Q specializes in feel-good music for people who don’t feel so good.

Especially if those people are men.

Over half the tracks on his 2021 album titled The Shave Experiment mention his tears in some way. The others explore themes of anxiety, vulnerability, fear, joy, and a lot of other things that “real men” just don’t talk about.

But Q seems pretty real to me. (And yes, that IS his real name. Q Steven Marsden.)

“Crying is for everyone,” he says. “If I can cry and still be courageous and still be strong, I feel like that’s [being] more of a man, if anything. Let me cry, but I’ll still take care of what I gotta do. Those are your emotions. It’s a feeling and feelings aren’t always fact.”

That’s enough to make Q and his musical perspective unique, but the way he delivers it is unlike anything you’ve ever heard before.

Throughout The Shave Experiment, Q sings in two ranges over low-fi synth melodies, electric guitar, and drum machines. In “Garage Rooftop,” you’ll get a taste of how tons of reverb and (the frequently abused) auto-tune can actually make beautiful music of Q’s comforting tenor and hopeful falsetto. But all of that sweet sound comes with even sweeter visuals. “Garage Rooftop” is a mélange of stolen moments between lovers splashing in waves, snuggling on grass, and of course, dancing on rooftops. It’s adorable in a way that almost makes you feel uncomfortable. Q’s vocals are raw and unfinished, the camera frames faces close enough to see blemishes, and each scene feels so intimate and authentic. Maybe even too authentic because after all of that sweetness, Q shows us that things aren’t always what they seem, and sometimes you don’t realize what you’ve got till it’s gone.

Life lessons aside though, that authenticity is another key trait of Q’s videos. In “Take Me Where Your Heart Is,” another of my Q favorites, he takes the same girl out bowling, and they do the kind of goofy stuff you do when you’re a grown person who doesn’t actually bowl. I don’t know if this woman is really Q’s girlfriend, someone he knows well, or just a great actress, but their chemistry is so easy that you’ll find yourself super invested in this fictional (?) relationship, and genuinely hoping things turned out OK.

And if not, rest assured, Q’s got a song for those feels too.

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