“I don’t think I’ve really ever gone onstage just as myself,” Quentin mused, two days before the release of their new album, TOMGIRL. Ahead of an LP release show at Factory on 5th, the musician told me they were determined to step into the spotlight with all of them on display – it’s what this album is all about.
The Corpus Christi native practically grew up onstage, performing in theatrical productions as a child and eventually bringing a love of costume and character to their musical career. Since the chameleon vocalist, who uses he/she/they pronouns, last graced the Chronicle’s pages, she’s gone mononymous, dropping the Arispe from their artist name, and embraced a new chapter.
TOMGIRL – as an album name, a conceptual framework, and a post-duality identity – epitomizes the new release. “It’s not just a person who’s androgynous,” she said. “A coffee shop that’s in an old cave is a tomgirl – anything that’s a contradiction. Anything [that’s] an oxymoron.” It was a name he had been hanging on to for a decade, savoring the turn of phrase and waiting for the work to emerge.
“I knew she was coming. I just didn’t know when, what, how?” the songwriter said. Shortly after she released the dual solo EPs As Above and So Below in 2024, the feeling struck: It was TOMGIRL’s time. In an era of post-breakup soul searching and a creative identity crisis, he began writing diaristic songs that harbored big, contradictory feelings and tapped into both stripped-down instrumentation and cinematic finishes.
The nine-track new beginning is a kaleidoscopic reflection of the artist’s influences and dynamic vocal range. Quentin recorded some of the album at Sonic Ranch, tickling the ivories Fiona Apple used for Fetch the Bolt Cutters and singing from an outdoor perch Adrianne Lenker sat at, soaking in the songwriters’ inspiration. Nineties guitar riffs and Aughts R&B-inspired pop sounds abound, combining with a contemporary rhapsodic vocal delivery and dance-pop production. In lyric-forward tracks like “i miss new york,” Quentin’s warm countertenor takes on a hazy, Phoebe Bridgers-esque layering. “Daddy’s Little Girl” finds a straightforward, gravelly tone in the songwriter’s voice, while jazzy runs on “don’t wait on me” and anthemic refrains in “revolve” recall his theatrical history.
Though the characters and masks have been stripped away, Quentin is still a thespian at heart. The night of the release performance, she took to a small wooden stage in the center of the room, surrounded by her band members and cloaked in smoke. Channeling Lenny Kravitz’s cowboy glamour in a belted button-down and bell-bottom jeans, she sashayed and spun on the platform, illuminated by a single spotlight. Around the performers, rings of friends and fans filled Factory on 5th’s intimate art space. Surprise snippets of Carole King’s “It’s Too Late” and the Carpenters’ “(They Long to Be) Close to You” nodded to TOMGIRL’s songwriter ethos, but the arrangements were meant for all-out performance. Flipping his thigh-length micro braids and belting like Beyoncé, Quentin relished the rock grit of opening song “LUCY IN DISGUISE” and turned the gentle falsetto of title track “tomgirl (I’m in my head)” into a high-octane release. Even at their most open, Quentin puts on a glamorous pop performance.
This article appears in July 31 • 2026.
