Amidst the flood of artists on the Internet and beyond, occasionally an artist emerges fully formed, in full control of their gift and who grabs the listener grown used to mediocrity passing itself off as artistry. Christian Brown is such an artist; a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who’s new album, When It’s Perfect, is packed with delightful songs containing great pop hooks, memorable melodies and singular vocals. It crackles with the excitement of a new talent on the rise.

Hailing from Waterloo, Iowa, a small factory town, Christian grew up a sponge for music, absorbing everything on the radio, most notably the alternative rock explosion of the 90’s. By high school, music was everything to him. As he recounts, “I was obsessed with my favorite albums, listening to them over and over. I probably listened to my favorites literally thousands of times.” A self-described “band nerd,” Christian found himself skipping classes to hide out in the high school music practice rooms to jam on the piano.

Looking to start a band, Christian saw that he needed to raise his own level of playing, so he devoted himself to learning as many instruments as possible; piano, guitar, horns and more. He studied music theory and began to learn recording, getting an internship at a local recording studio, which led to recording local bands. Christian explains, “It was the studio experience that launched my career. Working as an engineer allowed me to spend 100% of my working day improving all of my music skills. It also opened up opportunities for me to land spots in much more serious bands.” One such opportunity was the Beat Strings. A popular Iowa band, Christian began playing keyboards for them, and started experiencing life on the road, doing a 50 date national tour including a stop in Austin, Texas for SXSW.

But after two years of enjoying his time with the Beat Strings, Christian found something missing. He relates, “I never quite felt like the music was mine. I played keyboard in the band and made my contributions and did whatever was "cool" and would bring good crowd response. But what I really wanted to do was create. One day I just sat at my piano and started jamming like always. But this time I sang and wrote lyrics, something I had been far too insecure to do in the past. Then the music was mine.”

That sense of self-discovery occurs like an explosion from the first notes of “Here We Go Again Anyway,” the opening track on When It’s Perfect. A burst of horns, pounding piano and then Christian’s voice, immediately singular and filled with the joy of a musician finding himself. There are similarly glorious moments all over When It’s Perfect (recorded and mostly played by Christian himself, with a little help from his friends); like the soprano sax solo in “A Mile Above A Small Town” and the hypnotic descending piano riff of “Julia’s Angels”. The album’s most poignant moment comes in the closing track, “The Biggest Favor,” a song that came from a friend telling Christian that he wanted to commit suicide. The song is a plea for his friend to see, “You’ve got your whole life/Don’t you throw it away/Can’t you see what that would do to me?” Christian recounts, “It was a moment that tore me apart. The only thing I could manage to say was those lines.”

Christian is continuing to play with the Beat Strings. But what is obvious from When It’s Perfect is that this is a new talent to be reckoned with; an artist who can do it all, who is dedicated solely to his music and to elevating his skill at recording and performing it. Remember when you first heard the name Christian Brown; you’ll be able to tell you friends “I told you so.”