There’s something blessed about the smell of summer pavement after rain, the echo of your best friend’s laugh under golden hour skies, or the first chord you ever strummed on a hand-me-down guitar. For me, that memory smells like sidewalk chalk, sounds like cheap cassette tapes, and feels like freedom. And that’s exactly where Same After’s “When We Were Young” took me — back to the cracked concrete of my childhood neighborhood, where the only time we watched was the sunset.
Same After, making his debut on our blog, doesn’t just make music; he paints with memory. Hailing from Paris, France, he is a self-taught independent artist with a sonic fingerprint that blends nostalgic pop, cinematic electronica, and shadowy R&B. Everything he creates feels like flipping through a photo album you didn’t realize you missed. He doesn’t chase trends; he builds a world. And on “When We Were Young,” he opens its front door.
From the first line , “When we were young. The echoes would ring in the warmth of spring,” we are pulled into a dreamlike recollection of golden days and lost time. The phrase is simple and universal, but in Same After’s delivery, it carries the weight of a lifetime. His gentle and breathy voice stays like an old friend on the line. I believe him. I believe he’s lived these verses.
There’s an honesty that radiates throughout. “Hey friend I told you. Live the days no stopping lines. No counting hours ignoring signs” feels like a whispered note passed across a desk in high school on the back of a yearbook. The lyrics carry the emotional DNA of a time when forever seemed tangible, and goodbye was still a foreign word.
Same After’s performance is measured but magnetic, allowing each word to breathe. There’s no vocal acrobatics or forced crescendos, just a pure transmission of feeling, like a voice you’d hear narrating your memory. His phrasing is graceful, floating just above the instrumentation, never overpowering but always resonant. It’s the kind of vocal delivery that feels more like remembering than singing.
The track feels especially alive in its refrain: “We danced through the night hearts open wide. Embracing the now with nothing to hide,” a celebration of youth in all its vulnerable magic. It’s a moment that expands each time it returns, like a recurring memory that refuses to fade. But the song doesn’t wallow in nostalgia. Instead, it honors it. It offers a smile with a tear in your eye, as Same After intended. It’s the song you play when driving through your old neighborhood, when digging through boxes in your childhood bedroom, or when the past taps your shoulder in the middle of a new life.
The production is rich with shimmer. Sparkling guitar lines, reminiscent of that classic Fender Telecaster gifted to him by childhood friends, serve as the emotional spine of the track. They’re layered with warm synth pads, a subtle electronic pulse, and delicate percussion that ebbs and flows like memory itself. It’s a bedroom pop masterpiece; carefully crafted yet retaining the raw soul of a home studio confession. There’s a vintage feel to the soundscape, but it’s never dusty. The electronic elements are modern and refined, yet never cold. This is music designed to glow, not shine.
With curated concept playlists like 25HEARTs: After Shower and 25MILEs: Memory Glow, Same After is steadily crafting a cinematic world of memory and emotion. He is a rare artist who operates from the tension between what was and what might still be, giving listeners not just songs, but reflections. This is an artist worth watching, worth feeling, and worth welcoming with open arms. Same After, welcome to our pages — where memory and melody meet. You’ve just set the bar.
Listen to “When We Were Young” on Spotify
Follow Same After here for more information
