EJEAN’s Heartfelt Tribute to Love and Community
Los Angeles, California - August 9, 2026
When people make art, it’s clear whether they are creating from a place of fame-chasing or from passion, expression, and pure love for the game. Against an audience’s free will, a great artist makes you feel something.
One thing is clear: EJEAN is in it for the love of the game.
Crystallizing heartbreak into chest-tightening ballads, their stomach-churning lyricism and memorable melodies haunt you into the next day and, if you’re unlucky, the next week. It’s hard not to imagine yourself in the songs' imagery, and even to ponder breaking up with your partner just to feel the gravity of all the emotions EJ packs into each track.
A late-night drive around an empty town, a blue hour waning into night at the beach: EJEAN’s music has a palpable nostalgia that blossoms through each song, even the more upbeat ones. Their lyrics paired with washes of warm, dreamy light across the stage and spilling onto the audience, it’s hard not to feel every word they sing like a hammer to the stomach.
Their new EP, which was debuted for the first time live on this tour, Meant Love, really takes you through the 5 stages of grief: Denial (“Head Home”), Anger (“GROW UP”), Bargaining (“As Mine”), Depression (“you never call me”), Acceptance (“Masochist”). EJ speaks to the love we grapple with every day, romantic or platonic. They know that love is so intertwined into our everyday lives, and it’s hard not to draw parallels between our lives and the lyrics.
EJ’s love for their community is shown by how they walk hand-in-hand with all of them through this tour. They bring on beloved friends for their three-piece band, featuring them as openers, having them do media, even down to their VIP experience being about community with group photos and a poster memento from each city made by the fans themselves. EJ brought on their friend and frequent collaborator Patrick Hizon as both an opener and their bassist. Other friends and collaborators like Mario Notarangelo (guitarist), Michael Dy (drummer), Luke Chiang, Jesse Barrera, and Raph were brought on stage to perform alongside EJ. It’s crystal clear that their core values center their love of music and the community that they built around it.
Though their EP’s songs center an experience with heartbreak, they flipped the purpose of the music from a place of cathartic songwriting to intentional connection with others; so maybe the heartbreak was the friends we made along the way.
