Tiny Desk, big talent.

Roots, Jazz, and American Music (RJAM) students Kole Dixon and Beck Holland, like a lot of musicians, entered NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Competition in 2026. And like a lot of contestants, they're hoping to secure a performance at the titular desk in NPR's Washington, D.C. headquarters, an interview on the station's famed All Things Considered show, and a 10-city tour this summer, including a show in San Francisco.

However, unlike the majority of the 6,000-plus musicians who entered, Dixon's original composition "demo 8 / heavier" was highlighted as a "Top Shelf" pick in the contest at the beginning of April in a live episode hosted by Bobby Carter.

Dixon, studying bass at SFCM with Scott Pingel and Matt Brewer, is behind the mic for the song, backed up by Holland on guitar with his Future Is Now band, a collective who all went to high school together in Dallas. (Holland studies with Randy Vincent and Anthony Wilson at SFCM.) "I didn't want to submit a replica of a song that I'd already dropped, so we made our own new version," Dixon says. "It's actually based off the Christmas song 'Do You Hear What I Hear?'—we interpolated the chorus from that and made it our own."

Recorded in Dixon's living room in Dallas, the song, he adds, is something of a full-circle moment. "It was written for my mom, and me and her used to have a difficult relationship, but we did a lot of hard work to bring it back, so doing this in the living room of my childhood home was definitely a moment."

The song was recorded while Dixon and Holland were back in Dallas during SFCM's 2025-26 winter break. "We all had so much creative energy," Dixon says. "Beck's Future Is Now group does all kinds of different things. It's always been a tight group, we're all close friends, so we were just in the studio every single day for a week making something different." Holland adds, "We have friends all over: San Francisco, Florida—but we all kind of converge when we're in Dallas together."

Kole Dixon (far left) and Beck Holland (right).

"It was in the last two days that we took one of those back to Kole's house, refined some of the ideas, and shot and recorded the video," Holland says. "I wasn't even going to compete," Dixon explains. "But a few of the last days, I just went, 'I think we can do this.' The musicians we had were all so talented, and the song kind of just wrote itself."

"My own Tiny Desk has always been a dream," Dixon says. "I'm definitely excited for the decision, but it's an honor to even be here. We worked really hard behind the scenes. Holland's group, as instrumentalists, I always hear them, like, ascend to a different plane when they play, and that's how I feel when I rap, so we just go really well together."

Although the entry is under Dixon's name, both students stress that Holland's band is a separate entity, though all the members operate as a collective and range quite far in terms of their original music. "We're just taking this music thing as far as it'll go," Dixon says.

Learn more about studying Roots, Jazz, and American Music at SFCM.