It’s place and perspective that drive 23-year-old musician Noah Rinker’s sound. It propels his lyricism and informs his entire point of view. Growing up in the mountains of California, he found song wherever he could. He picked up the guitar at 14, learning to play it like a lap steel because he assumed the fretboard might work the same way a keyboard did. At 16, he wrote his first song. But it was “leaving for sessions with other collaborators that made me realize that home was the thing that made me who I was all along.”

You see that connection between song and soul in his videos: Noah, a guitar, and the place he grew up. Sometimes you’ll see the mountains sprawled out behind him as he plays; other times, he’s cloaked in darkness, only lit by a crackling campfire. There are covers mixed in with originals; snippets of works-in-progress tossed in, paired with months-in-the-making singles he’s on the cusp of releasing. The music is real, it’s raw, and it’s Noah Rinker distilled and at his truest essence. Songs like “Save My Soul” and “Wherever I Go” and “99” introduce the world to a storyteller doing what he does best—digging deep, baring his soul, and laying it out on the page for just a few minutes of honest connection.