Tim Atlas has been making music for the better part of a decade and his first full length album, Enchanté proves he’s here to stay.

Atlas was surrounded by different genres played by his family growing up, from classic rock and country to R&B and power ballads. The influence of varied genres are evident on the album, weaving through slow acoustic songs like “Mom” to heavy guitar and drum influenced songs like “SeeThru” and synth inspired songs like “Just a Baby.”

Enchanté is a diverse and unfiltered album with a wide range of emotions, taking the listener through loss, love, anxiety and more. “Humans, artists – we’re all so dimensional in our interests and our personalities. I just wanted to shed light on different parts of myself that I haven’t had the chance to highlight in past releases,” he says. To make his music feel personal and intimate, Atlas takes moments and emotions from his own life. “I try to pull from my own experiences that are happening in real time because it’s fresh in my mind, so it allows me to speak on those subjects more emotionally and honestly. I think the nuances of a recent personal experience make for a better story to tell,” he says.

Atlas’ recent cross country move to New York City has changed the way he writes and produces, inspiring his newer music to become more raw and unfiltered. “I’m such a product of my environment, so I feel like this new set of songs has some of the grittiness of this city. I think this place gives you the space to be whatever you want to be, and I think I just ran with that feeling.”

Alongside the new album, Atlas has played festivals, recently toured in London and has plans to open for slenderbodies on their upcoming fall tour. “I love going to a city I’ve never been to and seeing people sing the songs back to us. It’s such a unique moment that allows me to see that fans really do listen and care about these songs. Spotify data and all those numbers just don’t compute the same way,” he says. “I think with every tour, I’m learning something new whether it be the technical side of things, or just my mental capacity and the boundaries I set for myself.”

His first EP All Talk! released back in 2018 and Atlas has proven his growth in his sound but also personally as an artist since then. “I think I’m just more comfortable with myself. Less apologetic about who I am or the things I like,” he says. “I used to be overly concerned with other opinions and would sometimes forget why I make music in the first place. But I find myself having to remind myself much less these days.”

Atlas hopes Enchanté and his music inspire fans and listeners to be unapologetically themselves and to be remembered as an artist whose music pushes people in a positive direction. “I hope people see a bit of themselves in this record, and I hope it inspires other artists to create more freely. I really just said what I wanted to say, wrote what I wanted to write, and I just hope the child-like spirit of that translates through the music because it was so much more fun and meaningful that way.”

Words: Jessica Spiers

Photography: Esther Kim