Nelson Navarro brings Soul to R&B with Thought Provoking Rap Lyrics

Photograph by Elias Kerasidis (Insta:@krsds_)

Nelson Navarro born and bred in Sunny Worthing, a small coastal town in the South of England. He may be from a small town but he has a worldly sound. The music released by Navarro combines multiple genres of music bringing the Soul to R&B with catchy rhythms alongside thought provoking Rap lyrics. Navarro enhances all of your musical senses with a variety of different collaborations with various artists. Scrolling through Navarro’s Spotify you can experience Drum & Bass remixes of original songs by the likes of Ben Rolo and Alfie Frank. One of my personal favourites of his songs is ‘Picket Fence’ – GiwHa Remix. It makes me imagine summer days laying on the grass and staring up at the blue sky contemplating the meaning of life (in a good way of course).

Navarro is constantly bringing out new songs and music videos on his various social media platforms. Engaging his audience not only with the music but with his edgy appearance, head full of dreads and unique clothing style. Is it feelings of adoration that he arouses or do we just plainly want to be him ?

‘Late Nite’ by Nelson Navarro

The latest music video release of Late Nite, has a classic old school HipHop instrumental with Navarro rapping to the tune of pursuing a woman. The video itself is filmed like a 90’s homemade video, giving off nostalgic retro vibes. The art of a good rapper always lies in the flow and rhythm of the bars. It is safe to say that Navarro has nailed it down to the T. Check out the link above to see more.

Navarro has been getting noticed in recent months featuring on BBC introducing and getting well deserved radio time. He is not only a singer/songwriter he is also involved in the production side of every song release to date. He goes on to say:

“I’ve been recording and mixing my songs for like, 11 years. Shits crazy, when I see that number written down and I’m telling the truth. I started when I was using GarageBand at 14 and kept it moving ever since. Let’s go!”

Nelson Navarro

Collaboration is such a huge part of Navarro’s creative process that he even has a list of artists that he would love to collaborate with on his iPhone. He explains the reason behind it and whose on it:

“I keep a “Dream Collabs” note in my iPhone for manifesting these kinda things. Anderson Paak. Smino. Most recently, Rick Ross. I’ve been reading his book about Bossing Up and that sh*t slaps.”

Nelson Navarro

NOTE: For those of you who aren’t down with the latest slang; “slapped/slaps” means ‘to be excellent or amazing’.

‘Virtuoso’ by Nelson Navarro

As many great musicians, music has been a big influence in his childhood years. His parents met through being in bands, and thus grew up listening to his mum singing and watched his Dad produce music. When asked about his creative process when making music he responded with:

“Nowadays I’m getting really collaborative and that’s great. I’m frequently finding beats online and inviting new producers to the studio because for me it all starts with an instrumental. Once that’s there I start freestyling and recording and I keep going until the songs’ done! I gotta have some time too. Don’t rush me. Give me 2 hours tops. That’s the whole song, top to bottom, mixed and mastered. Done.”

Nelson Navarro
Photograph by Elias Kerasidis (Insta:@krsds_)

With music literally pumping through his blood, it also runs right through to his fingertips being able to play all the western classics like drums, guitar, bass, ‘keys, saxophone and ukulele. Although talented in many musical instruments his main focus at the moment is on vocals. When asked about what music Navarro grew up listening to, he responded with:

“My parents played so much sh*t as I was growing up that slapped – Marvin Gaye, Sammy Davis Jr, Bob Marley. Particularly my mum nurtured my Craig David obsession and looking back, that has been monumental in terms of the flex I come with on tracks these days. Entaa selectaaa.”

Nelson Navarro

You can find out more on Navarro and his inquisitive nature through a series of short videos on TikTok. In which he talks about current trending themes like positivity and manifestation. He conveys personal opinions and words of wisdom, giving a greater understanding to his audience about who he is and why. The short videos reveal the mind behind the great lyrics of his music, which is just fascinating to watch. To see what I am talking about, watch the video below.

@nelsonnavarrouk

Which do you default to: sympathy or empathy? 🤔 #emotionalintelligence #wisdom #question

♬ One Love – Bob Marley
TikTok: @nelsonnavarrouk

A reason to start following and look out for Navarro in the future is the big plans he has for 2022. He has 3 albums planned to be released throughout the course of this year. To make sure to keep up to date, here are his social media platform links: Facebook, Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, Youtube.

Finally, a question that I love asking and will carrying on asking even if it is unanswerable – Favourite song of all time, Navarro say’s:

“Dude! How you gunna stick this on me?! I can give you my favourite song of this moment which is 2AM by Don Toliver. Now that’s some sexy shit”.

Nelson Navarro
Photograph by Sam Rogers (Insta: @sambooka_shots)

Favour The Brave Record’s WREX Brings Out Smashing New Single

George Donoghue (left) and Mae Seaton (right)

WREX are a newly formed band, made up of the perfect duo bringing Posi(tive) Pop-Rock back with their new single ‘Wide eyes’. Mae and George first met at a Rock show in their local town of Brighton. Their mutual love for music brought them together to create WREX at the start of 2020, making the most of the lockdowns we have endured this past year. You will hear Mae on vocals and George on guitar, bass, vocals and drums.

