Who will be the Sound of 2016?

Written for The Telegraph [7/1/16]

As the Brits Critics’ choice award and BBC Sound of 2016 list are announced, we look at the new faces vying to make it big next year

Jack Garratt

Jack Garratt already has a head start in the race to be the sound of 2016. Following in the footsteps of Adele and Sam Smith, the 24-year-old multi-instrumentalist has been crowned the latest Brits Critics' Choice.

Photo: Kimberley Ross

The self-confessed "beard enthusiast" has had a meteoric rise, from releasing his second EP to headlining Shepherd's Bush Empire in less than a year. Back in 2005, Garratt came last in the UK heat of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, an experience he found "horrifying". He said he took the defeat badly as a then 14-year-old trying to share his love songs with the world. 

Four years later, the Buckinghamshire-born performer restarted his career with a boost from the new bands platform, BBC Introducing. With a background in jazz, Garratt's beat-heavy and soulful electronica, which like Ed Sheeran he performs as a one-man-band live, has won him support slots with the likes of Mumford & Sons. He's also a huge fan of The Muppets.

For fans of

James Blake, Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake

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Alessia Cara

Taylor Swift is such a fan of Alessia Cara that in October she invited the 19-year-old singer-songwriter to perform with her in front of 55,000 people in Tampa, Florida.

Cara made her name with her cover versions on YouTube and expanded her fanbase with a performance on Radio 1 of Swift's song Bad Blood in July.

From an Italian family who moved to Ontario, Canada, Cara grew up wanting to be a pop star - even if she initially kept it to herself. Too shy to sing in public, she practiced hiding in cupboards when at home and posted a cover of Adele’s song One and Only to test the water in 2011.

Luckily, American record label owner Tony Perez saw one of her videos and flew her to New York to sign a management deal. Now on Kanye West and Justin Beiber’s label, Def Jam, her debut single Here has been streamed more than 74 million times on Spotify.

For fans of

Sia, Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, Lorde

The Japanese House

Mysterious producer and songwriter Amber Bain goes under the name The Japanese House. The 20-year-old east London-based musician layers androgynous, vocoder-treated vocals upon atmospheric synths and darting guitar lines.

Born in Buckinghamshire, at 11-years-old Bain gave up her dream of becoming a politician and began to learn the acoustic guitar, taking lessons from her father, picking up classics like Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven.

She is now signed to independent label Dirty Hit (The 1975, Wolf Alice).

For fans of

The Beach Boys, Imogen Heap, The 1975

Nao

26-year-old Hackney resident Nao graduated from Guildhall School of Music & Drama in jazz vocals. Afterwards, she began to write her own material while teaching singing lessons in schools. This led to collaborations with Grammy-nominated house duo Disclosure.

Nao's most-streamed single on Soundcloud at 1.98 million hits is So Good, the second track she posted online. Shared in July 2014, it features A. K. Paul who is the brother of London R&B artist Jai Paul. The east London soloist stands out from the numerous female neo R&B singers around with her infectiously sweet vocals.

For fans of

AlunaGeorge, Banks, Jessy Lanza.

Photo: Piczo

Mura Masa

Guernsey-born songwriter Mura Masa describes himself as a "beat-slayer, heart-breaker producer" and has amassed a large online following with his razor-sharp electronic music production and exotic instrumental arrangements.

Masa's real name is Alex Crossan, and the 19-year-old has had remix requests from Ed Sheeran and Ellie Goulding and also enlisted fellow BBC Sound Of 2016 nominee Nao to sing on his debut EP, Someday Somewhere, released in April.

Incredibly, until December last year, the Channel Islands' musician had never been to a gig nor played his music (first uploaded online in 2013) to anyone live.

Crossan dropped out of his undergraduate Engish Literature degree at the University of Sussex this year due to difficulties balancing songwriting with his course, saying he could return to studying at a later time.

Outside of his music, Crossan is interested in Japanese folklore, including the infamous ancient Japanese sword-smith, Senji Muramasa, from whom he has taken his stage name.

For fans of

Jamie xx, Hudson Mohawke

Honne

Honne's sensual electro-soul debut single, Warm on a Cold Night, was released in September. The East London duo's modern spin on soul music is what long-time friends, Andy Clutterbuck and James Hatche, hope will inspire "babymaking" they say. 

