Discovering a new musical artist to obsess over is like striking a chest of gold with a pickaxe. And what better time is there to go on a treasure hunt than during vacation?

Here are four singers to check out during the winter break, perfect for those freezing days when you just feel like popping in the earbuds and cocooning yourself under the covers.

1. Joji

Joji, real name George Miller, got his start on YouTube as memelord “Filthy Frank,” putting out crude tracks and comedy—he was even behind the viral Harlem Shake trend. But even while playing the “Filthy Frank” character to six million subscribers, Joji produced “serious” music on the side. This included album “Chloe Burbank Volume 1,” home to the song “you suck charlie,” a melancholy work that samples “Christmas Time Is Here” from Charlie Brown where Joji sings to his lover about needing more time to work things out between them before he can see her again.

One of Joji’s latest R&B songs, “Slow Dancing In The Dark,” continues the sorrowful style. In fact, Joji’s body of music is primarily built around pain, and the video of a lovelorn Joji bleeding and stumbling to his death with arrows in his back (as a satyr, of all things) is visually-stimulating. The track itself is pleasantly disturbing, riding on dark ambience and hopelessness as Joji holds back in his verses, seemingly devoid of energy, before throwing every ounce of strength and passion into the chorus about a failing intimate yet impersonal relationship.

2. Tayler Buono

Tayler Buono rose in popularity with her YouTube covers, racking up over six million views for her piano-ballad version of Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” where she really displayed her smooth-as-a-peach vocals reminiscent of Ellie Goulding and Selena Gomez. The singer then turned to making her own music like the electronic pop song “Technically Single,” which tackles the grey area between friendship and relationship. The song is indefinitely-stuck-in-your-head catchy and lyrically relatable, with Buono proclaiming she’s “technically single, emotionally unavailable.”

Buono hasn’t had a new release since 2017, but her last song to date, “Who Am I,” feeds your ears even while waiting for a new work to drop. The instrumentation and electronics on the track carry the same catchiness and fluidity that her other songs do, and her vocals, influenced by a delicate synth, are vibrant and satisfying. Again, the single is relatable, Buono singing that she’s not defined by her ex’s image of her and that she’s better—and is herself—alone. This piece is, unfortunately, heavily underrated and deserves as much attention as “Technically Single” received.

3. Before You Exit

Before You Exit, or BYE, formally debuted in 2012 with the self-released EP “A Short Story Long” that introduced their then-pop-rock sound to their fans, akin to that of the early days of the Jonas Brothers (if you’re looking for nostalgia). Consisting of brothers Toby, Riley and Connor McDonough, the band’s sound has come a long way since then, becoming their own. That’s clear in their 2016 tribute song to Christina Grimmie, “Clouds,” a piano-driven ballad that mourns Grimmie’s death and begs to know if she’s in a better place. Both the lyrics and the vocals evoke sadness, yet have a subtle bounce that remind the listener that yes, Grimmie is doing well amongst the clouds.

BYE’s recent four-track album “001_love” continues the group’s musical evolution. The entire album is gentle guitar strums and mellow voices, packaged together into one velvety product. “Silence” leads on the album, setting off the dulcet vibe as the guys sing about a love that’s plain, simple and devoid of unnecessary noise. “Pleasure” ends “001_love” on a dejected note about the uncertainty of falling deeper into an intimate relationship when the feelings are one-sided, summing the album with the lines, “Oh, she don’t want my heart /She just want my time / Oh, she don’t want my heart / I said, ‘That’s alright.'”

4. SZA

SZA is more than her cameo in Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” music video. After a series of EPs and threatening to quit music completely, SZA finally released her 2017 album “Ctrl” that’s unapologetically honest. Switching from R&B to indie rock to folk, “Ctrl” is sprinkled with rebellion and pain throughout its tracks, with SZA telling Vulture that she channeled her “earliest breakup” while working on the album. “Ctrl” begins and ends with recordings of SZA’s mother’s voice warning about fatal love and sets up the theme of control.

That’s evident in every song. Opener “Supermodel” flashes SZA’s honeyed voice as she sings about controlling her insecurities and needing undivided attention from her man over a simple guitar riff. Meanwhile, in “Love Galore,” she pushes the player in her life away with brusque vocals, gaining control after a loveless affair. “Ctrl” preaches, well, control up until its final track, “20 Something,” a sensitive but fierce song on navigating one’s 20s that wavers between confidence and doubt.