Reginald Lamar Williams, Jr (born January 18, 1990), known professionally as R.LUM.R, is an American alternative R&B artist from Bradenton, Florida.
At the age of 5, William's parents got a divorce leading to relationships with his mother, father, and sisters he describes as "tenuous".
[3] Although still legally under his parents' care, Williams spent most of his teen years sleeping at friend's houses.
An introvert, Williams was reluctant but eventually relented, performing a ballad written for a close friend he had seen deal with substance abuse.
He recalls, "People like [John Mayer] were just gifted with this thing, born above the rest of us commoners, and we are just here to receive their gift…" It was during his final year of college that Williams began to contemplate his musical identity as a classical guitar player.
Williams realized that it would be more beneficial to his career as a musician to go out and make commercial music rather than spend as much time studying it.
[7] He eventually dropped out of college and relocated to Orlando, FL where his manager Chris Martignago was living at the time.
Although, continuing to write and perform his acoustic folk songs, Williams created R.LUM.R while in Orlando as a side project as way to expand his creative output to multiple genres.
Suddenly, Williams had a producer that he was working with, a manager on board, and industry professionals that were interested in his new project.
William's noticed that many of his professional and creative collaborators were moving to Nashville, TN and began to contemplate a relocation.
In a 2017 interview with Music Publication Behind The Setlist, William's recounts his decision to relocate to Nashville,[9] "I could’ve gone to Atlanta or Chicago or L.A. or Portland or whatever, but those places already have a sound that you think of when you think of urban—read: black—music.
1 on SiriusXM The Heat's (Ch.46) Top 35 Songs out beating artists like Chris Brown, Bruno Mars and Drake.
It was for a multitude of reasons, and for the sake of brevity I won't get specific, but it can mostly be boiled down to pressure to be 'blacker' and the insidious effects that has on one's psyche, but I did what I was told, and whatever I thought a person like me was supposed to do.
Getting my starts in music, I played acoustic and released and performed music as a singer-songwriter for a long time, which started basically because of my limited resources, and I kept going because of the positive ways I was affecting the world around me through that medium, but there's always been another part of me that wanted to explore the stuff I’m exploring now, but never had the bravery or resources.
So in the process of evolving into this music, I wanted to do something that pulled from my past and exposed all those things, but created a clear focus on the future.
Other influences mentioned by Williams in interviews include Radiohead, The Mars Volta, King Crimson, Coheed and Cambria, Contortionist, Linkin Park, Yes, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, and My Chemical Romance.
[13] In July 2017, with the release of single "Close Enough", Billboard contributor Saddie Bell wrote, "If his sound could be placed in four walls, it feels as if he could tear them down with a single bombastic beat,"[14] while Clash Magazine marveled at his ability to "pluck at heart-strings while moving the waist.
"[15] In an article accompanying an exclusive release of his single "Be Honest", Music blog Earmilk praised his "highly complex set of vocal skills".