Hitting the Streets With Brent De la Cruz
Brent de la Cruz is a 27-year-old singer, rapper, and producer born and raised in the vibrant city of San Diego, California. A multifaceted artist, Brent has undergone a remarkable transformation, both in his artistry and personal journey. Having immersed himself in music for just over three years, he made his debut with the single Crazy in May 2019, quickly gaining traction as tracks like Fell in Love and Far Away landed on Spotify editorial playlists such as Anti-Pop and Lorem. His 2021 debut album, Finding Boo, featuring the standout track Perfect, solidified his place in the Alternative/Indie scene.
Now, after months of self-discovery and growth, Brent is entering a new era with his upcoming EP. Leaning into nostalgic themes and live instrumentation, this project marks his first since Finding Boo and showcases his evolution as an artist. Brent kicked off 2025 with the release of his latest single, Streets, on January 3rd, and dropped his EP Noir on February 7th, offering a glimpse into this exciting new chapter. I had the chance to sit down with Brent to explore the journey behind his music, his creative process, and the inspiration fueling his highly anticipated new project.
STRIKE: Can you tell me a little about yourself, I want to hear a bit about you and your background that made you the artist you are.
Brent: Yeah of course, my hometown is San Diego. I went to SDSU, but I grew up in a cul-de-sac with a single mom; there were a lot of kids in the neighborhood, and I was always the youngest one, so I was able to hang out with older kids. It was interesting not having a father figure, I was able to kind of reference, for better or for worse, friends in my neighborhood to kind of seek guidance in, that's where I get a lot of my competitive edge.
I loved my childhood. It has a huge part in how I got into music and the person I became today; it all goes back to the cul-de-sac. I got into music late in high school around summer of junior year, stuck with it through my time in college, dropped out and here we are.
S: How did you get into skating, and how did your experiences at Kennedy Skatepark and in the skating community in San Diego influence your musical style?
B: I got into skating early; I was always around longboards or cruisers growing up, had I had a neighbor that skated, but she was 10 yrs older at least. Skating was always around, but it wasn’t until the end of 5th and beginning of 6th, that it was something I like ‘did’. I played lots of sports growing up, and I made a club team for basketball and my mom didn't have time to drive me to my games. She told me I could do it, but it was going to be tough to maneuver, and I picked up my first skateboard, and put sports behind me. I picked up my first street deck, Alien Workshop I believe, and that is how I got into it. Honestly it was a pretty huge impact, my first taste of independence was at another skate park, Dallas. There was a trolley station nearby, my buddies and I would get dropped off at the park at 12 yrs old, hop on trolleys and go all over San Diego. During that era, I got a taste of what kind of music I really like, what was just out there on its own, and it was the first time I didn't have someone telling me what to do/like. Those were pretty impactful years.
S: What motivates you to write songs, anything special?
B: You know it really does vary with each song, sometimes it just falls out and all of a sudden you have a song, but other times you get in this creative rut and you kind of need to search for inspiration. Ultimately, I try to write about past experiences, and whether it seems direct or not, I try to pull metaphors from those experiences to help tell the story if I feel that that’s more appropriate. I feel like that's my go to move right now when looking for writing inspiration.
S: Can you describe aspects of your production style?
B: I mean, when I go about making songs now, again I try to stay on the live side of things if possible. A big inspiration genre wise is hip hop which is, most of the drums are pretty programmed and there's a certain flow to that but it’s pretty hard for me to stay in one genre, over the years I've been experimenting more with how to mesh different aspects of different genres into what I found suitable. depending on where I'm at, if I just started making something, I try and at least have one live element, maybe it’s a guitar, acoustic, electric, or I’ll play into the mini keyboard and stuff, and I'll start there and you know and if it fits I'll usually start with live drums, if it's calling for something a little more process programmed, I'll go for more kinda hip hop drums. That’s definitely something I've noticed through the years is leaning into more of the live sounds.
It's hard to describe the aspects but I think more than anything it's trying to get the emotions out of songs that I love. That's the throughline, it's weird because just because you have a certain instrument, that maybe that same song you’re trying to model it after or use as inspiration, sometime it’s not enough that you’re just using the same instrumentation, it's the chords, and the rhythm, and all the other elements around it that invoke these emotions and it's a weird thing, but also where I try to get the most inspiration from. I'll listen to some of Aphex Twin, Empire of The Sun and MGMT and while I'm not quite making music in the same genre or in the same instrumentation, I see the way that it makes me feel and then I ask “how can I evoke that in my music”. A lot of the time I don't even try to find the same instrument, it's just about that feeling.
S: What song are you most proud of lyrically? Instrumentally?
B: That I have out right now? Let me think. I really like Soft Words. Something very sentimental about that one, and yeah it's pretty drastic switch up between sections, and when it gets to the softer piece, the softer section of the song, I just really remember sitting in the studio writing those lyrics, I was staying up all night when I wrote this, I think the sun had just come out in the morning, and all of a sudden the lyrics just kinda like came flooding in, and I recorded it as they came and yeah, that one just has a special place in my heart. Also, that was the one that just got New Music Friday too so It was also a culmination of I'm really proud of this and other people think it's cool too so it's just that little extra kick. That feeling I had, I think it holds true even more than I thought it did.
Lyrically, I think the one that comes to mind first is “You talkin’ bout how you love this place a lot more than me” from Soft Words. If you think about it, and not everybody has experienced this, but if you're having worries if you should be here or if you too keen of what's actually going on and the person your with really likes it and really likes being there, just having that internal battle of like “okay there's something here that’s really cool, or else you wouldn’t like it as much as you do” but at the same time not feeling it. It's just an experience I've had moving, and that initial week or month where you ask, “was this a good idea?”
S: How has your music changed up till now?
