Esquire March 2023

MY FIRST IMPRESSION OF CHRIS PINE WAS that he smelled really, really good. There were top notes of rosemary, hints of patchouli, maybe a little musk. I met him last October at a Ralph Lauren show in L. A. No, I didn’t ask him why he had such an appealing aroma. That would’ve been weird, right? Instead, we talked about his role in Don’t Worry Darling, his reading list, his new haircut, and his unique socks—more on those in a moment. I walked away from our conversation thinking (a) He sure does smell nice and (b) We should put this guy on the cover of Esquire. Before we choose a cover subject, we ask ourselves two crucial questions: Why this person? and Why now? With Pine, the answers were obvious. To…

AGING BRINGS WITH IT A NUMBER OF STAR-tling indignities and diffcult internal mono-logues, and while we have our elders, decades of American literature, and countless two-guystalkin’ podcasts to help guide us, there are some things each of us has to face alone. What I am saying is that I did not expect to be the guy who rocked a little too hard at the Toad the Wet Sprocket show. I wasn’t the only one. There is something in the air about that medium-mope, wounded-dude mid-’90s music moment: Counting Crows, Collective Soul, Soul Asylum. Somehow I’m hearing it more now than in 1996, my glory days of wearing a Kangol hat backward and trying to use hype as an adjective. The soul-patched soundtrack of alternative radio, a revolution that was ignited at least…

WHEN IT COMES TO BROWN SPIRITS, SINGLE-MALT whiskeys have long worn the gilded crown. Doing a celebratory shot of Jim Beam bourbon or Jameson Irish whiskey may be acceptable. But a single malt? Hardly. It’s to be sipped and savored as you relax in a leather chair and gift yourself a moment of contemplation. The lucrative single-malt high ground has long been dominated by the Scots, and more recently, Japanese distilleries have earned clout. The U. S., meanwhile, has largely stayed in its lane as a bourbon specialist. But that hasn’t kept American distillers (St. George, McCarthy’s, Balcones) from dabbling in the single-malt style. And bourbons and ryes have gained stature as luxury products in recent years, paving the way for a stateside single-malt surge. This year, the Alcohol and Tobacco…

ANDREW WATT CAN’T SAY WHAT HE’S working on. It’s mid-December in London, and the record producer behind hits by Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Post Malone is feeling a little tongue-tied. It’s not his news to share, you see. But it’s important—“the most excited I’ve ever been about anything,” he says about the mysterious project. What can he mention? First off, that it’s freezing outside. Really fucking cold. Every day is just a bundled-up shuffe from the hotel to the studio and back again, keeping quiet when people like me ask what he’s up to in the Big Smoke. Except Watt isn’t feeling stifled by the secrecy. Instead, he’s downright giddy. “It brings me to tears sometimes,” the 32-year-old admits. “It’s overwhelming to work with people who are part of…

DJ SNAKE FEAT. JUSTIN BIEBER, “LET ME LOVE YOU” The 2016 song that changed the course of Watt’s life. He cowrote and coproduced the cut, which would eventually crack the Billboard Hot 100 top five and log more than a billion streams on YouTube. POST MALONE FEAT. OZZY OSBOURNE AND TRAVIS SCOTT, “TAKE WHAT YOU WANT” Was there any song that better exemplified the culture in 2019 than this nostalgic but new rock-rap hybrid? (“We’re in the playlist generation, right?” Watt asks by way of an answer.) SHAWN MENDES AND CAMILA CABELLO, “SEÑORITA” Watt cowrote and co-produced this Latin-pop sweatfest that topped charts in the U. S.—and dozens of other countries—in 2019. OZZY OSBOURNE, ORDINARY MAN AND PATIENT NUMBER 9 Once he paired up with Watt, the Black Sabbath frontman’s music became his most vital in decades.…

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TOURIST and a traveler? The willingness to form new friendships on the road. Finding your people in a strange town can happen quickly. You just have to know where to start. After a day full of meetings or museums, bars have typically been the simplest places in which to connect with like-minded locals. What kind? You could always try the hotel bar. But it’s rare that the person next to you is going to invite you to their artist friend’s house party. Pubs? Sorry, they’re not the same social scene in the U. S. as they are in the UK. Clubs? Like where you dance? I wish I could. Over the years, I’ve become accustomed to heading straight to a city’s high-end cocktail bar…