Most new artists show up with a tidy one-line pitch. Frannk Whitte doesn’t have one, and that’s on purpose. “My music doesn’t belong to one genre,” the São Paulo-born singer says. “It’s kind of a reflection of the moments I’m living.”
It’s a telling way to introduce yourself right before a debut album called “Who?” Whitte is a Brazilian artist who works between Brazil and Los Angeles, and he’s been making music for nearly a decade. He draws on alternative R&B, soul and modern pop, and he also works on electronic collaborations. He has no interest in picking one lane. “I’m not chasing a label or a category,” he says. “I’m chasing honesty.”
That honesty comes through in warm textures and an intimate vocal delivery, and you can hear it across songs like “Night Shift,” “Grooving Without Moving” and “I Can Finally Know.” His most recent release, “Taste,” came out on September 10. The records don’t demand attention. They earn it by staying close and personal. “What you’ll hear is simply me, translated through sound, as real as I can make it,” he says.
It started with Michael Jackson. At five, Whitte saw Jackson’s videos for the first time and thought of him as a superhero. He got the glove and tried to dance like him. That led to drum lessons at seven or eight, and by 13 he was making his own beats. At 15, after his first breakup, he wrote and recorded his first song and sent it to friends without telling them it was him. They loved it, and that’s when he knew he had to keep going.
He’s spent his life acting, dancing, directing, filming, producing and writing, but music has always been the center of it. He calls it “the closest thing we have to magic,” and he’s specific about what he’s after. He wants a song to take someone back to a night that mattered, or to a person or version of themselves they hadn’t thought about in a while. “Whether it’s dancing or crying, or just sitting with something real,” he says, “I want that emotional connection to be undeniable.”
After three formative years under the mentorship of producer and songwriter Cory Rooney, Whitte is now releasing “Who?” one track at a time. A new song comes out every couple of weeks, and the full album is due by mid-November. Once it’s out, he’s planning one or two special nights in São Paulo. Until then, he wants listeners to sit with the album and take it in.
The album’s title asks the question most people have about a new artist. Whitte’s answer is the same one he gives about genre: he’s whoever he was when each song was made. “Who?” is how he introduces that person.
Stream Frannk Whitte on Spotify, and follow him on Instagram and TikTok.
