This is Meanwhile – a prodigiously talented singer, producer and film composer, who has today premiered his debut track, ‘Luvletta’ (Fiction Records/Universal).
Meanwhile’s music is a heady mix of the escapist and the everyday, the familiar with the strange and new: think the Minneapolis Sound, via the M3. First offering ‘Luvletta’ contrasts lyrics of infatuation and conflict with futuristic funk, juddering synths and big beats. It’s an immediate and immersive introduction: “I’m on my way”, Meanwhile sings at its climax, and you feel it too.
Meanwhile’s entry to songwriting in fact came via cinema, when the sweeping sounds of Danny Elfman, Tim Burton’s long-time collaborator, instilled an early love of film scores: he took up the piano, and began composing ambitious pieces after school. This habit emerged late last year, when Meanwhile quietly uploaded a selection of movie re-interpretations to Youtube (‘Luvletta’ was hinted at when combined with the explosive fight-scene from Korean revenge thriller ‘Oldboy’). And as he moved from soundtrack pieces to the ambitious bedroom productions of his solo material, so too came the controlled, world-building possibilities of character, akin to Gorillaz or Janelle Monae – through which every frustration he daren’t say aloud could finally be brought to vivid, colourful life.
Part alter-ego, part self realisation, and a total breath of fresh air: that is meanwhile, the most idiosyncratic new talent of 2014.
