just because it's cool and it's sunny so we get to do the show and then chill by the pool. And then after that, I'm sleeping, I’m hibernating.”
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