The debut release from 21-year-old singer/producer EBEN (stylized with all caps), is a collection of hip-hop-flavored pop tracks filled with bright beats and infectious melodies entitled Finally. But despite EBEN’s sweet and breezy vocal delivery on Finally, the mixtape comes with a less-than-sunny backstory.

Born as Eben Franckewitz, EBEN’s dream of becoming an artist appeared early on in his life. After getting his start singing in local theater groups as a child, EBEN began building a career as a solo artist at age 15 and playing concerts around the country. In 2014, EBEN took off for Orlando and co-founded the band he’d dedicate himself to for the next few years. The band garnered interest from David Loeffler and Randy Phillips, and later relocated to Los Angeles after joining forces with the pair.

The band landed a deal with Global Entertainment and spent several years recording and developing their live show. But as his bandmates’ vision fell short of his own creative ambitions, Eben took matters into his own hands by teaching himself production and working on his own material.

In spring 2017, after the sudden breakup of the band he’d devoted years to, Eben returned to his hometown of Cincinnati. “It was an awful time for me,” he recalls. “I’d put so much of myself into trying to make things happen for the band, and I ended up getting completely screwed over. Going back home after all that was really hard.” After spending months feeling crushed and disillusioned and unsure of his next move, Eben decided to head back to Los Angeles to start all over again. He then packed up his car and made it to California in a few days’ time, stopping in Barstow to rest up before the last leg of the journey. The next morning, Eben woke to find his car window smashed and nearly everything stolen—including the brand-new recording equipment he’d brought along to kickstart his solo career.

Understandably shaken but determined to push forward, EBEN continued on to L.A., where he knocked on the door of David Loeffler and Randy Phillips. “I said I wanted to educate myself and work on my music, and how there’s no other people on the planet I’d rather learn from,” says EBEN. “Dave and Randy told me I could work for them, but that it was up to me to take the opportunities they’d give me and really create something from it on my own.”

EBEN followed through on that promise, assisting with the day-to-day goings-on of fast-rising pop band Why Don’t We and—in any free time he could find—fine-tuning the self-produced, tightly crafted songs he had began working on during his time with his former band. The songs would ultimately appear on Finally.

“I started putting the mixtape together when I was still with my former band —it was a way for me to channel all my energy and my frustration at the fact that we weren’t moving forward,” he says. “Making my own music became this very therapeutic thing, because I knew that no matter what, it could never be taken away from me.”

By that summer 2017 he’d hit the road with Why Don’t We as their opening DJ and—in a truly one-of-a-kind feat—also worked as a Production Assistant for the tour, overseeing everything from sound check to videography. All that non stop hustling eventually paid off when Finally arrived in February 2018, and shot to #7 on the Apple Music Pop chart.

For the follow-up to Finally, EBEN delivered an irresistibly tongue-in-cheek track called “LAMBO” (sample lyric: “They say money can’t buy you happiness/I’d rather cry in a Lambo”). The track was written by singer/songwriter Kyle Reynolds, produced by ex-AWOLNATION member Kenny Carkeet, and vocal produced and