Wanting to “change rock music forever” is an ambitious narrative to push. But Quinton Brock is not the type of dude to hold anything back. He told Uproxx last year that “I got a literal chip tattooed on my shoulder” and that for his next tattoo is going to be “a heart on my sleeve.” This was on the heels of his single “To The Moon,” a melodious punk rock jam with The Cool Kids sensibilities and a wild guitar.
But on his latest song, “Touch,” it shows Brock’s more silken side. The Brooklyn-via-Buffalo singer says he wrote the song on an especially solitary night during quarantine and the yearning comes through over a blues rock riff as he sings “I know what you feel right now cause I can feel it too // You can feel my heart beat out my chest….So touch me slowly, I’ve been lonely too.” It’s an evocative anthem for wanting someone next to you on the couch, a feeling that was depressively magnified during the pandemic and that Brock delivers gracefully and emphatically.
Brock came up as a singer with the surf/blues rock duo The Get Money Squad. And while he looked up to Buffalo rappers Griselda growing up, his trajectory is reminiscent of the psychedelic soul of Atlanta’s Curtis Harding, who first came up with the garage rock band Night Sun and has made a name for himself as a Black man in musical realms typically dominated by white artists. Brock says his journey in rock and roll was inspired predominantly by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a Black woman who was a guitar maven, and nothing short of a mid-century rock and roll pioneer.
There’s an exciting sound bubbling up with Brock on “Touch,” and while there’s no official word yet on his full-length debut, he’s batting a thousand so far.
Listen to and watch the video for “Touch” above.