Best New Artists (Spring, 2026)

We've been publishing some form of Best New Artists feature on Pigeons & Planes since 2013, highlighting the rising artists who we're most excited about at that moment in time. That used to take the form of a monthly list with 10-15 names and couple of lines of text, but times have changed.

These days, you're served infinitely updated playlists of new songs by DSP algorithms or scroll your social media platform of choice for a sensory overload of 15-second snippets and echo-chamber recommendations from labels' latest paid influencer campaign.

So instead of throwing more and more in your face and dig deeper on a more tightly focused group of artists. These might not be the latest viral stars but they're all artists who have music and a story that's worth sharing—whether they're just getting started or have been grinding for a while and are now hitting a new peak.

Look back at some past Best New Artists features here.

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Sade Olutola

Photo by Kay Friar

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The Tumblr era is back! Or, perhaps more accurately for Sade Olutola, it never left. The British-Nigerian artist from South London took a refreshing approach to rolling out her music and creating connection with listeners in the lead up to her debut EP, Arrow Heart. Instead of rushing to release music on DSPs as soon as she had a little buzz, Sade focused on SoundCloud loosies and Tumblr exclusives (see her highly customized page here), building a niche community and a distinct, nostalgia-tinged visual world around her art before ever hitting the major streaming platforms.

Sade crafted Arrow Heart alongside producer Luca Santamaria, who she connected with after DMing on SoundCloud in 2024, and describes the songs as based on real life events surrounding a romantic heartbreak that she experienced. With a memorable way of writing about her feelings ("My emotions they rise and they dive / kingfisher of my heart" on the song "2099," for example) and the versatility to switch between a quickfire, quasi-rapped delivery and a belted indie rock chorus, Sade is still experimenting with and developing her many talents.

Following an EP release show in partnership with Tumblr, a summer including her debut headline show and first festival appearances in support of Arrow Heart awaits.—Alex Gardner

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Victoryland

Photo by Meg Ha

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Victoryland is the Brooklyn-based project of Julian McCamman, and his music sounds like someone working through heartbreak, obsession, and the general chaos of being alive in real time.

The project started in Philly during 2023 and he released his first project Sprain in 2024. It’s a lo-fi, tape-recorded album that fit neatly into what was happening in his city at the time. His Good English label debut, My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It, dropped back in January of this year and marks a significant departure from his previous work. He says it’s about, “the struggle to fight for a real connection between people.”

There’s a uniquely lived-in, restless quality to the production that keeps the record’s most polished moments from feeling too clean. Fittingly, McCamman has said this is the first album he’s made where he can listen back without feeling like something is missing.—Thomas Schreckinger

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nomi.

Photo via nomi.

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North Carolina-raised, New York-based artist nomi. has been releasing music for a handful of years and she’s already collaborated with acts like Isaiah Rashad, Hamond, and Mount Kimbie. She’s also gained fans of her own with songs like 2025’s “raindance” and 2026’s “badman.” It’s her latest single “sweet talk,” though, that sounds like a breakthrough moment.

Produced by Teej, Hamond, and 8teen, “sweet talk” has the immediacy of a classic Neptunes beat but with more swing and sharper teeth, and nomi.’s fluency in both R&B and pop allows her to instinctively match the energy. The song is an undeniable hit—the kind that punches you in the face the first time you hear it—but it’s also dynamic enough (shout out to b sections) to not get stale after 1,000 listens (I can attest to this). Pop music is changing. Down-the-middle hits rarely suffice anymore, and the most impactful artists in pop are pulling from more distinct niches, whether that’s electronic, country, alternative, indie, or R&B. The problem is, those pivots can come off like strategic plays rather than authentic extensions of the artist themselves.

