User:Invisiboy42293/Boy Jr.

Boy Jr.
Birth name	Erica Allen-Lubman
Born	(1995-12-25) December 25, 1995 Rochester, New York, U.S.
Genres	Indie pop garage rock synth-pop parody music
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, TikTok creator
Years active	2015–present
Website	boyjr.bandcamp.com

Erica Allen-Lubman (born December 25, 1995), known by the stage name Boy Jr., is an American indie pop musician, singer-songwriter, producer, and content creator. They are known on TikTok for a variety of covers, song parodies, novelty songs, and original songs. As of November 2022, they had over 300,000 followers on the app. They have released two studio albums, Starter Pack (2020) and Pay Attention to Meee (2022), as well as four EPs and a remix album.

Early life

• originally from Rochester, New York
• mother is a flute teacher, father is a professor at the Eastman School of Music
• started writing songs around 11 or 12, mostly on piano and later acoustic guitar
• made humorous videos from a young age; watched Disney Channel as a child and wanted to be in a pop band
• attended State University of New York at Purchase, studied music composition and recording, graduated in 2018
• got more serious about composing in high school and went to college for songwriting
• mom influenced her musically
• • has been writing music since childhood, grew up with musician parents, developed a love of music
  • first got into short-form content in college, started assigning themselves "crossover covers and novelty songs to just write stuff and film things."
• went to college for music composition and recording, learned to produce her own recordings.

Career

• began Boy Jr. project in 2015, then more seriously in 2018
• over 300,000 TikTok followers and 10 million likes as of November 2022.
• • One song posted in September 2021, about a difficult breakup, reached over 1.5 million views.
  • her most popular TikToks include mashups and comedic songs about personal experiences
  • posts longer versions of songs to her Patreon
  • On September 30, 2021, released the single "Simping for the Villain/Hyperpop Mr. Brightside", the former an original song about falling in love with a fictional antagonist, and the latter, as the title indicates, a hyperpop cover of The Killers's 2003 single "Mr. Brightside", originally created for TikTok.
  • posts daily mashups and originals to TikTok
  • second full-length album planned for December release
• • 291,000 TikTok followers (May 2022)
  • "I was playing a ton of live shows after I graduated college. It was a fun way to meet people and get myself out there. I planned a whole small tour in 2019 and did a lot more grassroots, independent stuff. Then the internet took over! I’ve mostly marketed my music on Instagram."
  • "I first downloaded TikTok because it seemed interesting to explore. I didn’t make any serious effort to make music content at first, I was just getting the hang of how to use it. I started getting ideas for shorter videos, where I knew I could complete the idea. The time limit was low at first, about 30 seconds or maybe a minute. It was a lower barrier to entry than YouTube, since YouTube content has to be more polished. TikTok let me document ideas as I was exploring them. It’s allowed me to show people who were already paying attention another side of myself, and introduce my music to a new people."
• "Hey Sorry" song release concert at the Knitting Factory
• • viral internet presence through original music and artist-crossover mashup covers
  • An album release show was held in Buffalo, New York (June 2022)
• • "It was from something my friend said while making a joke. They were doing an impression of a grandpa saying, “Sunny boy, Junior!” I checked to see if the name was taken and it was not. I had it in my back pocket for a little while. I liked that it was short and sweet. I thought people would [look] twice if they heard it because I don’t look like a Boy Jr. It is a blank slate and gender funky."
  • Concert at Chicago's The Hideout Inn (July 2022)
• complaints about TikTok algorithm
• • joined the Rochester indie band Kopps for the Planet Bitch Tour (Nov 2022)
  • project began with DIY solo project nights with friends at SUNY Purchase
  • started posting to TikTok in 2019, known on the app for their crossover covers
• • "Since graduating, I’ve aimed to continue taking on small self-made assignments to continue learning my craft and experiment and expand my own creative production and writing capabilities"
  • started posting short crossover covers, humorous novelty songs, and originals to TikTok and Instagram
• In March 2023, Lubman performed at The Pour House Music Hall in Raleigh, North Carolina alongside Augurs, Entrez Vous, and Bonies.
• • song "Not in the Bible" gained attention on TikTok and Twitter
  • "Parts Vogue groove, 99 bottles of beer on the wall, and the kind of addictiveness that Ylvis sucked us all into."
  • was written in response to a tweet from conservative commentator Nick Adams, in which he denounced oat milk, video games, tofu, "gender pronouns", and electric vehicles on the basis that they are "not in the Bible". Lubman's song satirizes this sentiment by listing other things that are not in the Bible.

