The rising alt-R&B singer-songwriter (full name: Christopher Gallant) began recording songs in middle school to parse his teen emotions. "It started to be a cathartic thing," he says, "the same way that you would write something in your diary."
Big Break: After graduating from New York University, he moved to Los Angeles and was discovered by manager Jake Udell, the man behind EDM breakouts Krewella andZhu. Udell says he was driven to tears by Gallant's soaring falsetto, sleek hooks and deep songwriting, which draw upon diverse influences from Babyface to Incubus.