It seems like the perfect time for an artist like nomi., who can pull off a banger like “sweet talk” with the kind of soul and integrity that you can’t fake. nomi. has more music coming this summer, and a project on the way soon after.—Jacob Moore

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Derby

Photo via Derby

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There’s an inherent drama to Derby’s songwriting that makes me think of a scene in Interstellar. While having a destiny-defining argument with his daughter, a dust storm breaks out as Matthew McConaughey’s truck pulls up to the house. He picks her up, shields her face from the storm, and rushes inside, where they continue their argument at an even higher intensity. Derby—whose pitched up vocals and warbling sonics stem from an obsession with Frank Ocean’s Blonde, and whose twangy guitar riffs are thanks to a Texas childhood—treats relationships and longing as if they’re matters of life or death. While singing about “Jenny,” he croons that “God had something on his soul when he unfurled you,” and that “the church built a choir to sing her praises.” On “Ultraviolet,” he has only one question for her: “Will you dance with me until the ashes paint what’s left?”

In his interview with Pigeons & Planes earlier this year, Derby revealed that he writes from a “glorified, more interesting” version of himself, and that if he wrote about his real life, it’d mainly consist of “watching college football” on the couch. His music, then, serves as a testament to the art of songwriting: a normal guy making his world crumble.

Derby’s next full length, titled Soft Bodied Animals, is set to come out later this year. —Millan Verma

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Pz’

Photo via Pz’s Instagram

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Pz’ (pronounced “Peezy”) took a distinctly Atlanta route to underground rap fame. He started off as a cool guy on Instagram posting fit pics, then modeled for high-end streetwear brands like Mowalola, and finally, about two years ago, started rapping. He was already tapped in with Atlanta’s burgeoning underground scene and had lived the life most rappers brag about, so the transition came naturally.

By constantly dropping singles, Pz’ has honed a silky brand of swag-rap peppered with flexes of international trips and designer jeans. Like his forefathers, it’s less about what he’s saying than how he’s saying it; it comes as no surprise, then, that he received the coveted Playboi Carti co-sign. He has yet to release or even announce a debut tape, but if his strongest singles (“First Date,” “Havana,” and “HEDIS BUSSIN’”) are any indication, it will likely be a project you’ll keep on repeat.—Millan Verma

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Phoenix James

Photo by Raphaël Gaultier

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Phoenix James may have only just released her debut EP Teeth, but her artistic voice already feels distinct. At times industrial and jagged, at others soft and delicate, her music exists in this contradiction, encapsulating the nuances of her emotional breadth. Rather than settling into one sonic identity, James moves fluidly between textures and genres, building an early discography that does not stray away from complexity.

Earlier this year, James spoke to P&P about the recurring motif of teeth in her work, a symbol that captures the emotional duality running through her music. “When someone's angry, they bare their teeth, and when someone’s happy, they’re smiling wide, full teeth,” she explained, framing teeth as expressions of both joy and aggression. “We say things like ‘sinking your teeth in’ when we care about it, or ‘grit your teeth’ when you’re pushing through something hard. Even small things, like kissing your teeth, can say a lot without saying anything at all.”

Themes of love, longing, and pain are woven into her debut EP. “Lovers leave bite marks,” James noted, “and even love itself can feel like it has teeth: something consuming, overwhelming, even slightly painful.” It’s this perspective that makes her music feel so compelling: it is tender, but never softened around the edges.—Katie Clayton

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sahn

Photo via Rhys Williams

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For sahn, the mystery is not the story. The music is the process, the reasoning behind the Twin Cities musician’s decision to obfuscate his biographical details. Sure, he’s fairly active on socials, with an Instagram profile that does a pretty good job of capturing what the songwriter is up to. Recently, he documented a day in Malibu with the caption: “im getting a big ass chain really soon,” but these surface level details merely feed the algorithm. sahn saves the real stuff, the tale behind the author, for his songs.

Case in point, when we reached out to the artist and his team for more information to contextualize the very blurb you’re reading now, we received the following: “a byproduct of the twin cities, sahn is an artist that provides a rich musical narrative without the confines of traditional boundaries.” The rest, we were told in so many words, could be discovered via the music. It’s a refreshing pivot in an era in which we either know far too much about our favorite artists, or everything about their persona revolves around being an enigma. sahn is neither, just someone making really good music who wants the work to speak for itself.

