A Go-To Producer, Burgeoning Pop Singer Stephens Now Takes the Mic

Steve Visneau
A Go-To Producer, Burgeoning Pop Singer Stephens Now Takes the Mic

Producer, songwriter and recording artist John Allen Stephens, 32, is arguably one of the most important people in Houston’s music scene. As the owner of Third Coast Recording Co., a private recording studio he runs out of his East End home, Stephens has produced albums for many of H-Town’s top acts, including The Suffers, Camera Cult, Space Kiddettes, Tee Vee and Mantra Love.


Stephens has an artist career of his own, though, and will drop his R&B- and pop-tinged sophomore LP this summer, an autobiographical album that delves into what the young musician has learned from his past mistakes. “I’ve been wild my whole life,” he chuckles, before mentioning that one of the singles from the album is titled “Molotov.” (Listeners will have to pay close attention to the lyrics to find out why.)

Stephens encourages fans to check out his Bandcamp, where he’s releasing lots of new tunes recorded during quarantine, on Fridays, when the site waives fees and sends 100 percent of revenue to artists. 

Click here to see the full 2020 portfolio.

Art + Entertainment

Emmanuel Ax (photo by Nigel Parry)

IT STARTS OFF with a bang: a triumphant C major chord, its root, third, and fifth voiced across the entire orchestra. It’s as if you came home from a long day at work, entered your home to find the lights out then suddenly on, and a group of fashionable 18th-century Viennese men and women shouting in unison: “Surprise!”

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment

Sushi Omakasi Platter

THE LATEST IN a series of hot spots from serial restaurateur Ben Berg, Prime 131 may just be his hottest one yet.

Keep Reading Show less
Food