Must a person specialize? Or could he excel at many very different things? Brandon Tory has been confronting that question for several years now – and with “Seriously”, his latest single, we believe he’s answered it. He’s already established himself professionally as an ace coder and computer scientist: he’s currently a Level 5 engineer at Apple, which is rarefied air indeed. He’s also making a name for himself as a skilled R&B and hip-hop vocalist. And because he sees the connections between the two fields of endeavor he’s chosen for himself – he even wrote a provocative piece for Medium called “Multidream: Why rapping and coding are the same thing” – he’s able to apply the lessons he’s learned behind the keyboard to the work he does while he’s in the vocal booth. Tory approaches his music with the same determination, the same imagination, and the same mental precision that has made him a success at the most visionary technology company in the history of the world.
Tory’s new single “Seriously” builds on the success of his Yaga Season EP, a tight, ambitious, party-hungry set that won the young vocalist the admiration of legendary producer Timbaland. It wasn’t just Timbaland who flipped for Yaga Season: the set was praised by HipHopDX, Based Boston, The Hundreds, and other hip-hop media outlets. After the success of Yaga, Tory threw a huge party in the Hollywood Hills, called Multidream Weekend, without any of his fans knowing he was an engineer at Apple (over 1000 fans RSVP-ed, and capacity for the event was maxed at 600 people). The sultry sound of “Seriously” will come as no surprise to those who appreciated Yaga, but the intensity and urgency of Brandon Tory’s performance is unprecedented in his catalog. This is at once the most immediate and the most challenging music he’s ever made, and it’s bound to steam up the summer.
