Artist Spotlights: The Ukulele Maestro AJ Abdullah is Ready For What’s Ahead
Austin-based pop singer AJ Abdullah savvily uses his ukulele tunes and Instagram reels to propel his up-and-coming career.
Artist Spotlights introduces you to artists that may not be on your radar yet, but should be. With recently cancelled tours and income loss for small artists, there’s no time like the present to find new talent to support.
Written by Thomas Galindo
Photo courtesy of Humza Ahmed
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Throughout his senior year at UT Austin, lo-fi ukulele artist AJ Abdullah has employed social media to project his exposure. Despite only having nine songs on streaming services thus far, he’s still managed to rack up serious streams on his singles. His 2018 release “Falling in Love” has totalled over 900,000 streams on Spotify, while his August 2019 single “Oh, the Moon!” has garnered nearly 700,000 streams to date. It seems that 22-year-old Abdullah simply has a knack for drawing attention and going viral.
However, this gift is not only evident in his music: On TikTok, Abdullah’s account has 12.8k followers and boasts videos with 502k, 390k, and 365k views. Since Instagram introduced “Reels” in early August (a video format very similar to a TikTok), the artist has wasted no time striving for virality on Instagram as well. All of his reels receive tens of thousands of views and include music promo, jokes about being a theatre kid, and a “Fonts as People” series. While he enjoys making creative videos on these platforms, he’s made it clear that he doesn’t want to make music solely for TikTok fame — he also wants to take his time crafting meaningful music.
Abdullah was inspired to create music because of his time as a theatre actor in high school and entrance to college as an acting major. He felt that the fastest, easiest way to create music would be to learn the ukulele, so he did just that. While Abdullah enjoys writing over any kind of music, the ukulele he began his career with has become part of his brand — though he admits he’d like to venture into new sounds and instruments so he can grow as an artist. Recently, his new releases have strayed away from the playful uke sound which he says is “the vibe” his fans come to him for. In August, Abdullah released “Does It Ever End?,” which includes a drum beat and a guitar solo from frequent collaborator and friend, Mihir Lulay, better known by the stage name Me Here. The song truly demonstrates Abdullah’s ability to craft relaxing, lovely harmonies onto whatever accompanying music he chooses. Abdullah also expressed hopes to pick up electric guitar and keyboard in the future as he continues to innovate beyond his acoustic, bedroom pop sound.
Afterglow was given the opportunity to sit down with Abdullah for a brief Q&A:
Afterglow: What is your relationship with, and perspective of, the UT music community?
Abdullah: I think there are so many talented artists here. A band that I’m in love with right now is sleep well. — I would genuinely love to work with them. And as far as the overall local UT Austin scene, I love how ambitious everyone is. My favorite thing is they aren’t in the mindset of simply “UT Austin” music. I feel like every one of them I know is focused on their music and thinking beyond UT. With access to the internet we don’t have to just worry about who’s listening here, but who is listening around the world.
What is your favorite single of yours? What is the most well received single of yours?
Abdullah: I think both of those have to go to “Oh, the moon!” I was so nervous and spent six weeks huddled in my room trying to finish this song. It was my first time working with samples and trying something new. With all the new things going into it I was scared and nervous, but excited because I thought it sounded really cool. I was really proud of it when I released it.
If you were tasked with re-imagining or replacing “The Eyes of Texas,” what would you make it?
Abdullah: "Cotton Eye Joe." Imagine a football stadium full of people singing the “Cotton Eye Joe.” I think that would be such a cathartic experience. That would take us a lot further than “The Eyes of Texas” could ever dream of.