The Shave Experiment is just as elusive and stripped down as its name suggests. In keeping with his shirtless pose on the EP’s cover art — against a smoky backdrop, holding a Fender Stratocaster so it obscures his head — Q works in sync with his instruments, allowing his electrifying, '70s-inspired production to tell as much of the story as he does.
“I was just floating, existing in it,” he describes the songwriting process for the EP.
Unlike the ambiguous aliases of R&B cool kids, Q (real name Q Steven Marsden) was given his mononym by his musical parents. His father Steven “Lenky” Marsden is the famed Jamaican producer who created the popular dancehall "Diwali Riddim" that was sampled in early-2000s hits like Wayne Wonder’s “No Letting Go,” Sean Paul’s “Get Busy,” and Rihanna’s “Pon de Replay,” while his mother worked with Beenie Man and Bounty Killer.