walking upstream…
JVKE
JVKE (Jacob Dodge Lawson) is an American singer, songwriter, and producer from Rhode Island who built an audience on TikTok during the pandemic before his 2022 single "golden hour" — a churning piano hook wrapped around a slow-motion pop chorus — became a global hit. Classically trained on piano as a kid in his father's church, he layers Romantic-style piano writing and R&B-inflected vocal touches over hyper-modern, hook-driven pop production, straddling bedroom-pop intimacy and mainstream radio polish.
the sound in question
2022
golden hourJVKE
walk the tributaries ↓
Franz Liszt1840s–50s · Romantic / Classical
JVKE has said he "grew up playing Franz Liszt" during his classical piano training, and golden hour's signature keyboard hook plays like a compressed Romantic-era piano piece — a rippling, virtuosic figure that opens the song, keeps re-entering as the emotional anchor, and later got expanded into a full orchestral arrangement.
listen: upstream & heresource: Neon Music — "This guy grew up playing Franz Liszt for crying out loud", on JVKE's classical-meets-pop foundation ↗
1850
Liebestraum No. 3Franz Liszt
2022
golden hourJVKE
listen forListen for the cascading, rubato-tinged piano runs that keep building rather than settling into a fixed loop — the same Romantic pianism Liszt used to turn a solo piano piece into a swooning showpiece, just compressed into a pop hook length.
Charlie Puth2010s · Pop / R&B / Pop rock
Puth was one of the first established pop hitmakers to co-sign JVKE, featuring on a 2020 remix of JVKE's breakout "Upside Down"; JVKE has since spoken admiringly of Puth's songwriting craft, and Puth's smooth, vocal-run-heavy, hook-forward pop instinct is audible in how JVKE constructs his own choruses.
listen: upstream & heresource: V Magazine interview — JVKE on Charlie Puth's "Light Switch" ↗
2017
AttentionCharlie Puth
2020
Upside Down (feat. Charlie Puth)JVKE
listen forListen for the clean, close-harmonied vocal hooks and the small pitch runs that decorate the melody rather than replace it — the vocal-forward pop production Puth built his name on with songs like "Attention," filtered through JVKE's own piano-pop lens on their "Upside Down" collaboration.
Frank Ocean2010s · Alternative R&B / Hip hop
JVKE has cited Frank Ocean's Blonde as one of his go-to records and said he built specific musical nods to Frank Ocean into "golden hour" itself, reaching for Ocean's hazy, unhurried vocal warmth inside an otherwise up-tempo pop single.
listen: upstream & heresource: When I Make It To LA — JVKE profile citing Liszt/Van Gogh as inspirations, golden hour's musical nods to Frank Ocean and Childish Gambino, and Blonde as a go-to record ↗
2016
Pink + WhiteFrank Ocean
2021
this is what falling in love feels likeJVKE
listen forListen for the softer, pitch-warped vocal texture and loose, conversational verse phrasing on "this is what falling in love feels like" — a hushed, blurry delivery closer to Ocean's register on tracks like "Pink + White" than to JVKE's bigger pop choruses.