Originally from the South West, both teach music to schoolchildren by day and are signed to Super Recordings, the label that launched BBC Sound of 2013 runners-up's AlunaGeorge.

Like Mura Masa, Clutterbuck and Hatche took their band name Honne from the Japanese saying,  “true feelings." The old university pals like to play tennis and swim in their spare time.

For fans of

Frank Ocean, Dornik, James Blake

Clean Cut Kid

Liverpool indie-pop quartet Clean Cut Kid signed to the record label Polydor in April before the release of their debut single Vitamin C in July - a fizzing, infectious song made they said, using the “sound of a teacup being hit”.

The track has been played on BBC Radio 1 and was also featured on Channel 4 reality TV show Made in Chelsea LA in August.

Made up of a married couple, Mike and Evelyn Halls, and also Saul Godman and Ross Higginson, the ambitious band are currently writing songs in their Liverpool rehearsal space ahead of their planned 2016 debut album release.

Frontman Mike says he grew up listening to Liverpool legends The Beatles, who inspired him to write songs on a battered old acoustic guitar as a teenager.

For fans of

The Magic Numbers, Vampire Weekend, Band of Skulls

Photo: Jenna Foxton

Frances

Frances (real name Sophie Frances Cooke) is a 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Berkshire who this month supported Brit Awards Critics' choice 2015 winner James Bay on ten of his US tour dates.

Nominated in the same category this year at the Brits, Cooke has won legions of fans with her poignant piano pop. drawing comparisons to early Ellie Goulding and Adele, the latter of which she used to listen to everyday on the walk to her school, St Gabriel’s.

Her debut single, Grow, released in July, was featured on an Amazon Prime advert.

Grammy award-winning singer Sam Smith invited Cooke, who shares the same record label (Capitol Records), to open for him at his Thetford Forest show in Suffolk in July. Earlier this month she released her second single Borrowed Time, an electronic-tinged song written with Disclosure's Howard Lawrence.

Cooke says her music is inspired by Carole King and Coldplay.

For fans of

Adele, Ellie Goulding, Birdy, Gabrielle Aplin

VANT

Politically-minded garage/punk London four-piece VANT are fronted by Sunderland native Mattie Vant who over the course of the last three years has gone from working in a call centre in Brighton to being signed by Parlophone records. 

Along with Billy Morris, Henry Eastham and David Green, the band were formed when guitarist and singer Vant and bassist Morris bonded over music while working at North London venue, Birthdays. Frontman Vant says the Dalston gig spot was the "creative hub" he needed for writing music.

Sick of hearing love songs on the radio, the band have purposely written lyrics about issues including the government and global warming. 

For fans of

Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Parquet Courts

Loyle Carner

South London hip-hop artist Loyle Carner has been played on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra and is praised for his sensitive rapping.

His breakthrough began with his EP A Little Late released in September 2014, seven months after his beloved stepfather died.

The football-mad 21-year-old, who supports Liverpool and Crystal Palace, is heavily influenced by grime and used to take part in corridor rap battles at school.

Before releasing music, Carner attended the Brit School on a Drama scholarship from 2009 to 2013, and the Drama Centre in north London from 2013 to 2014. He has collaborated with fellow Londoner Kwes and has supported British hip-hop artist MF Doom and American rapper Joey Bada$$ live.

Carner says his reflective lyrical style is inspired by Mercury Prize 2014 nominee Kate Tempest’s candid, spoken word rapping. His last single, Tierney Terrace, released in July, recalls the happy times spent with his grandparents in Tierney Terrace, a road situated in Brixton, south London.

For fans of

A Tribe Called Quest, King Krule, Kate Tempest

Zara Larsson

Larsson is already well-known in her native Sweden after winning the TV talent contest, Talang, in 2008, aged just 10-years-old.

Now 17, Larsson is a big deal in Scandinavia but isn’t so well known in the UK. A collaboration with Rudimental singer MNEK on a song released in September called Never Forget You, has, however, increased attention in the UK on the precocious star.

A self-confessed "commercial" pop singer, Larsson still lives with her family in Sweden where she admits to not knowing how to use a washing machine.

For fans of

Rihanna, Beyonce