Briston Maroney joins Shelf

Briston Maroney is the kind of artist who turns chaos into clarity—and makes it sound really, really good.

Born between two vastly different worlds, one a pressure-cooked Catholic school life in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the other a freewheeling, devil-may-care spirit in northern Florida, Maroney grew up learning how to navigate contradiction. On his electrifying third album, JIMMY, he doesn’t just explore those dualities, he invites them to collide. Fueled by a recent psychedelic awakening and anchored by his signature guitar-forward sound, JIMMY is a raw, riveting ride through the messy middle ground of becoming. Maroney sings, screams, and shreds through questions of identity, expectations, and freedom, all while pinballing between romance and restlessness, cynicism and grace.

With over 2 million monthly Spotify listeners and a quarter-billion streams on his breakout hit “Freaking Out on the Interstate,” Maroney has built a loyal fanbase that stretches far beyond TikTok virality. And now, fresh off an Australian tour with The Kooks and 8 shows into his co-headlining U.S. tour with Peach Pit, he’s reminding us that life’s real masterpiece is simply being yourself—even if you’re still figuring out who that is.

ShelfMAG: Who was the first fictional character you identified with as a kid?

@bristonmaroney: Like many of my fellow melancholy kiddos out there, Charlie Brown and his gang of mini-intellectuals really spoke to me. Dude was so hum-drum you just couldn’t help but love him! Calvin and Hobbes scratched the same itch, actually maybe even more so. The speed at which their days would change course from flying kites and catching bugs to asking unanswerable questions about existence made me feel very seen! 

ShelfMAG: Who was the last musical artist you changed your mind about?

@bristonmaroney: Wow this is a question I’ve never thought about before! It feels weird to publicly admit not liking and artist before liking them hahaha. Most of the time if I don’t like a band or artist and eventually come around it’s because I’ve confronted some extreme insecurity that they seemed to have mastered long before me haha. I didn’t like Ozzy when I was kid because my parents told me he was evil, but Sabbath is one of my favorite bands of all time now after seeing some awesome videos of Ozzy cooking breakfast and having a chat. 

ShelfMAG: What song would wake you up if you were in a coma?

@bristonmaroney: ”The Promise” by When in Rome

ShelfMAG: The last TV show you binged? 

@bristonmaroney: Common Side Effects! Holy shit, it’s so good!

ShelfMAG: The item on your shelf most likely to stay there forever?

@bristonmaroney: These types of items are my favorite. I have a pocket knife my family gave me a long time ago and I’ve kept it on every bedside table I’ve ever owned! 

Curious about what else Briston is into? Get real-time updates at shelf.im/bristonmaroney