Saro

Pairing his soulful falsetto with intricate electronics, Los Angeles’ moody alt-R&B-pop artist Saro crafts songs that are as graceful as they are cathartic. He earned acclaim for the blend of danceable beats and cinematic moods he introduced on 2016′s debut EP In Loving Memory; by the time his Boy Afraid EP appeared the following year, he was drawing comparisons to Morrissey and opening for Miguel. Saro’s music grew richer as he opened up about love and loss as a gay man on 2019′s Die Alone EP, and on 2021′s “Daddy I Love Him,” he combined pleasure and pain with therapeutic honesty.
While growing up, Saro’s Evan Windom sang along with his parents’ favorites, which included Annie Lennox, Michael Jackson, Gloria Estefan, and Luther Vandross, but didn’t start making music until he graduated from high school. In college, he took classical voice lessons, and when he was 19, he began singing and writing with his close friend Simone Battle; in 2014, Windom was about to release an EP under the name Evan Mellows, but Battle’s suicide made him to rethink his music. Windom tapped into his grief and renamed himself Saro as an homage to the Smiths’ “Pretty Girls Make Graves” (“And sorrow’s native son/He will not smile for anyone”). He also became more open about his sexuality, and his viewpoint as a gay man became a vital part of his music.
Eventually, Windom connected with producers Robin Hannibal and David Burris, with whom he founded the recording studio and label Mateo Sounds. It was there that they recorded Saro’s debut EP, February 2016′s brooding In Loving Memory. The following year, Windom opened for Miguel and appeared on the Flight Facilities track “Stranded” before issuing his second EP, October 2017′s Boy Afraid, which ranged from danceable tracks to filmic atmospheres. After collaborating with Slaters on the 2018 track “One” and with DVBBS on the following year’s “Somebody Like You,” Saro returned in June 2019 with Die Alone, a slightly more hopeful but still cathartic EP produced by Burris. As he worked on his debut album, in 2020 Windom appeared on Tinlicker’s “Paradise,” ZES’ “Floodgates,” and a pair of singles by Neek, “Limitations” and “It Hurts Again.” In May 2021, the single “Daddy I Love Him” provided the first taste of Saro’s first full-length, which was expected later in the year. ~ Heather Phares