Ethanuno Release “ON 10”
Singer, songwriter, and producer EthanUno invites us into his colorful, one-of-one world with “on 10,” a bilingual pop/R&B genre-blending song. The romantic track has him wooing a fickle partner in both English and Spanish over a happy-sad vibe that pulls inspiration from hyperpop, kawaii, Y2K, and Latin pop.
When “on 10” opens, we hear rubbery bass, playful percussion, and a soft, pitched-up voice: “So anytime you leave I know it’s pretend / Oh here we go again, can never just be friends / Girl, when it comes to counting on you / Girl, we got it on 10.” EthanUno plays on the number theme when he dives into the verse, making his case over chiming keys. The young, San Diego-based artist — who’s called his sound “optimistic punk” — created every aspect of the song himself.
“I came back from skateboarding, just started messing around in the studio at my house, and came up with pretty much the whole song immediately,” says EthanUno. “I make a lot of music by myself, so sometimes I just feel like a mad man blowing stuff up — I can’t really tell what’s good or not. It’s exciting to be putting out more music and seeing what resonates with people.”
EthanUno has been turning heads since he self-released “pensando en ti,” a style-minting cut that combines a sample of Prince Royce’s “Corazon Sin Cara” with a Jersey club beat. That song arrived in a rush of carefree inspiration, but as he began to explore the sound he invented, EthanUno realized how much he identified with it as a kid who had always straddled worlds — growing up Mexican/Salvadoran in a white suburb, he felt like he never really quite fit fully within any culture. Before long, he was interpolating music he’d heard his mom playing as a child, like Aleks Syntek’s “Duele El Amor,” through this high-energy, SoundCloud-addled lens.
While EthanUno is just at the start of his journey, he’s already picked up cosigns from Frank Ocean (who played “pensando en ti” on Homer Radio) and a growing army of followers across socials and DSPs.