His biggest statement to date was 2025’s 20, a sprawling tour of the various sounds sahn has obsessed over throughout his still-green career. Elements of dance, pop, minimal R&B, psych-folk, and more make appearances, all tethered by sahn’s voice, which is a stunning instrument in its own right. It sits front and center throughout, occasionally drenched in autotune, always singing exactly what’s on sahn’s mind.—Will Schube

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Rian Brazil

Photo by Lucien Parsons

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You can infer a little about rising UK artist Rian Brazil based on two of his biggest co-signs so far: Lola Young and Björk. As a songwriter, the Brighton-born musician wields an emotional impact and pop sensibilities with obvious potential to reach wide audiences. But he’s also a disruptor, seemingly as determined to push boundaries and break rules as he is to write a catchy melody.

Even Brazil’s stickiest hooks and most impressive vocal lines are paired with idiosyncratic, sometimes disorienting elements like warped vocal modulations, drum ‘n’ bass beats, soft/hard contrast, and discombobulated arrangements. This kind of forward-thinking approach isn’t uncommon, especially coming from the red-hot London underground right now, but Brazil’s frenetic methods resonate as especially inventive and surprisingly cohesive.

His latest offering, the eight-song engine heartbreak EP, is proof that he’s already pushing beyond the confines of his own scene. Most music tends to get framed in one of two ways, both compelling for different reasons: cutting edge and unconventional, or crowd-pleasing and commercially viable. On this EP, Rian Brazil threads the needle between the two.—Jacob Moore

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waterbaby

Photo by Levi Axene

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Stumble upon waterbaby’s profile on DSPs and you might be surprised that this emerging artist, who only recently released her debut album on indie label Sub Pop, has a song with nearly 100 million plays. That’s the power of a great song, which also gets used in a sweet Ikea advert. That song was “Stockholmsvy,” a 2022 release by Hannes, featuring Waterbaby, produced by shared collaborator Marcus White.

Some years later, the Stockholm-born singer-songwriter waterbaby continued her fruitful relationship with White while creating her debut album, Memory Be a Blade. This time, she also added violin, cellos, saxophone, and flute to the process, creating a warm and intimate album that sounds like a relaxed live session that we’re just lucky to sit in on.

On songs like “Amiss” and “Srs Ice,” the instruments are given equal footing to waterbaby’s vocals, while on the gorgeous title track, little moments like the throat clearing before a verse starts are the subtle touches that make songs worth revisiting.

“I’m extremely nostalgic,” waterbaby says in a statement about the album. “I ruminate, both good and bad. I romanticize. I can be very much stuck in the past, but it doesn’t feel like a sad way because I’m cherishing my history.” Created while reflecting on two breakups, Memory Be a Blade is one of the best debut albums I’ve heard this year.—Alex Gardner

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Rockie Rode

Photo via Rockie Rode

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Rockie Rode (aka Cate Osborne) released her debut album this past February after a string of one-off singles and collaborations with artists like Samba Jean-Baptiste and Zack Villere (a member of Dijon’s touring band). Across the record (simply named Rockie), her softer, downtempo take on indie twang feels undeniably charming, shaped by remnants of ‘90s indie without ever sounding too derivative. A palpable sense of self and place runs through her lyricism, recalling Lana Del Rey’s early Lizzy Grant days. Her songs feel like humidity clinging to bare skin: dreamlike and heavy, yet grounded by the dry scrape of dead guitar strings and the physical immediacy of her voice.

