Beyoncé’s surprise self-titled album in 2013 was a giant hit,
thanks to collaborations with super-producers like Timbaland,
Pharrell, and Frank Ocean. But it was some guy named Boots
[https://twitter.com/bootsonboots] who was credited with writing some
of the album’s most personal songs: “Heaven
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faiBGx7aoJ8]”, about a miscarriage;
“Blue [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34xCpMRF92o]” about
Beyoncé’s daughter; and “Haunted
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rWW58V2_0s]," which maligns the
music industry.
In no time, BuzzFeed
[http://www.buzzfeed.com/mylestanzer/meet-boots-the-unknown-guy-behind-beyonces-new-album],
Pitchfork
[http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9309-beyonces-muse/], Vogue
[http://www.vogue.com/872497/beyonce-dreams-producer-boots/#1], and
just about everyone else took cracks at answering the question, “Who
is Boots?” Reporters were calling his parents’ house in Florida,
someone tried to sell photos of him, and Beyoncé fans started
following him around Brooklyn. “To go from none of that to a lot of
that, I didn’t take it well,” he says. Still, the 27-year-old has
nothing but positive things to say about her. “The only reason she
and I worked so well together is because something I had to say
resonated very deeply with her,” he says. “It’s amazing that it
happened.”
Jordy Asher started in Miami. He was in a string of rock bands before
he and a girlfriend took a hard left turn towards indie-pop as Blonds
[http://www.stereogum.com/898272/band-to-watch-blonds/franchises/band-to-watch/].
They broke up; Jordy moved to New York, became Boots. How he got from
there to Beyoncé (and Jay Z’s label, Roc Nation
[http://rocnation.com/artists/]) is still unknown, and Boots won’t
be the first to discuss the matter. He’d prefer to talk about the
future, beginning with the lead single from his upcoming album,
“Mercy.”
WATCH BOOTS PLAY AN ACOUSTIC VERSION OF “MERCY” ON PIANO HERE
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0GbEmyh45c].
Boots is sticking with his idiosyncratic indie methods. He replaces
all the songs on his SoundCloud [https://soundcloud.com/bootsonboots]
on a whim. He almost exclusively releases music without warning – no
marketing or social media campaigns. And when he tours the country, as
he is doing now with FKA Twigs, he prefers to get a rental and drive
himself. The mystery of Boots has been solved, but he remains an
enigma.
WATCH BOOTS COVER ST. VINCENT:
WATCH BOOTS PERFORM "ONLY" (NEW):