Childish Japes is the musical sandbox of JP Bouvet, Asher Kurtz, and Jed Lingat. With the 2017 release of their first album—a mix of indie rock, jazz, and hip hop featuring three singers, a rapper, and instrumental tracks—the Japes established that defining them by genre would be futile. The following year, they released Salamander, an indie rock album featuring Dave Vives on vocals that the band wrote and recorded in a month while together touring in Australia. In 2019, the Japes released the radically different Downbeat Editors’ Pick, Book of Japes, an edgy and exploratory jazz album featuring NYC heavy hitters David Leon on Saxophone and Christian Li on keys. Despite the Japes’ penchant for violently veering between genres, there emerges a consistent, undeniable sound—the fingerprint of a truly unique meeting of prodigious minds.