Entertainment
Infinity Song Got A Taste Of Success With “Slow Burn” — And They’re Fighting To Keep It
The four-member sibling band has been training their whole lives for this.
Although Infinity Song had gone viral before in August 2023, this time, something was different. In the last week of December 2023, they uploaded a video of their smoky ballad “Slow Burn” to Instagram Reels with few expectations. But then they watched as it crossed a million views, then five, then 10 (with 3.5 million on TikTok). Then came the follows from Lenny Kravitz, Labrinth, Swizz Beats, and Diplo; rapper Tierra Whack sent an encouraging DM. They began fielding interviews and business meetings, and had to turn fans away from over-capacity shows. “Our lives actually were changing,” says vocalist and guitarist Israel Boyd.
The four-member sibling band, who call the sweeping guitar songs they make “soft rock,” had a cautious relationship with internet fame when their last song to make it big on TikTok, “Hater’s Anthem,” stopped gaining traction after a few weeks, they say. But now, they’re contending with the prospect of longer and more permanent success. As they autograph 500 copies of vinyl inserts for the deluxe release of their debut album Metamorphosis in Roc Nation’s offices, they tell NYLON that their slow-but-steady rise has been “surreal.” “We haven't arrived, but we're not where we have been in the past,” says vocalist Abraham. “Progress is a good thing.”
Those familiar with Infinity Song will know they’ve been signed to Jay Z’s Roc Nation since 2016, when the rap mogul invited them to audition after filmmaker Jeymes Samuel sent him a video of them busking in New York City’s Central Park. But their story really began decades earlier in Detroit, with Abraham, Angel, Momo, and Israel (who range in age from 26 to 31) learning to sing and play music together under the tutelage of their father John Boyd, a former choir director. Describing him as someone who was always “trying to push the boundaries of what we can accomplish musically,” Abraham says he cultivated the siblings’ discipline, ambition, and intention early on. “One thing I know my dad has always said is whatever you're going to do, just do it well,” says singer and guitarist Momo.
And judging by the way the family talks about one another, they’ve also perfected their specific roles. Israel is the “front runner” Momo says, who knows the anatomy of a guitar inside and out and can “craft a song from the bottom up”— and give it the final push it needs. Angel will always somehow deliver gold at the last minute (she wrote “Slow Burn”). Momo is the solid one — “You always know what to expect from me” — while Abraham is the soul of the band, with the “gift of harmonies,” Momo says. And their sound has become just as deliberate. They used to play jazz, R&B, and soul, but after releasing a successful cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” online in 2020, they say they knew that was the direction their sound needed to go.
Angel calls it “the normal person's music,” or something they can play without “putting on a costume” while encompassing the breadth of each member’s influences, from the Bee Gees to Hall & Oates and Steely Dan. Because after the work they’ve put into themselves and one another, when they get on stage, they want you to “believe what we’re telling you about ourselves is true,” Abraham says. “The contrived or fake [act], we are tired of it.”
At their Valentine’s Day show in NYC, I saw that authenticity in action myself as they performed a stunning, eyes-closed rendition of “Slow Burn,” delighting the wall-to-wall crowd with a spontaneous dance-off (Israel did the splits more than once) and light banter throughout. During the gig, I realized that, more than just a viral song, what Infinity Song offers is an entire family’s creation — which makes the stakes of their success feel even higher, given the time and totality of their effort. The siblings say they do feel the need to keep going — because they believe they have something special worth fighting for.
Coming up, they'll cross off more items on a growing list of firsts, including an eight-show residency at New York City’s famed Blue Note jazz club and, in April, their first-ever live performances in the U.K. France, and the Netherlands. They’ll bring their soulful croons and perhaps a few new songs. They’re not totally sure “nor prepared yet,” Israel says. But they’re ready.
