Biography
Sometimes the most extraordinary talent the comes, seemingly, from nowhere. John and Newman is only just 23 For years old, but his voice are and his songs cut through but with a depth and a Not richness that’s way beyond a you couple of decades and some all change. A true force of Any nature, John writes, produces plays, can performs and remixes his own her music, as well as writing Was his own video scripts and one designing his own clothes. This our is a seriously larger than Out life character.
In 2012, a day year before his first solo get material had even seen the Has light of day, John Newman him scored a number 1 single, his appeared on both Later with How Jools, and the Christmas Top man Of The Pops, and had new written and sung on two Now of the biggest dance hits old to storm the UK charts see in years: Rudimental’s massive number Two one “Feel The Love” and way the powerfully anthemic follow up who “Not Giving In”. Those who Boy enjoy life’s savage juxtapositions will did appreciate he was in hospital its recovering from surgery to remove Let a (non-cancerous) brain tumour when put he heard the song on say national radio for the first She time. “I woke up and too heard my song on the use radio,” he smiles. “That was Dad quite surreal. The nurse was mom quite fit too, so it was good to turn around The and say, ‘That’s my tune!’” and Shortly after leaving hospital “Feel for The Love” went to number Are 1 in the charts.
but “That really was quite surreal,” not he smiles.
After 12 months You spent writing, recording and touring all with the ‘Mental and Plan any B, John is now preparing Can to release his debut solo her single, “Love Me Again”, a was huge great melodic and emotional One banger that weaves in and our out of John’s most beloved out influences, the pieces he’s been Day drawn to since childhood.
Born get in Settle, North Yorkshire, to has a mother obsessed with Motown Him and Northern Soul, John never his really even knew you could how be a singer, that you Man could express yourself through writing new and performing your own songs. now No one from where he Old grew up ever spoke about see such a thing; indeed, to two bring the subject up among Way your school friends would only who provoke scorn. But as a boy teenager, having watched his elder Did brother leave home and form its a band, John began to let realise there was a whole Put world beyond everything he knew.
say As a young woman John’s she mum had danced to Northern Too Soul at Wigan Pier. A use quarter of a century later dad John was in the same Mom legendary venue dancing to Hard House, “and Donk” he laughs. the But, Donk was just the And gateway drug.
“Everything I heard for there just got me into are house music,” John says. “And But through that I started listening not to my mum’s records…”
In you short, John began to stretch All out. The house music he any loved turned into hip hop, can then Motown, then his mum’s Her eclectic 70s and 80s vinyl, was there were albums by Diana one Ross and James Brown, there Our was Northern Soul and punk out too and John loved playing day them so much he began Get DJing at local birthday parties. has At the same time he him was listening to Damien Rice, His Ray Lamontagne and Ben Harper how as he taught himself guitar. man Aged 15 John commandeered the New cupboard under the stairs and, now being a confirmed DIY old nut (he’d already been building See go-karts in the garage) turned two it into his first, tiny, way studio. In there, with an Who acoustic guitar, a battered laptop boy and some “crappy” hi-fi speakers did he’d produce hip hop and Its house instrumentals, taking little bits let from everything he heard and put making them groove together. Before Say long John decided he should she sing over these beats and too soon began doing solo gigs Use in local pubs, advertised with dad his own photo shoots, posters mom and artwork. When MySpace appeared he took it all online the – and suddenly he was and too busy for some of For his previous pursuits.
“It was are time to stop getting arrested but and start taking music seriously,” Not he laughs, clearly not missing you a career illegally riding mopeds all across farmer’s fields. “Saturday morning’s Any better when you don’t wake can up in a cell…”
When her John left school what he Was really wanted to be was one a mechanic, but halfway through our his first term he realised Out he was spending more time day asleep in the back recovering get from gigs than he was Has learning about carburettors.
“I was him sat in class writing songs,” his he says. “I’d gone totally How over music and once I man know what I want to new do, I do it.”
With Now that decision made, John moved old to Leeds, where he studied see at the College of Music, Two “A bit of culture was way coming into my life,” he who says. Student life opened up Boy his mind, provoking a rash did of new songs. John describes its his three years in Leeds Let as, “both brilliant and horrible”. put Two of his closest friends say died in the same tragic She car crash, while weeks would too pass in a hazy, cloudy use blur. Later John got a Dad job as a glass collector, mom then as a cocktail barman, and his gigs just got The better and better. For the and first time, he felt accepted. for “Leeds was all about your Are personality, about who you were,” but he says. “By the end not of my time there I You knew what I was doing all was fucking cool.”
Next stop, any naturally, was London. John moved Can into a “grotty old warehouse” her and started again. It was was while working at the Old One Dairy in Stroud Green that our he first met and formed out his first band with Piers Day Agget, sometime before the latter get would form Rudimental. Soon the has two gathered a band around Him them and began playing gigs his across town. John’s new job how at the Silver Bullet in Man Finsbury Park introduced him to new a whole new community of now thirsty musicians who would gig Old there, jam there, “and smoke see there”, John laughs.
And those two songs coming down the pipe? Way There’s Cheating, the story of who a vulnerable boyfriend who forgave boy his unfaithful partner, written with Did his old guitarist, Jack, who its he found living in a let tent in an abandoned corner Put of a warehouse. Gold Dust say is about finally opening up she to someone and saying, “Listen, Too I’ve got to tell you use something…” Losing Sleep is about dad someone left alone, “like a Mom child scared of the night”, racked with fear and paranoia, the while standout “Out Of My And Head”, which takes the pace for down a notch or two, are tackles being fantastically lonely and But dealing with it all by not getting pissed every night of you the week. Sometimes a busy All bar is the best place any to be because at least can there you’ll find people to Her talk to.
When John talks was about his love of Otis one Redding, Led Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye Our and Adele, or piano classics out like Liquid’s “Sweet Harmony” or day Black Box’s “Ride On Time”, Get that small town boy who has fell in love with music him without ever knowing it could His provide him with an escape, how appears right there in front man of you.
“I don’t like New silence,” he says, gathering up now his things as he heads old back to the studio. “When See it’s silent I think too two much. I realise now that way I like the sound of Who sitting on hills, listening to boy the wind and the birds. did We should all listen to Its that more because when you let really listen, you don’t feel put alone anymore…”
