With his gloriously distorted pop earworms, Nate Sib shoots for greatness

On the first weekend of Coachella, Nate Sib turned towards the sunset and gazed into the distance. Not from the crowd, but the stage, where he was standing as a special guest of 2hollis – this year’s alt-rap and electropop breakout who also happens to be his childhood friend.

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“It was really beautiful,” he recalls. People in the crowd “were going crazy. It kind of surprised me, but it also was a little expected for how big it’s been.”

It’s unbelievable how rapidly artists like Sib and 2hollis have skyrocketed to fame from their digital underground roots. The pair, both 21, have gone from filming lowkey videos on their iPhones from the back of Sib’s truck to touring four continents, a swell of screaming fans meeting them at every show.

Alongside Finn Sigil and rommulas, whom Sib and 2hollis met in elementary school, the four form an informal collective known among fans as ‘Boylife’. They’ve created their own thriving ecosystem, blending sleazy electropop with a swaggering trap attitude and the no-fucks-given experimentalism of hyperpop. Sib, in particular, makes music straight out of a Top 40 chart in an alternate universe where ‘Brat’ dominated culture two decades ago. It helps that he sounds uncannily like Justin Bieber, but if his go-to producer was Hudson Mohawke; out of the ‘Boylife’ members, Sib’s philosophy is the most unabashedly pop-oriented.

“We’re trying to bring back a certain style of pop that’s distorted and unique”

Sib’s in a relaxed mood when he rings NME on a sunny day in his hometown of Los Angeles. He tells us he’s always been surrounded by music; his father was formerly of the underground punk band Wax, while his mother was a makeup artist for hip hop legends like Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube. But it was when his grandfather gifted him a keyboard for his sixth birthday that Sib knew music was his lane: “I always felt the need to start singing, whether it was yelling or screaming or singing. I was always clamping my teeth together as a beat or drumming on the sofa.”

He would go on to also learn drums and guitar, constantly listening to Skrillex, deadmau5 and Trap Nation remixes in the meantime. Though Sib knew he would pursue music all his life, it was only two years ago that he mustered up the courage to release his own material.

It’s all thanks to 2hollis, who moved into Sib’s house upon dropping out of college. Sib noticed him producing on Ableton one day, and Hollis suggested he sing on a track. “I just hopped on it and he was like, ‘bro, I forgot you could sing!’” he recalls. “In that moment, hearing it and how excited we were about it, it sparked something in me. Seeing him take off, I was like: ‘I’ve gotta put myself out there too’.” Sib eventually dropped his debut track ‘Why Can’t You See’ in 2023, landing a spot on the NHL 24 soundtrack thanks to a “friend of a friend” who played the song for developer EA: “I just got very lucky.”

Now, Sib has dropped his second EP ‘For Us’, the follow-up to 2024’s ‘For You’, which he says is “heavily inspired” by hyperpop pioneer SOPHIE and 2015-era Justin Bieber. Sib tells us that he wants to “create a new sound”; with the help of producer kimj [ericdoa, Kanii, Frost Children], the pair are “trying to bring back a certain style of pop that’s distorted and unique”.

There’s usually minimal elements in his songs – ‘Tonight’ contains four instruments, Sib’s voice included – but he wrings maximum impact out of every sound. The crisp, twinkling ‘Secret’ unexpectedly degrades into a distorted, fuzzed-out mess, while ‘Only1’ features a tempo fakeout straight from an EDM playbook: after a gnashing breakdown, the beat unexpectedly slows, making you wait until it gradually accelerates once again – where it promptly hits you with its next verse.

“I want to sell out stadiums. I want to change the world. I want to keep my friend group around and I want us all to take it to the top”

What’s exciting about Sib is his ambition: “I want to be the next big male pop star, like how it was for JB [Justin Bieber], Michael Jackson, Prince, David Bowie.” Those are certainly lofty names he’s reeled off, and none of them sound like what Sib makes. But in a world where Playboi Carti topples charts worldwide, it’s not hard to imagine younger pop audiences embracing Sib – especially as there aren’t as many male stars dominating pop today.

In spite of his mysterious persona, Sib tells us he does want to start opening up to his fans more. When NME asks what his main concerns are when writing music, he answers: “Making sure that the melodies are super satisfying and that my lyrics can connect with people.” He calls ‘Typical’ his most lyrically personal song on the album, which sees Sib assert: “Tear me up, but I won’t fall, you will not knock me down / It’s so typical, ain’t it typical?” He shares that it’s “about a specific person who was in my life,” adding: “The lyrics are telling you to know that you’re good enough when someone tells you that you’re not and to stay in your own lane. I think people need to hear that.”

So yes, Sib wants the pop star life – but “minus all the drugs and stupid dark sideline shit”. Sib and his friends are all sober, something he says is vital in LA where “the drug scene is pretty crazy. We know how bad it can be and how easy it can be to get into that lane.

“We stay away from it,” he adds, “because we’re trying to inspire everyone in the world to see that you don’t need to be super high to make music. Personally, the best music comes from being sober, because it really comes from the soul and being conscious.” Sib and his friends are all “spiritual”, too, through meditation and praying “here and there to a higher power of some sort”. He says this spirituality is “absolutely” part of his music, and eventually his forthcoming debut album: “I want this whole album to translate that through music about sobriety, about love, about a power of some sort.”

For now, the Nate Sib album’s still in the works. But when it does eventually drop, Sib makes it very clear that he has no intentions of holding back: “I want to take it to the max. I want to sell out stadiums. I want to change the world. I want to keep my friend group around and I want us all to take it to the top.”

Nate Sib’s EP ‘For Us’ is out now via Republic/Island EMI Label Group

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