Nourished by Time

Baltimore, Berklee, Koreatown

Marcus Elliot Brown grew up in Baltimore on his parents' hip-hop, jazz and 1990s R&B records, and started playing guitar at 15 after watching Slash perform alongside Michael Jackson. School meant trombone and percussion in marching and jazz bands. At 17 he enrolled at Berklee College of Music, where he studied under the songwriter-in-residence Pat Pattison, the one teacher he has credited with letting him be weird.

A period living in Koreatown, Los Angeles produced two aliases he later left behind, Riley With Fire and Mother Marcus. He settled on Nourished by Time in 2020, calling the phrase a mantra about staying consistent; the construction also nods to Guided by Voices. The reference points he names — Arthur Russell, Prince, Tony! Toni! Toné!, SWV, P.M. Dawn — account for most of what came next: freestyle and early house rhythms, new jack swing chord voicings, and a guitar that behaves like a post-punk instrument rather than an R&B one.

The basement record

Erotic Probiotic 2 was recorded in his parents' basement during the COVID-19 lockdowns and released in 2023 on Scenic Route Records. Pitchfork gave it Best New Music and a score of 8.2, and it turned up on year-end lists at Paste, The Guardian and Gorilla vs Bear. Brown spent much of that year on the road across North America with the London post-punk band Dry Cleaning, and remixed their single 'Gary Ashby'.

Guest appearances stacked up in the same window: 'Happy' on Yaeji's debut album With a Hammer in 2023, Metronomy's 'My Love' in 2024, and 'My Day Off' on Kacy Hill's album Bug in 2024. In February 2024 he signed to XL Recordings. The five-track Catching Chickens EP — named after a scene in Rocky II — was announced on 20 February 2024, released digitally on 22 March and pressed to vinyl that May, led by 'Hand on Me'. Headline shows that year sold out at Bowery Ballroom in New York, the Echoplex in Los Angeles and the ICA in London, which is a fair marker of where the audience had got to: club-sized, but everywhere at once.

The Passionate Ones

The second album, The Passionate Ones, arrived on 22 August 2025 through XL. Brown produced it himself, working between Baltimore, London and New York across 2024 and 2025. It runs 12 tracks and 44 minutes 58, with Tony Bontana featuring on 'Jojo'. Three singles preceded it: 'Max Potential' on 7 May 2025, '9 2 5' on 17 June and 'Baby Baby' on 29 July.

Critically it went further than the debut. Metacritic settled at 89. Pitchfork returned with 8.4 and a second Best New Music. The Guardian described it as committed and full-hearted. Paste named it the best album of 2025. In Britain it reached number 17 on the Independent Albums Breakers chart and number 9 on the R&B albums chart.

The songs carry his politics openly. Brown writes about class and the machinery of late-stage capitalism, and has pointed out that there is no such thing as a socialist pop star. He has said that 'Baby Baby' draws a line between Palestine and Baltimore. A 38-date headline run was announced in August 2025, with a 25-date North American and European leg starting that September.

Where things stand in 2026

Brown now lives in New York. Speaking to Dazed on 7 April 2026, he described the change since the album as straightforward — things are easier, and people know who he is. He was named to the adidas SS26 Creative Class alongside Fcukers and Halima. On the next record he is deliberately unhurried: he has said he wants to put something out in 2027, that he takes pride in crafting albums, and that he wants to compete with his heroes. The indication is that global events will sit heavily in it. Interviewed again in June 2026, he said he had not expected recognition to arrive before he was dead.

The touring year has been a support year rather than a headline one. He opened the North American leg of Robyn's Sexistential tour at The Anthem in Washington, DC on 8 and 9 September 2026, a run announced on 6 February that rotated openers city by city — Romy, Peaches, Grace Ives, Lykke Li and horsegiirL took other nights. On 15 September he played Stage AE Outdoors in Pittsburgh on a bill with Turnstile.

Then the autumn fell apart, through no fault of his. Ravyn Lenae postponed her Blue Island tour on 26 August 2026, announcing the decision on Instagram Story; Nourished by Time had been booked on the East Coast and South West portions, from late September through Philadelphia, Toronto, Dallas, Austin, Tucson and Phoenix in the middle of October. Tickets are being refunded at the original point of purchase and no replacement dates have been announced. What survives is a festival set at FORM Arcosanti in Mayer, Arizona, running 9–11 October 2026, and a club date at Lou Lou's Jungle Room in the Lafayette Hotel, San Diego, on 16 November.

On stage

The live configuration is a trio: Brown with a touring guitarist and bassist, all three moving to synths at points in the set. Reviewing the Vivarium in Milwaukee on 25 September 2025, Prowl Radio described a room lit green with live plants hung from the ceiling and projections of frogs and lizards by the merchandise table, and a performance built on a slow, leaning stance at the microphone stand with sparse, jolting movement. The band was singled out as sonically exceptional, with details in the recorded versions surfacing properly for the first time. That night ran to 14 songs plus an unreleased, gospel-leaning beat as an encore.

The set leans on the newest record without abandoning the basement material. At the Warm Love Cool Dreams festival at The Salt Shed in Chicago on 24 May 2026 — a 4.50pm slot — he opened with 'Automatic Love' and moved through 'Idiot in the Park', 'Shed That Fear', 'Daddy', '9 2 5', 'It's Time', 'Max Potential', 'Crazy People', 'Quantum Suicide' and 'BABY BABY' before closing on 'Hell of a Ride'. Seven of those came from The Passionate Ones, three from Erotic Probiotic 2 and one from Catching Chickens EP.

The between-song talk is part of it. In Milwaukee he spoke about how hard touring is and got applause for it, and summarised a music career as ugly until it starts working. 'Max Potential' is the reliable flashpoint — the Milwaukee crowd danced and chanted the hook back at him.