My Favorite Blue Jeans is a massive leap forward for DE’WAYNE, both personally and artistically. These eleven songs find the Los Angeles-based musician exploring new routes on his emotional road map, embracing the passion of new love as well as the freedom that comes with true self-acceptance. With a hard-driving rock sound that’s packed with hooks and loaded with truth, My Favorite Blue Jeans is a brilliant new path in DE’WAYNE’s career that points to an undeniably bright future.

DE’WAYNE’s second album is the follow-up to last year’s star-making debut STAINS, and since that record was released the musician took some time to reflect on who he is, and who he wants to be. “My first album was very angry and angsty, but I’m way more confident in myself now when it comes to what I want to say as an artist,” he explains while talking about his headspace leading up to My Favorite Blue Jeans. “I took steps to live the life I wanted to live, and I dedicated every second I could to writing these songs. It was about not giving a fuck about what anyone thinks and doing what makes me happy.”

After finishing a run of tour dates, DE’WAYNE hit the studio with Robbie Hiser—who served as executive producer on My Favorite Blue Jeans—as the pair struck instant creative kismet, the songs flowing forth like water from the tap. “Every song we made was better than the last,” DE’WAYNE recalls. “We got into a really great groove. He allowed me to be so free and get emotional, and I don’t feel like he judged me at all. Having that is great, and he’s a damn good producer, too.”

The album’s title refers to DE’WAYNE feeling like blue jeans are his “superhero cape,” and on My Favorite Blue Jeans one of his strongest superpowers is reflective honesty. “It was the first time I was able to talk about a period of time that I was going through in my life,” he says. “There are certain songs where, when I hear them, I’m taken back to that feeling I had—of falling in love, and loving myself.” While drawing from formative influences like Weezer, Green Day, and the Cars, De’Wayne crafted an entirely new sound for himself too. “On the last album, I was still in my alt-rap box,” he explains, “but I gained a lot of confidence in my talent to take this album further when it comes to making great rock songs.”

Featuring fellow genre-blending scion POORSTACY, first single and opening track “Die Out Here” comes charging out of the gate with a passionate message about enduring in the face of anything that comes along. “This notion of wanting to go out like your heroes—I do not want to do that,” DE’WAYNE reflects while talking about the song. “I want to live a full life and make my family proud while we all get old.” Elsewhere, “Blue Jean Babe” and “Sexi Boy” find De’Wayne reflecting on the discovery of new love, and how it changes one’s perspective.

“I was falling in love and finding someone who pushed me daily,” he explains before focusing on the lyrical themes of “Sexi Boy” specifically. “It’s me bowing down to this woman that I love. She’s kind of manly and I’m kind of feminine, which is really awesome. It’s a love song, and I’m praising this person who’s come into my life and inspired me in so many ways.” Then there’s the skyscraping Good Charlotte collab “TAKE THIS CROWN,” which represents new peaks in DE’WAYNE’s work with them. “They’ve watched me develop,” he explains while discussing their professional relationship. “They’ve never forced me to do anything and told me I would figure it out, and with this album I really feel like I did.”

Other collaborators on My Favorite Blue Jeans include I Don’t Know How But They Found Me, Grandson, and Willow, who co-writes and co-produces on several songs. “Her taste level and artistry is through the roof, so Robbie and I were blessed to have her in the booth,” he explains while reflecting on what the features add to the album as a whole. “They show my reach into the rock world, where I didn’t feel so easily accepted when I first started out. It really shows where I can go in the future.”

And as DE’WAYNE looks ahead on My Favorite Blue Jeans, there’s also moments where he takes stock of where he came from—like the driving “Thank You For Lying,” an ode to his father’s words of encouragement (or “lies,” as he puts it) about following his own dreams. “As a kid, he told me how great I could be, even as no one my family had gone out on a limb and reached for their dreams the way I did,” he reflects. “That’s the reason I’m here. I’ve made songs that are more negative about him in the past, but I wanted to highlight the fact that he told me those things, and I ran with it.”

“I went through hell over the past few years,” he continues while discussing the aims and achievements that My Favorite Blue Jeans represents. “I wanted something so bad, but I felt like I wasn’t able to reach it. With this record, I took a really big step towards believing in myself. I’m talking about struggle and love, and the will to live.” And My Favorite Blue Jeans is an indelible document of that passion, cementing DE’WAYNE as one of the most vital artists across genres working right now