Much of the album is defined by those touchpoints, lending the music a grit and unpolished warmth, while the mixes drift in a narcotic lullaby haze without ever taking away from the central themes of the record. Still, Osborne reveals multiple sides of her approach to music across the record. On “Sexy,” the ringing pulse of a triangle, whispery vocals, and wiry electric guitar riffs keep the track elusive. Meanwhile, “Vegas Night” pushes further outward, her voice pitched up as harmonies melt over a searing, near-whining synth line. This versatility secures Rockie Rode a fruitful career in the indiesphere.—Katie Clayton

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Matt Proxy

Photo via Matt Proxy

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Matt Proxy’s music embodies the daily mechanics of survival and creation that define his existence. His unique POV is a direct product of his refusal to separate his art from the high-stakes reality that he faces. He pours the details of his personal life directly into his art and isn't afraid to experiment, moving from distorted jerk beats to guitar melodies to old-school rap loops to gritty trap, with dramatic beat switches throughout. He screams, sings, raps, writes, and produces.

The Minneapolis artist has been producing in FL Studio since he was fourteen, and now he's experiencing the results of that relentless work. Last year, he opened for JPEGMAFIA at the rapper's Minneapolis stop with just forty minutes’ notice. This summer, he's going on tour with JPEG—his first ever. The momentum doesn’t stop there. fakemink recently brought Proxy out during his Minneapolis show and at his album release party in London. Their connection started after fakemink came across a reel of Proxy’s “catfish.” Proxy recently ran into Erykah Badu at the airport and got to chat with her about music. He took it as a sign that good things await him.

Matt Proxy’s new album Trojan Horse drops this June, and it’s his most personal project to date. Proxy’s father was recently deported to Liberia after six months in ICE detention, and he'll be narrating the album. “I put all my real life into my music,” Proxy told Pigeons & Planes. He means it literally.—Thomas Schreckinger

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A Good Year

Photo by Johanna Hvidtved

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A Good Year exists somewhere between a band, a soundtrack project, and a dream you half remember after waking up. The Copenhagen based duo creates emotionally weightless music built from ambient textures, pitched vocals, and fragmented electronic production that often feels more cinematic than melodically driven. Their work moves through isolation, intimacy, and themes of disconnection without ever fully grounding itself in one genre or scene.

That fluidity has become central to the project’s identity. Their breakthrough release Sofina arrived simultaneously as both a film project and soundtrack, establishing the visual world surrounding their sound as equally important to the music itself. Since then, A Good Year has quietly become one of the most compelling names emerging from Copenhagen’s experimental underground, collaborating with artists like Horse Vision, Helena Gao, Late Verlane, and MØ.

Their debut album Play, released this month, further expands their world. Built on the backbone of experimental spontaneity, the record drifts between ambient music, indie rock, experimental pop, and soundtrack composition that holds restless emotional looseness. In a moment where so much music feels engineered for instant clarity, A Good Year leans fully into ambiguity, creating music that feels immersive rather than immediate.—Sofiarose Mineghino

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Ivy Knight

Photo by Sarame Sahgal

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Hearing Ivy Knight’s airy, minimalistic folk-pop may feel like uncovering a forgotten relic from a bygone era, but there’s no use looking backward. The NYC-based artist crafts songs that somehow feel both urgent and timeless, drawing heavily from her spent time living upstate as well as her West Coast roots.

Iron Mountain, her debut album released through Scenic Route, serves as a topographical survey of both Ivy’s own personal growth and the quiet friction between humanity and the natural world. Over sparse, subtle instrumentals from producer and close collaborator Deer park, Ivy paints sprawling landscapes of a lost American Southwest, finding equal amounts of warmth and pain in the hot desert air. Her voice takes on a spectral quality, drifting across barren valleys and canyons to search for signs of life.

The album was crafted in the Hudson Valley while Knight was finishing her college senior thesis, a research project centered on data centers and their environmental impact. Iron Mountain actually shares its name with a real-world data facility, and her songwriting consistently conjures images of industrial machinery disrupting the landscape it occupies.

Ivy is currently bringing her album across North America opening for Mark William Lewis—a pairing that perfectly complements her textured, captivating soundscapes.—Neel Shah

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sahn, Victoryland, Derby, Rockie Rode, Matt Proxy, Phoenix James, Ivy Knight, waterbaby, A Good Year, nomi., Sade Olutola, Rian Brazil, Pz'