Speaking to musician Sir Taegen Harris – aka Love Spells – as he walks around his beloved hometown of Houston, Texas, visiting from his current home base of LA, you can see how the things he loves enchant him right back. Across the road sits a blue antique store, where he lingers to shoot the breeze with its owner about his soft spot for Texan folk. Then there’s Numbers, the hallowed local dance club, where he spent teenage nights losing himself with his found posse, swaying to 80s New Wave. Or there’s his love for the film Dirty Dancing and Michael Jackson, which inflects his latest video Don’t Touch, all writhing bodies and flicks of fingerless gloves.

Love Spells casts his own magic too, though. At just 21, he’s collaborated with the likes of Dominic Fike and Kevin Abstract, garnered 1.3 million monthly Spotify listeners, and won over industry titans like Lorde, Young Thug and Erykah Badu. His new album, Love Is The Law – which he’ll soon tour around Europe, often to already sold-out shows – pairs dream-synth pop with a Prince-pitched diaphanous falsetto, carrying the same ache that runs through everything he loves. That longing is exactly what pulls you in, but he’s a genuinely great dancer too, and his innate rhythm is stitched trance-like into the songs themselves, so even without watching him move, you’ll be compelled toward the dance floor, too.

Shana Chandra: Hey Sir Taegen, how are you?
Sir Taegen Harris: I’m good, I’m in Texas right now and it’s hot outside. It’s really humid.

SC: I totally understand – I’m in France in the middle of a heatwave. I really want to ask you about your latest video for Don’t Touch. It’s so cinematically nostalgic and a little bit familiar, yet completely new at the same time, so I was interested in your inspiration behind it.
STH: I’m not sure if you’ve seen the Michael Jackson music video, You Rock My World? It’s set in a bar and, basically, he’s trying to woo a woman while they’re dancing. So we wanted to do a little something on that. But also, I’m completely in love with the movie Dirty Dancing. That’s the other inspiration – you know the scene where [Jennifer Grey’s character] sneaks out to the [resort’s employee area] and she sees the staff dirty dancing for the first time? That’s why everyone in the background of Don’t Touch is doing the same.

SC:  I see it, I think that’s why it’s nostalgic to me; it reminds me of those great 80s dance movies, like Footloose and Flashdance. But I thought of Michael Jackson too when I saw your gloves in the video. I also have to comment on your dancing – it’s wild – where did you learn to dance?
STH:  I never learned to dance, actually. I was just able to do it. I will say, I grew up watching a lot of music videos, specifically a lot of Michael Jackson music videos. I was obsessed with Michael Jackson as a kid. There was the game he had too – The Michael Jackson Experience – so I think I picked it up through watching the music videos and dancing to it on the game.

SC: But you pop the splits in the video. How did you learn that?
STH: You know, it’s so funny you say that – I recently learned I could do that a year ago. It happened by me doing it, you know? I wondered if I could do it, and I just did it.

SC: That’s amazing. With your recent album, Love Is The Law, it’s said to be reminiscent of some of your nights at the Houston Dance Club, Numbers.
STH: I’m actually going there this Friday. It’s absolutely inspired by that.

SC: Tell me about the vibe of the club you were trying to encapsulate in the record.
STH: It’s less the music aspect, I’d say, and more the feeling of being there. If it was inspired by the music, it would be more 80s New Wave, but it’s not. It has that Texas vibe, and all that it was to me growing up, that sense of community, and that sense of love that I felt there, of being free.

“The intent of music was soul-searching. And when I finally landed on that slower, more intimate sound, it was just because it felt like me.”

SC: How would you explain Texas to someone who hasn’t been there?
STH: The first thing I would talk about is the people… I love Texas so much. Right across the street from me, right here, is this old blue antique shop. I go there so much that they know me. I was talking with the lady in there yesterday, and she was saying, “You know, if you ask anyone else where they’re from, they’ll say, I’m from Los Angeles. I’m from Berkeley. But if you ask anyone in Texas where they’re from, they’ll just tell you, “I’m a Texan.”” There’s that sense of community, of love, immediately, when I meet people here, it’s hospitality. It’s a familiarity without even knowing [a person]. Everyone is more loving here, without ever having to need anything from you. It’s an open-arms place.

SC: You’ve gone through various musical projects, trying different genres – there was your joke rap group in middle school, and then you went into emo and punk. How did you land on your sound now with these intimate songs and your unique vocal tone?
STH: As a young man in high school, dealing with everything that I was dealing with, I went through a lot of phases of life, figuring out how I should feel, and who I was. The intent of music was soul-searching. And when I finally landed on that slower, more intimate sound, it was just because it felt like me. It felt like everything that I wanted to be, and the music that I wanted to soundtrack my life.

