For our second week of “The Sound of U” pop up show, we got to interview James Norcross, an up-and-coming synth-pop and folk artist out of UW Madison. While balancing his English and journalism double major, James also writes and produces all of his own music. He made his first EP for the final project of his AP Lit class in high school, each track was written about a different book; the EP is appropriately titled “advanced placement.” The standout track from the project is “who’s gonna know you now?”, a synthy, crescendoing song based on “The Leavers” by Lisa Ko. Most recently, James released “Start It Over” just a few weeks ago.We got the opportunity to ask James all of our pressing questions: most importantly, which of the songs off of “advanced placement” he thought were kiki or bouba (if you don’t understand, look up the Bouba/Kiki Effect). It was so amazing to hear about his experiences playing his music live, as well as the musical support system he has found since coming to college. Over the course of the hour, we discovered James’ biggest hot takes and what song he would play for aliens if they came to Earth (“Run Away With Me” by Carly Rae Jepsen). We were especially ecstatic to hear about his plans for the future, including an upcoming EP/mixtape and an album. Thanks so much to James for coming on the show! This was such a special episode for us, and we had so much fun!!

Songs from the show:

who’s gonna know you now? // James Norcross
Wristwatch // MJ Lenderman
Start It Over // James Norcross
Run Away With Me // Carly Rae Jepsen-Jenna & Sunny