Stephen Sanchez writes songs “for your grandma and your girlfriend.”
The modern-day crooner will bring his classic, revitalized sounds to the stage at 8 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater. He’s joined on tour by openers Ray Bull, a Brooklyn-based duo who will kick the evening off with some indie pop fare.
For Sanchez, the road to fame has been full of surprises — the 21 year-old musician was in the midst of finding his footing as a singer-songwriter when he was thrust into the spotlight in a new way: a viral TikTok video.
Initially trying to find success by making songs he thought would appeal to others, Sanchez posted a video on TikTok that would later go viral and launch his career.
“I was trying to make music that I thought that people would like, instead of music that I liked, and music that I did like was ’50s and ’60s music, the core of my background and everything,” he said. “It was pretty much all that I listened to.”
Sanchez cited musicians such as Roy Orbison, The Platters, Marty Robbins and Jerry Lee Lewis as being big inspirations to developing his own sonic identity. He pivoted to making music more rooted in his own influences and he said that marked a serious turning point in his career. His single “Until I Found You” quickly garnered attention as it went viral in short-form video content on TikTok and Instagram.
“It was born out of this really deep love for that music and years and years of listening to it. Almost like shaking up a soda bottle, opening the top, and finally someone opened the top and (it) exploded out,” Sanchez said. “Everything came naturally from that.”
Following his newfound virality on social media, Sanchez released his debut EP What Was, Not Now in 2021, followed by full-length project Easy On My Eyes in 2022. His most recent album, Angel Face, was released last September.
Sanchez said the skyrocketing attention is very strange — and can be hard to comprehend at moments because it happened so suddenly. Sometimes, he said, he has to stop himself during tours when he realizes how many people have shown up to hear him play his music.
“That’s a pretty surreal feeling, because I remember waking up (at) nights and praying to God that I would get even close to the opportunity of having my own music put out,” he said. “Now, I’ve gotten all of that and it’s been a tremendous gift.”
Sanchez found fame on the cusp of TikTok’s creation — because the platform was so new, his discovery process meshed social media fame and the traditional A&R (artists and repertoire) path of being signed to a recording label.
In the handful of years since, Sanchez said he has enjoyed watching the revival of old-school sounds in the digital age — and it’s been interesting to see a new generation of younger artists follow in his footsteps, bringing the crooner sound back to the stage.
Sanchez aims to make his music and performances inclusive of fans of all ages who appreciate the music born out of the 1950s and 1960s.
Tonight, Sanchez said, he wants to make sure that “no one’s missing out on the opportunity to be a part of the show and to feel like a song is theirs.”
Sanchez thinks his music will resonate with Chautauquans of all ages and backgrounds, whether or not they have heard his music beforehand.
“I think what’s beautiful about our music is it’s really able to hit everything,” he said, “from kids who are super young, to kids who are our age, to kids who are a lot older — kids that we call parents.
At his Amp show, Sanchez said he hopes every person in the audience will feel welcomed, loved and accepted for who they are.
“What’s very important to us is always making inclusive records and music that share the same thing which is love,” he said. “Everyone can relate to that and connect to that.”
