Jacklen Ro is indie songwriting duo Jackie and Caelen, on a best friend’s journey from being a bedroom pop duo to now, most recently in 2021, releasing three singles and an EP on Lolipop Records. Hollered harmonies, punching rhythms, and hurt-so-good lyrics (tell me what we might have had, if I wasn’t so quiet, biting on my jacket) show a nuanced style already their own. Songs made to sing along to while being past-curfew in your best-friend’s borrowed mom’s car.

The music of Jacklen Ro (without sounding too hokey) is the speaking-voice of a young and new and wise generation of peoples led by artists who are shaking off the antiquated and outmoded hang-ups of bygone generations–tired fixations like “genres” and “scene rules”–in favor of just honestly emoting. A generation evolving out of materialism and into emotionalism. Jacklen Ro, in the songs they write, are acting candidly out loud. And this resonates in youth and geezer alike. Because who isn’t dying for some honesty, nowadays? On honesty, Caelen mentions a shared “callousness” felt amongst most who are emotionally fatigued by corporations and establishments using sentimentality to push product. “Then, you feel something genuine and real from someone else and, damn, our heart loves feeling! And it loves to trust. And if you can put those two together,” He concludes while maybe looking back on his own path, “you have friendship.” You won’t fool the children of the evolution.