Jai Paul performed his first-ever concert as part of the second day of Coachella 2023’s first weekend. The London-based songwriter and producer, whose only official album, Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones), is a finished version of an unofficial album that was leaked, took the stage at the California-set music festival on Sunday, April 16.
Unlike most Coachella performances, Paul’s set was not livestreamed and was instead exclusive for actual concertgoers, though clips of his performance have since been shared to social media. Joined by his brother, A. K. Paul, on guitar, the reclusive British producer opened the set with “Higher Res” and “He,” before going on to perform “BTSTU,” “Str8 Outta Mumbai,” “Crush,” and “Jasmine,” among others. Pitchfork also reported that Paul debuted a new song called “So Long.” The singer was not joined by additional guests, and he did not offer between-song banter. Rounding out the on-stage band was Fabiana Palladino, Rocco Palladino, and Isaac Kizito.
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Paul’s Coachella performance came as a big surprise. The singer has only released three singles over the course of the past 12 years. He first emerged in 2010 with a demo posted to his Myspace page titled BTSTU, which became a massive hit and was sampled by both Drake and Beyoncé and in 2012, he released a new song titled “Jasmine (demo)” on SoundCloud. However, his music career hit a rocky path in 2013 when someone purporting to be Paul released an album’s worth of unfinished demos. Paul officially released the album, Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones), in 2019, alongside two singles, “Do You Love Her Now” and “He.”
“I understand that it might have seemed like a positive thing to a lot of people – the music they had been waiting to hear was finally out there – but for me, it was very difficult to deal with,” Paul shared at the time. “As things unfolded I went through a number of phases, but the immediate, overriding feeling was one of complete shock. I felt numb, I couldn’t take it all in at first. I felt pretty alone with everything, like no one else seemed to view the situation in the same way I did: as a catastrophe.”
Since 2019, however, Paul has been mostly silent when it comes to his music career. He has spent the past several years working with his brother on an operation known as Paul Institute, which released an EP called Summer 2020 in the summer of 2020, though none of the songs were credited to Paul himself. Following his Coachella performance, Paul on Monday announced he will play two shows in New York and two in London later this month and in May.
