A Nashville-based singer/songwriter with a knack for crafting dark-toned, melancholic pop, James Droll had a rapid rise to streaming success in the late 2010s with tracks like "Wall" and "Take a Walk," as well as featuring on the Justin Caruso hit "Caving." His steady stream of singles continued into the next decade with the 2020 Caro collaboration "The First One." Raised on a llama farm in conservative rural Ohio, Droll quietly used music as a form of self-expression during his teenage years, later joining a pop-punk band while studying at the University of Cincinnati. After following a job and relationship to Nashville, he began to focus on his own solo work and in 2016 debuted with his first track, the moody, electronic-laced "Wall." The song made it onto streaming charts, paving the way for additional tracks like 2017's "Bad for You" and his feature spot on Justin Caruso's "Caving," which eventually amassed over ten millions streams. Over the next few years, Droll continued to release intimate, sensual pop songs that tilted toward melancholia, landing hits with "Take a Walk" and "Old School Heartbreak." He began 2020 with a number of collaborations including a pair of songs with Los Angeles beatmaker Trove and a single, "The First One," with Caro. ~ Timothy Monger