Record hunting with someone is always a telling experience, but doing it with Bryndon Cook is an inviting portal into the musician’s eclectic soul. Whether he’s digging out Miles Davis and Janet Jackson records one moment or scouring the piles for Todd Rundgren LPs the next, no genre indicators or “Rock/Pop” signage can keep Cook, better known by his stage moniker Starchild & the New Romantic, from discovery. “I’m really into the history and lineage of black music: funk, R&B and soul. But I’ve also always loved the music that people would consider ‘white people stuff’” Cook explains. “I mean, I’m a product of the ‘90s, so I’ve got all of the Blink 182 and Korn CDs.” These unexpected musical influences come together in holy matrimony just in time for Crucial, the Brooklyn-based musician’s new EP release.

Crucial is an eight-track effort with slow burners that simmer with longing while being injected with rhythmic synth breaks and guitar riffs. Seeing as Cook picked up the tenor saxophone in fifth grade before switching to strings and percussion while joining symphonic, marching and jazz band in high school, this should come as no surprise. “When I started thinking about making music, I was listening to a lot of artists like Pharrell who were really visionary,” says Cook. “They have a vision for what they want to do and they use tools they have around them to execute that vision.”

Simultaneously, Cook was executing a vision of his own when he moved to New York to study theater while honing those one-man-band musical skills. He didn’t realize it until a chance encounter with fellow musician James Blake outside of the aquarium at the American Museum of Natural History a few years ago (seriously), where Blake made Cook realize he may have a legit calling in music.

“[James] was super nice and gave me his email. We exchanged music and he got back to me like three weeks later with this long reply,” Cook gushes. “He went through everything and was like, ‘I can hear your influences, I’m really into this.’ And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

From there, Cook took to playing with close friend and Chairlift frontman Patrick Wimberly, who would go on to introduce the musical hopeful to a community of like-minded and genre-bending artists and musicians. It wasn’t long until Cook started to collaborate with the likes of Dev Hynes, opened for Kindness, and acted as Solange’s guitarist on her True tour all while being welcomed into this diverse community of creatives. “I kind of saw something I could be a part of that was bigger than myself,” Cook admits when speaking of the welcoming crew. This was the breaking point, the well, crucial, moment where Cook took what he had learned in these whirlwind experiences and transitioned it into Starchild & the New Romantic. Thus began his career as as a solo artist—including his latest Crucial EP release.

Crucial has drawn comparisons to the early work of Prince, but Cook insists that the icons’s glossy and overly-produced approach wasn’t key in creating this record. “I try not to pinpoint it all,” says Cook. “There were a lot of elements in it, but the final product kind of encapsulates more of a feeling than an era. I wanted it to sound ‘not perfect.’” Tracks like EP opener “All My Lovers” offer up a soothing intro that gives off serious Anita Baker vibes, while the highlight “Slammin Mannequin” interrupts with a Ten City-like intro and smoothly transitions into synth haunts like “Stacy” and “Woman’s Dress,” both of which showcase Cook’s guitar skills.

“[Crucial] is all about the feeling of having nothing or losing something. Imagine you got the phone call that it’s over. The conversation is over; you’ve hung up the phone; there’s silence in the room and it’s just you,” explains Cook. “You can break down in tears, lay down in your bed, or go outside for a walk. But it’s that moment where something has changed and you are now without… and here you are.”