You can take the boy out of the small town, but you can’t take the small town out of the boy—and AJ Mitchell wouldn’t have it any other way. His music is all about letting listeners know “who I am, where I came from,” he tells Apple Music. “If people don’t know who you are, I don’t think people quite get the music.” Mitchell’s background is baked right into his refreshingly down-to-earth take on pop. Born in Belleville, Illinois, in 2001, Mitchell grew up playing high school football, singing in choir, and also amassing a sizable online following with his heartfelt covers. In 2015, he left school to join influencer Jake Paul’s Team 10 crew in Los Angeles, but he soon struck out on his own. “Used to Be,” in 2017, offered a taste of what makes him so special: timeless love songs delivered with a subtly modern touch and an earnest, dizzyingly expressive voice. The song’s stark piano and drums foregrounded the drama of his singing, but he’s since proven his versatility, branching into electronic music on 2018’s Hopeful EP and future pop on 2019’s “Afterhours.” He’s recorded songs about young love (“Slow Dance”), loneliness (“All My Friends”), heartbreak (“Burn,” “Like Strangers Do,” “I Don’t Want You Back”), and the giddy rush of desire (“Girls,” “Say It Again”)—and the only through line is his sincerity. Credit Mitchell’s heartland upbringing with teaching him to stay true to himself. As he tells Apple Music, “I have to be the one to stand up and have a voice and say what I want with my music.”