Joshua Crumbly reconnects with the energy and outlook of youth on his dazzling, synth-forward new EP P.S. It isn't much of a stretch for the uncategorizable bassist/composer Joshua Crumbly to look at music through the eyes of a child. After all, he first took the stage at the age of just 10, accompanying his saxophonist father. Though he's journeyed a long way in life and an even greater distance creatively since then, Crumbly continues to utilize a playful, youthfully imaginative approach throughout his endeavors.

Through a surprising confluence of circumstances, Crumbly's new EP, P.S. embodies those childlike principles even more than usual. Happenstance coincided with Crumbly's musing on the next chapter of his life and career following his acclaimed 2020 debut, Rise, and his 2021 follow-up, ForEver. Having described the latter album as his “letter to the future,” Crumbly intends the EP as its postscript, and as a bridge to his forthcoming third full-length.

“I was thinking of the stages of life and the experiences within it, even the stages of a day itself,” he recalls. “Most beginnings tend to be so youthful and innocent, but we can become so easily weighed down by the journey. I've come to realize that each and every stage is a beautiful one in its own way, but I find that getting back to a youthful outlook, taking steps to get back to the beginning, may be the way to enjoy things the most.”

The shimmering, synth-forward four-track EP was born from his serendipitous purchase of a Yamaha PSR-12, a 49-key synthesizer dating back to the late 1980s. Though used at times by such legends as Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and George Duke, the instrument felt almost toy-like in its portability and ease of accessibility. The upcoming release features collaborations with Samora Pinderhughes, Michael Rocketship and Little Dragon. The EP was mixed by longtime collaborator Shahzad Ismaily.

Crumbly first crossed paths with Little Dragon when he was playing with Grammy-winning soul singer-songwriter Leon Bridges, one of several genre-blurring artists with whom he's recorded or performed (a stunning list that includes Kamasi Washington, Lizz Wright, Stefon Harris, Ravi Coltrane and Bob Dylan). Little Dragon opened one U.S. leg of the tour, during which they quickly became close with Crumbly. “We struck up a friendship and related over our mutual desire to fully give of ourselves on stage, reaching for those intangibles that make it a universally special experience,” Crumbly relates.

The tour invited with an open invitation to visit the band at their home base in Gothenburg, which Crumbly eagerly accepted at the tail end of a European tour with Pinderhughes. He presented them with the seeds of the songs that would make up P.S., but after the ensuing jams believed that he'd ended up with a good time but not much else. Only upon revisiting the recordings months later did he realized how special their chemistry had been.

“They've become a family to me,” Crumbly says of Little Dragon's Håkan Wirestrand and Erik Bodin, who provide synths and percussion, respectively, throughout the EP. “Jamming with them felt like we were little kids, so it came as a great surprise at the end that they added so much magic to this music.”

The word “family” also applies to Pinderhughes, who Crumbly met when he was 17 and the two were studying together at Juilliard. While he described Rise as his effort to “tell stories without words,” Crumbly was excited to add lyrics to one of his tunes for the first time. He sent “Steps” to Pinderhughes with no instructions, but the singer was attuned so well to the composer's wavelength that his lyric perfectly captures the mood of the EP.

“I'm deeply grateful for the incredible intuition that everybody contributed to this project,” Crumbly concludes. In opening himself to his most open, engaging expression and surrounding himself with such sympathetic collaborators, the multi-faceted artist enters his newest stage with an entrancing plunge into a musical fountain of youth.