Artistry

• • "artful garage-pop"
  • "treads the boundaries between angsty garage rock and full on glam pop"

• • TikTok mashups include Claire Rosinkranz's "Backyard Boy" in the style of Jack Stauber, Sufjan Stevens's "Mystery of Love" in the style of 100 gecs, Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time" in the style of Gorillaz, The Strokes' "Last Nite" in the style of Billie Eilish
  • "Her pithy videos — loaded with musical hooks and carried out with world-conquering, childlike conviction — are equal parts parody and performance art"
  • videos evoke nostalgia
  • “It Still Fits (My Pikachu T-shirt)” is synth-pop
  • uses tiktok "not merely as means to promote her music, but as the primary vehicle and creative spark for her ideas, which she later expands into complete songs, EPs, and albums"
  • is a multi-instrumentalist
  • "tongue-in-cheek deliveries, outlandish costumes, and jarring cross-cuts"
  • "Her videos are a tutorial on modern studio production aesthetics that reveal a trained ear for music and an eye for images."
• • indie pop-rock
  • "Simping for the Villain" has "robotic synths", "a thumping bass line", "distorted guitars", a vocal tone and phrasing reminiscent of St. Vincent, lighthearted lyrical content, and a guitar solo reminiscent of Arcade Fire and The Strokes.
  • "Hyperpop Mr. Brightside" features Auto-Tuned vocals similar to early 2000s mall pop and a sped-up tempo
• " I have a running list of ideas on my phone–sometimes crossover tracks or topics I’d like to express in song form. I’ll try out new production or songwriting techniques. It’s like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. It feels like I have to make the idea in the amount of time it would take someone to watch the TikTok."
• • synth-pop
  • "Hey Sorry" is bedroom pop inspired by Chairlift and Caroline Polachek
  • "Hey Sorry" is about girl power in the face of heartbreak; Boy Jr. says it's "a sonic showcase of how fucked up I get when I have a crush.”
• • "experimental and beat-driven"
  • themes of crushes, love, and relationships
  • "charming, energetic indie pop-rock"
  • “I can tell you that Pay Attention To Meeee is going to be a really fun way to release some kinda angsty pent-up feelings. It’s eclectic. It’s self-produced. It’s a lot of me experimenting with funky production ideas in hopes of making the kind of song I’d wanna listen to. I hope people take away both the joy and the attention to detail (and the joy of putting in and paying attention to detail)."
• • performs live with a laptop instead of a full band
  • "I have chosen not to play guitar live and just sing this time. That allows me to lean into the theatrical side of it more. I want Boy Jr. as a project to have a heavy visual element to it."
• "tongue-in-cheek songs and videos spoofing indie rock culture"
• • sees her sound as defined by a "combination of electro-pop and synth rock elements"
  • the crossover covers, a series titled "What if...", include Harry Styles' "As It Was" in the style of The Strokes
• • has produced and written for other artists
  • is a self-described "songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and content creator"
  • Pay Attention to Meee
    • was entirely written, recorded, and produced by Lubman
    • Lubman says the album was "created with a spirit of experimentation and expression."
• music combines elements of pop, industrial, synth-rock, and psychedelic music

• genres: indie pop, pop rock, synth rock, bedroom pop, synthpop, "garage pop"
• fan of Billie Eilish, The Strokes, Dorian Electra, Beyoncé
• edits in Logic Pro

Personal life

Lubman identifies as queer and non-binary and uses she/her and they/them pronouns. They have a sibling, Kerry Lubman, who is an occasional live drummer and merchandise graphic designer for Boy Jr.

• announced that she had contracted COVID-19 on a recent tour (April 2023)

Discography

Studio albums

• Starter Pack (2020)
• Pay Attention to Meeee (2022)

Extended plays

• No Hard Feelings (2015)
• Some Tunes (2017)
• Some More Tunes (2018)
• Costumes (2020)

Remix albums

• Pay Attention To Meee Reeeemixes (2023)

External links

• Invisiboy42293/Boy Jr. on Bandcamp