SC: A fan of yours said that one of your songs soundtracked their first kiss. What’s another dream scenario that you’d love your music to be played to, in someone’s life?
STH: Definitely, a wedding.

SC: Like a first dance?
STH: I was actually speaking about this yesterday with a friend, and I was saying how I’d like to soundtrack my own wedding, even the music during the vows.

“I made the album feel like home.”

SC: You’ve said the title of the album, Love Is The Law, is something that you’ll declare for the rest of your life. I was wondering what led you to this title?
STH: I was really asking myself what I have to say to people, you know? I believe in fame only if you have something important to say. I think it’s dangerous to just give fame to anybody, because with that many eyes on you, you can say whatever you want to say, and it could turn harmful to people. As I’m getting more popular, and more eyes are on me, I asked myself, what do I have to say that will impact somebody’s life in a good way, in a better way? Love Is The Law came from that. It’s a statement that needs no explaining.

SC: Have you had fans come up to you and say how your music has impacted their life in a certain way?
STH: Absolutely. Even when I’d just dropped the album, people would tell me how it’s been helping them get through what they’re going through. And that’s what it’s for.

SC: I know that you’ve been going back and forth between Houston and LA – your first album was made in LA. How have these different cities informed your music?
STH: LA was very fast-paced for me. That influenced me in [terms of] the music that I wanted to hear. I was thinking, what do I need to hear right now in this environment? That’s also how Love Is The Law came about – I missed home, I missed Texas, so I made the album feel like home.

SC: Your influences are so varied – there’s Bruce Springsteen, Cigarettes After Sex, Prince, Mazzy Star, Michael Jackson, and yet they’re all present in your music. Is there someone who is influencing you strongly at the moment, either visually or sonically?
STH: For Love Is The Law, you’ve said every person that I was influenced by. [At the moment] I feel like I’m already in the next phase of what I’m doing. For me right now, a lot of my inspirations, especially being back in Texas, are connections with my roots. Growing up – a lot of people don’t know this – I was really into goth music: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, The Cure. That’s a lot of what I’ll be experimenting with next.

“I was actually speaking about this yesterday with a friend, and I was saying how I’d like to soundtrack my own wedding, even the music during the vows.”

SC: Which song of yours would you choose to describe your perspective on love at the moment?
STH: Probably Heart for Eyes because I think about the lyrics a lot. I feel like they hold true to everything that I’m watching out for right now.

SC: Which lyrics in particular?
STH: The hook: “Be careful who you’re gonna bring home/Or else you’re gonna end up all alone. Be careful who you’re giving all your time/Don’t fall for it, ’cause you got a heart for eyes.” I think it’s very true, you know? I’ve had a lot of conversations with friends recently where that same thing comes up – it seems to be an issue for them too.

SC: And what about a song that isn’t by you that would describe your perspective of love at the moment?
STH: Everybody Here Wants You by Jeff Buckley. I’ve been listening to that a lot in Texas right now. On repeat. It’s a very, very exciting time of my life right now. I’m longing for something, but I’m not sure what it is.

SC: It’s funny, because a lot of your songs are written about experiencing heartache and having this longing, but for me, they also just want to make me dance.
STH: It makes me feel the same way.

SC: It’s so cool that you can create those two feelings simultaneously. I think just the way that you move imbues itself into the song and makes everyone else want to move.
STH: I think it’s within my essence, and my essence is being put into the song somehow.

“I used to write about things that I wanted. And sometimes they would come to me.”

SC: The music you make often reflects some of the relationships or experiences you’ve had. But I was wondering if it’s ever gone the other way around? Have you ever weirdly written something into being, like a love spell?
STH: That’s a good question. I think so. I used to write about things that I wanted. And sometimes they would come to me. Or I’d write about a deeper connection towards somebody, and that would come too. I never really noticed that happening until now, actually.

SC: Legend has it that you got the name, Love Spells, because your friends would tease you about making everything romantic. And you’ve said before that romance is in the everyday. What’s the most everyday romantic thing you’ve been doing lately?
STH: Since I’ve been back in Texas, it’s really been about seeing people. In LA, I was more closed off – if I wanted to see someone, I would just go out and party. But here, I’ll meet them at a coffee shop, and we’ll talk for hours. Yesterday, I did the same thing. I talked to someone all day, into the night. That’s the biggest romance in my life right now.