Earlier this week, former The Wanted member Nathan Sykes officially announced his return to the music world, confirming his intentions for the imminent launch of his upcoming solo career.
Fast-forward a couple of days, and this morning we were lucky enough to catch up with the young artist for a chinwag. Aside from sharing a collaborative moan regarding the state of Britain’s transport system (as well as how to score brownie-points with cab companies), the second part of our meeting led us to hearing a preview of Sykes’ forthcoming material.
Now, first-off, we made it clear to both Nathan and his PR agent that we tend to shy away from pop music over here at Stagedoor FM (we leave that to the good folk over at Popjustice who have built a strong audience focusing primarily on that side of the industry), however as a property who still likes to represent emerging talents alongside the latest in specialist music, we were told that this was “an opportunity not to be missed”…. and you know what? They were 100% right! Nathan played us three tracks, including one which could be the lead single from his forthcoming project – all pretty-varied in their approach, yet with one underlying theme – aside from co-writing credits on all three, Nathan Sykes could potentially be the UK’s answer to Justin Timberlake.
Kiss Me Quick
Produced by LDN Noise, Kiss Me Quick is as massively-impactful as a 20/20 Experience inclusion; it’s here where Sykes really comes into his own and ultimately assists in sidelining his pop roots for something far more mature than his years. There’s a huge amount of Motown influences included here, and that’s no bad thing…. we’ve always said that throwing in some brass instruments help to make a track, and Kiss Me Quick definitely benefits from the horns. If anything, the track is where we strongly believe Sykes should be championing when his first single is confirmed.
Money
Admittedly, with something so striking (and catchy) as Kiss Me Quick, we had trouble paying full attention to Money. Produced by Harmony Samuels (who produced
the majority of Nathan’s new project), Money seems more a mid-set number versus anything else, though still impressively-strong to stand on its own right. Whether it’s impactful enough to stand alone as a single remains to be seen, however it’s another impressive stab, and further ignites Nathan’s move to a more mature crowd thanks to the various themes utilised in the song’s production. Some nice vocal distortions assist the Usher-esque R&B undertones on this one.
Famous
As the third-and-final cut, Famous is a strong ballad, swaying between low- and mid-tempo (thanks in part to the light guitar riffs throughout). Building up to a choir-led finale (which, we later found was actually Sykes multi-layering his vocals), this is the song that’ll help shift records to his existing fanbase, the same way as Stay With Me helped Sam Smith.
And in a nutshell, that’s it… We left impressed, and signing praises (particularly toward Kiss Me Quick) – Nathan Sykes’ first single is still yet to be confirmed, but from what we’ve been exposed to, the new collection should be seen as something as quite exciting alongside unexpected.
