For Houston-raised artist vivi rincon, vulnerability seems as natural as breathing. Her debut EP crash landing, out today, doubles as a confessional, airing out insecurities and professing love in the most complicated of fashions. In collaboration with producer Matt Martin, rincon stealthily builds the instrumentation of her tracks. Typically beginning soft and understated, her lyrics entrance listeners as guitars and drums build and, before you know it, bear down on you in an overwhelming union with rincon’s words.

Opening track “if we lived on the moon” is a ballad with strong bones; “can’t breathe” and “angela” are prime examples of the writing-instrumentation dynamic described above; “overflow” is a diaristic outpour of hyper-self-aware thoughts. Across crash landing’s 5 songs, rincon is able to simultaneously establish her identity as an artist and prove her wide-spanning talent.

A Berklee School of Music product, vivi rincon has the makeup of an artist destined to be a mainstay on playlists. The diversity we hear in her music is produced honestly: rincon herself is a half-Mexican half-Venezuelan queer woman who is able to express her multitude of perspectives in her recordings. Her vision is clear, and her debut EP sounds just as rincon describes it herself. “crash landing explores the intricacies of a relationship, the ups and downs, the passion and the hate, the beautiful and the terrifying. And navigating through the intense feelings that come with being madly in love with someone,” she says of the project’s intentions.

People are starting to take notice of rincon’s rising star: her single “if we lived on the moon”, produced by her girlfriend, provided her first viral moment with over 13 million views on TikTok, an accomplishment bolstered by praise from Lizzy McAlpine. With the year still young, rincon has set the tone for herself with an arresting first impression sure to raise her stock in the indie world.

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