Moonchild

Moonchild drew early notice from Stevie Wonder, who invited the Los Angeles trio to open his annual House Full of Toys benefit concert in December 2012 after hearing their music. The group, made up of Amber Navran, Andris Mattson and Max Bryk, blends jazz musicianship with alternative R&B, soul and electronic production. Navran contributes vocals, keyboards, flute and saxophone; Mattson plays keyboards, guitar, trumpet and flugelhorn; Bryk plays saxophone and keyboards.

The three musicians formed Moonchild in the summer of 2011 while touring with Navran’s solo project. All were alumni of the Jazz Studies program at USC’s Thornton School of Music, and they spent the following months writing material for their first full-length album, Be Free, released in 2012. The record was praised by Jill Scott, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Wonder, and introduced a sound informed by artists including J Dilla, Erykah Badu, D’Angelo and Flying Lotus.

Moonchild followed with Please Rewind in 2015 through Tru Thoughts. After releasing its lead single, “The Truth,” the band supported The Internet, the group led by Syd and Matt Martians, on a tour of the United States and Canada. Their 2017 album Voyager reached No. 13 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart and was included in Bandcamp’s Top 100 Albums of 2017.

Little Ghost, released in 2019, reached No. 6 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart. Around that period, Moonchild’s NPR Tiny Desk performance presented the group in an acoustic, stripped-down setting and included a social call to action. The band received the Jazz FM Soul Act of the Year award in 2018.

In 2022, Moonchild released its fifth album, Starfruit, marking a decade of collaboration between Navran, Mattson and Bryk. The album was nominated for Best Progressive R&B Album at the 2023 Grammy Awards. In 2025, the group announced WAVES, its sixth album, scheduled for February 20, 2026 through a new partnership with ONErpm, with collaborators including Jill Scott and Lalah Hathaway.