B: Things have gotten a lot more intentional, there's more live instrumentation I’d say. The more familiar I got with the guitar, the more in tune I got with my songwriting abilities as well; something that guitar taught me was how to switch up my creative space, even if that was just scenery. Something I used to do when I was with my roommates at SDSU was take the guitar up on the roof. Just taking it into different places helped me get a better grasp of what I was trying to write and what was on the table. It's hard to do that when you’re just working completely out of a computer.
S: How do you see your music evolving in the coming years?
B: It’s kinda hard to say, but as time goes on I’ve started making the music I’ve always wanted to make, and I think with every new song I make, I always think, ‘this is the best thing I've made’, ‘ this is the best thing I've made’, so I think all I can really ask for is that trend keep happening. And I think that goal posts are constantly moving, so it's not always the best thing being the most commercial, it just depends on what I like. Sometimes I like different types of music, sometimes I want more instrumental pieces, but going forward, if I can maintain that and be just as proud of every piece of work as the next, then I think I'm in a good place.
S: What aspects of music creation do you find most challenging and rewarding?
B: Finishing songs, that’s a tough one. It's easy for me to start ideas, but it's hard for me to like them long enough to see them all the way through, that's a habit I'm trying to break. It’s just so fun to just sit down and start recording, but once it becomes something serious and takes off and has the potential to be finished and I like it, that's when it can take a life of its own and you put this pressure on yourself to be like ‘well this can actually be a song, and I need to take this seriously’ there's a fine line between having a fun time with it and it becoming something serious.
S: Public personality; is there a difference between who you are comfortable navigating the world as vs. who your industry is comfortable seeing you as?
B: Yeah, sure, there’s a little bit of that; I use my real name in my work and that was a decision. Like trying to see if there is a difference between artist me and who I am and you know, I feel like the further I go into this, I have different perspectives on it, but I like to think I have people in my life who I keep close, who will always keep me grounded in who I am.
I do like having privacy, and I don’t know how that’s going to work but just for right now with how this industry works, and maybe in time I'll get more comfortable with sharing more, but for right now, I wanna keep all the privacy that I can right now.
S: What can we expect from you in the future?
B: Probably some of the best songs I've ever made, for sure. I think these next songs that I've been working on are going to push the expectation, and each new piece I create feels like the best piece I’ve ever made. With all this new music, it's going to bring more music videos, collaborations, live shows, the whole production.
S: Can we expect a theme for your upcoming music/project?
B: Theme wise, this project is pretty nostalgia heavy, at least for me, whether you hear it in the music or not, nostalgia played a big part in the making of it.
Primarily, I’m drawing on my own nostalgia. There's a throughline with the way people experience it, that's bittersweet and melancholy, and then at the same time having a certain smell that can make you see through rose-colored lenses, you know it can be a happy emotion but at the same time you can feel a sense of loss through it. Just the concept of that, you can’t really have one without the other and I think that's a really big talking point throughout the music.
S: Will the new music you’re releasing change the genre/sound you currently fit into right now?
B: My gut answer is no, but I think inevitably it will. When I sit down and make music it's not typically like I'm trying to fit this box or trying to move into this lane, I just kinda sit and whatever comes just comes to me and I try my best to actualize it. As far as changing genres, I think it's a really interesting time, it's a new era where a new genre is being created every day or creating hybrids of existing ones and I feel like that's where my music lands, others will be a little bit more on the nose. You're asking the least qualified person on this; I can't really describe what kind of music I make. If anything, I feel like any other listener's opinion is just as valid if not more valid than my own in a weird way.
When we’re talking about how something is perceived, it's not my job as an artist to be authoritative and dictate how you are going to be able to perceive something. I can try, but ultimately the public is going to make its opinion whether you like it or not. As far as categorizing genres and not I can sit on top of a mountain ‘x is the type of music I’m trying to make’ but if it's perceived as A B and C, whose opinion really matters then?
S: What are your references and inspiration?
B: I do, I really do but it's one of those things where the more recent it is, the more I want to emulate what they’re doing, it's a fine line, because there are people, I think are dope and are doing really cool things right now, in a way I’ve kind of missed the train sometimes. I think a nugget of gold you can get from them is the people that they draw inspiration from, because I think from those people, you might be able to look to the future of the sound. If you want to know what's coming in the future it's best to look further back and contextually get why the current is working; bottom line I do have a lot of inspiration from the current state of the industry, I'm a big fan of where music is at right now, there is a lot of cool shit that's happening, but I try not to base my musical decisions on what's going on now. I try to look at through lines in those older pieces and bands that I love listening to.
From my short time with Brent, my thoughts after this experience can be summed up in one phrase; ‘in flux’. Brent de la Cruz is such a dynamic individual, with a multitude of avenues available to him, each one seemingly more promising than the last. He carries himself with an undeniable charisma, the kind that makes it clear he’s an artist with both vision and versatility.
His sound is something truly special—there’s an attention-grabbing quality to it, a richness that resonates through the speakers with an almost hypnotic allure. It’s melodic yet unique, familiar yet refreshingly original. Whether it’s the depth in his vocal delivery, the smoothness of his tone, or the way his music seems to effortlessly blend genres, Brent has an ability to captivate his listeners in a way that feels rare. Some of our must listen songs are Perfect, Streets, and Dreaming. His new EP, Noir, culminates in a refreshing, stylistic wave of sound, but it isn't just his music that is so captivating; there’s an energy about him that holds your attention. He’s not just another artist trying to make it—he’s someone who understands the power of sound and emotion, someone who pours himself into every note. The way he interacts with his craft isn’t just raw talent but a deep appreciation for music as an art form.
Check out Brent’s new EP Noir Now!
Strike Out,
Isabella Preston, Copy Editor