News: Glastonbury Announces 2019 Emerging Talent Competition

I’m excited to to be able to share that, in partnership with PRS for Music and PRS Foundation, Glastonbury Festival have just announced the 2019 Emerging Talent Competition. The competition gives artists of any musical genre the opportunities to compete for a slot on one of the main stages at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Winners will also be awarded a £5,000 Talent Development prize from PRS Foundation to help support their songwriting and enable them to take their music creation to the next level. Two runners up will also each be awarded a £2,500 PRS Foundation Talent Development prize.

Those that wish to enter have just one week, starting at 5pm on Monday 28 January, to submit their entry before the deadline on Monday 4 February at 5pm. Entries can be submitted at the Glastonbury Festivals website, and should consist of one original song on Soundcloud plus a link to them performing live (even if it is just a bedroom performance).

Recent finalists in the Emerging Talent Competition include Nigerian-born Flohio, a rapper who featured on the BBC’s Sound of 2019 list, and Izzy Bizu, a 2016 BRITs Critics’ Choice nominee and winner of the 2016 BBC Music Introducing Award.

Once again I will be one of a panel of some 30 bloggers tasked with judging the initial entries and creating the ‘longlist’ of 90 entries. This longlist will then be scrutinised by Michael and Emily Eavis in order to compile short-list of eight artists who will compete to be the winning act in a live final in Pilton in April.

Listen: Breathless (Like This) - Loveday x PYNGU

PYNGU is a new electronic pop project from Germany product Kyco. Collaborating here with 18-year-old UK based singer Loveday, the pair have created Breathless (Like This).

Relatively straight up electronic pop, what made this standout for me is the combination of Loveday’s comparatively raw and emotive vocal with touches of polish in the product. In particular the section around halfway through, when melodic scales weave their way around the vocal, creating a sense of being wrapped up in the emotional core of this record.

Check out Breathless (Like This) below:

Listen: That Breeze - MMBLR

Despite actually hailing from New York, there’s a hazy Californian feel about MMBLR’s track That Breeze. And it reminds me a little bit of what Tame Impala might sound like if they made a record with Miguel... Which is pretty excellent.

MMBLR is the name for an experimental solo project from Alex Beckmann, the drummer with the indie rock band Snowmine. That Breeze is the record he created on what he describes as “a perfect spring day after meeting the woman who would soon become my wife”. You can feel a sense of both easy contentment and optimism here as Beckmann gently lets his falsetto vocals flow amidst a swirling dreamlike wave of sound created by simple drum beats, old guitars, ageing synths and bottles and cans.

I love how easy and introspective this sounds whilst portraying something exciting and thrilling... The desire to pursue someone who feels just right.

Listen: Not Enough Kyler Slater

Not Enough is the new dark-pop indie track from LA based musician Kyler Slater, and it rides like a gloomy swoon of overwhelming desperation that somehow manages to capture something thrilling and sexual. It is an insight into a moment in which a person can feel like they somehow aren’t worthy... A feeling that you might not be enough.

Describing the song, Slater is openly vulnerably about how he feels. I’m going to go ahead and quote the full thing, because it feels important context for what is a dark but important record:

“I actually do believe that I am not enough, and thats a shame. Although I am trying to shed that and move on, I still write about it. Feelings of being inadequate in any relationship hurt, especially so when that relationship is also with yourself. I wasn’t raised to handle any healthy relationships, my childhood was filled with witnessing my mothers addiction and my fathers domestic abuse. I have had to completely fight to rebuild the mindset I’ve carried from youth. Not Enough is an attempt at taking these feelings and putting the less pleasant ones down to paper so that I can work though them and hopefully be a voice for others who struggle with similar issues.”

Full disclosure: I haven’t been through an upbringing that contained the challenging things Slater’s did. My parents divorced, but otherwise I was the product of a loving family (and we continue to love and respect each other). Still, I recognise what Slater is talking about here. The sense of shame, inadequacy and of being undeserving. It can creep up on you and make it feel easier to self-sabotage, or choose options that restrict your ability to feel things so you don’t have to risk feeling sad. Maybe we all feel this sometimes, I’m not sure... But I know I have. And this record makes me feel a little less alone.

Not Enough is a song that feels like the demons on your back. The gentle guitar, those haunting vocal harmonies, that grimey, grungy feel. It’s a sublime, vulnerable tribute to the toxicity we sometimes allow to flow inside us. It’s a brave record, one that makes it feel a little less lonely sometimes feeling bad.

Check out Not Enough below, or keep scrolling for the video.

Listen: Different Story - INTRN

Different Story is the latest track from LA-based musician Jake Messig, whose name reflects the fact he is attempting to break into the music industry from the position of an intern.

Different Story portrays the breakdown of a relationship that felt destined for a different ending, with gentle, bruised guitar work echoing the xx as Messig’s emotionally exposed vocals contrast with the dubstep-influenced production work. You can feel the longing here, the desire to wind back the clock and rewrite what happened, and the result is a little haunting.

Check out Different Story below: