Manchester born singer-songwriter Daley has striking looks and an even more striking voice, and now seems destined to fulfill the potential that has been brewing over the past two years.
As a teen, he would make bedroom recordings inspired by the likes of Prince, Maxwell and Jill Scott, but he had nowhere to perform in Manchester’s live scene, one still dominated by indie bands. So he upped sticks to London and built a reputation on the black live music circuit performing at shows such as ‘Sunday Show’ and ‘I Luv Live’.
After uploading track ‘Rainy Day’ to the BBC Introducing website 1Xtra’s Ras Kwame picked it up and gave it regular airplay on his 100% Homegrown show. It wasn’t long before MistaJam took note and the singer was on his way to Maida Vale studio to appear as part of BBC Inroducing’s 1Xtra night at 2009’s Electric Proms.
His “smooth neo-soul” style was highly rated and the music blogs soon began to rave about his guest vocal on the Gorillaz track ‘Doncamatic’, which the Manchester singer co-wrote with Damon Albarn.
After such a productive few years, 2012 continues that trend with Daley announcing he will play a string of headline shows in the UK in April shortly after he supports Emile Sande on her tour.
His self-produced, free mixtape ‘Those Who Wait’ which has been downloaded over 35,000 times and features ten tracks and includes a collaboration with Marsha Ambrosius – ‘Alone Together’.
It’s about time a soul man took his place alongside the many globally successful UK girl singers. “We’ve had great female artists like Amy Winehouse, Adele and Jessie J. But the men have been slacking,” says Daley. “There hasn’t been a great male soul artist for ages. I want to make it up there.”
LIVE DATES
Fri 13 Apr 2012 Manchester Deaf Institute
Sun 15 Apr 2012 Birmingham O2 Academy3
Mon 16 Apr 2012 London Bowery
Wed 18 Apr 2012 Bristol The Croft
words by Daniel Savage
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