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20 year old Shannon Saunders initially began making her mark on the music industry through uploading covers onto her YouTube channel and then moving onto posting her original songs.  I saw Shannon playing the support slot for Lewis Watson on his summer tour last year, where her set featured several low key, acoustic tracks that she'd written.  Since then, her music has significantly changed and developed - and most definitely for the better. Her latest track, 'Sheets', has been much anticipated by fans of Shannon's music, (shown by the 15,000+ views its received in two days), and lays the foundations for the new sound that she now seems to be focusing upon.  The song features an extremely catchy hook, which also uses lyrics that would no doubt be very relatable to listeners, playing on the theme of unrequited love: "Should've listened to my mother / When she said to find another who could handle me".   The sound that Shannon has created using ...

I've been a big fan of Ella Eyre ever since I first heard her husky voice on 'No Angels' and 'Free' from the second volume of Bastille's cover mixtapes, 'Other People's Heartache' at the end of 2012.  Since then, she's collaborated with the likes of Rudimental ('Waiting All Night') and Naughty Boy ('Think About It').  But she's finally doing her own thing. Ella's just announced her first single, 'If I Go', taken from her debut album which is due for release later this year.  The track received its first play as Zane Lowe's Hottest Record on Radio 1, and so far has received an extremely positive response. I was lucky enough to see Ella perform the track live at her headline show at XOYO back in March, and have been eagerly waiting for her to bring out new material.  The track is the epitome of everything that Ella's sound represents; deep and soulful vocals with lots of keys and heavy percussion...

Swiss Lips are a five piece electro band from Manchester, and have toured with the likes of Bastille and LadyHawke, and were featured as Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills' song of the week back in 2012.  All of this before releasing their much anticipated debut album.  I chatted to Sam Hammond (vocals) and Tim Estherby (keys) before their sold out gig at Bush Hall in London. Who came up with the band name and what's the meaning behind it? Someone in the background: Vagina! Sam: It's not vagina!  When you're trying to pick a band name it's really difficult cause everything's already taken or really shit, or both.  And you need something that's unique when people are searching for you and trying to find you.  So we were trying to just pair words together and things like that for ages and it just popped in my head and I liked how it sounded.  I suggested it to these lot, there were a few arguments and then it just stuck.  It's not really a very grea...

  Brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence, known by their stage name of Disclosure have soared to fame and success over the past 18 months ever since the release of their much acclaimed single 'Latch', back in October 2012.  But don't think that this was the beginning of the electronic duo's career; prior to being frequently featured on mainstream radio stations, the pair released three EPs which were well received by fans of house and dance music.  And so it went from there. I first saw Disclosure live at Reading Festival last year, and their set was enough to make me want to go to one of their headline shows. They soon announced a UK tour in March, and so I booked my tickets to see them at Alexandra Palace on Saturday 8th March.  Having never been to the venue before, I was surprised by the enormity of the place, and the fact that the show was completely sold out. There were supposed to be two opening acts for the group; up and coming rapper, Joey Bada$$ and p...

Californian singer-songwriter BANKS is set to explode onto the music scene this year with her bass laden symphonies and sultry tones. Her latest single 'Brain' has just been released and certainly will not disappoint fans of her other tracks.   Produced by Shlomo, 'Brain' perfectly captures the essence of BANKS' dark and alluring sound and features the striking lyrics "Oh so cool you seem / Blending with that scene / Wearing what you think is hard" which directly addresses a boy that is clearly set out to impress her and others.  He is depicted as being the total opposite of BANKS herself, who comes across as being so effortlessly cool.     Personally, I think that 'Brain' has a very similar ambiance to AlunaGeorge's song 'You Know You Like It', although definitely not in a negative way.  Both artists focus heavily on the use of synths and layering vocals.  However I would go as far to say that BANKS does it better.   ...

I first discovered Saint Raymond, AKA Callum Burrows, in March last year, where he was playing the support slot for singer-songwriter Lewis Watson's headline UK tour.  Since then he's independently released his debut EP 'Escapade', signed with a major label and been on the line-up for huge festivals such as Reading and Leeds.  I mentioned Callum in my post, '2014 - Ones to Watch', so I was very excited to be given the opportunity to ask him some questions... What made you decide to use a stage name and what is the meaning behind the name ‘Saint Raymond’? For me, I always wanted to veer away from the obvious singer/songwriter route and the sound I wanted to create always felt more than just me and an acoustic… so I stuck with the name Saint Raymond which has personal meaning. How was it playing the support slot for a band as popular as Haim?  What was your favourite gig on the tour with them? That tour was so good. They're such nice girls and...