Both Mae and George have been writing independently for various other projects prior to WREX. Their writing process for WREX tends to start with Mae bringing a very basic version of a song into the studio. She goes on to say, “Usually this will only go as far as chord progressions, lyrics, melody, and maybe a few rough ideas for harmonies and hooks, and as if by magic George turns this into a full band set up, playing all the parts in, fully writing the drums, guitar and bass parts – I am yet to find something he can’t do! After that we’ll both put some vocals in and find a synth that makes your lips curl!”

Preview of single ‘Wide Eyes’

Playing, writing and producing their own stuff makes it easy to respect and appreciate what they do. The lyrics of their new song ‘Wide eyes’ are beautifully written and extremely catchy. From the moment I heard this song it was on replay for the rest of the day in my head. George has freelanced in being a musician, record production, mix engineering, songwriting and specialising in Alternative Rock/Pop and Metal for over 5 years. His works reached No. 1 in the Independent Music Charts along with plays on BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, KROQ, Planet Rock, Kerrang Radio and many more. To date, George has contributed to over 5 million Streams across his collective works.

Pictured: George Donoghue

Both coming from a musical background it has made it easy for them to understand what makes good music. They go on to describe how they first got into music. 

Mae: “This has definitely got to be my Dad, he was and still is in bands, and I grew up watching him write and perform, and naturally I wanted to follow in his footsteps! I think the first time I started singing, I was really inspired by Amy Lee (Evanescence), I already owned a few of their piano sheet music books already and loved the idea of the delicate piano and her operatic voice being brought to life by rock music.”

George: “My dad ran an indie label as I was growing up, I’ve always wanted to make music for as long as I can remember.”

Pictured: Mae Seaton

They both grew up listening to the same style of music including Pop, Rock and Punk/Alt-Rock.

Mae: “It was a mix of pop and rock. Artists that stand out in my memory are The Red Hot Chili Peppers, ABBA, and Dido, and I’m still into all three! As I grew up I steered more towards the rockier end and became pretty obsessed with Evanescence, Papa Roach, and Bullet For My Valentine – which was my first “proper” rock gig my dad took me to when I was 13! I think it’s the energy behind this style of music that kept me wanting more, being a shy child it was almost an escape for me, which hopefully I’m bringing into the music we write now.”

George:  “I grew up listening to mainly pop punk/alt rock, but contrasting that, I would also listen to soul and motown. It taught me that great songs can be timeless!”

The message they want to send to their listeners through their music is to “Enjoy life and share that happiness with everyone around you! Be yourself and love yourself!” A great message, for a great band.

‘Wide Eyes’ OUT NOW on Spotify.

They have several tracks lined up to be released over the next coming months, with the plans of creating an album over the next year. You can find them on various platforms including Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to keep up to date.

Why TikTok is the best platform to promote your music in 2021

TikTok is a social media video sharing platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance. It’s an app that has taken the world by storm and has been downloaded 2 billion times through various app stores. According to Omnicore Agency stats of TikTok, there are over 800 million active users with an average of 1 billion views per day. The average user spends 46 minutes on TikTok a day, which is highly likely that the average number has risen for UK nationals in the most recent lockdown, because what else have you got to do?

The Tiktok algorithm on 3 main things, this includes user interaction, video information and the device settings. The User interaction refers to the individual like-ability of another users account, therefore the more you engage with a particular account’s content the more you will see from them. Video information refers to the hashtags used to categorise the type of content, so the more you like a video with the hashtag ‘music playlist’, the more content you will get on your feed with similar/same hashtags. Finally your device/account settings refers to the location and language preference, this optimises the user experience of the app.

So why should you promote your music on it?

  1. TikTok has become the easiest platform to go viral on, the algorithm allows your content to be viewed by such a vast audience in a small space of time. It isn’t like Facebook or Instagram, where the only posts that are shown to users are the the accounts who already have a huge following and user engagement. TikTok shows all videos regardless.
  2. It is easy to interact with your following/fans directly through commenting and/or creating a complete separate comment reply video. Direct user interaction will create lifelong super-fan’s, and will encourage them to come to your shows after the Pandemic has exited the door.
  3. 41% of it’s user’s are between 16-24, this is the audience that you will most likely seek as a new artist, as these are the people that are most likely to stream your music on alternate platforms.
  4. TikTok is available in 150 different markets, with a total of 75 different languages. Meaning your music can be viewed around the globe by… many, many people.
  5. Creating your own 15-60 second video’s allows users to not only hear your music, but also understand who you are as a person. You can add personal charm, love, and humour to everything you do, to build that rapport, trust and intimacy with your following.
  6. Earning money which is probably one of the most important factors of a struggling musician. Enables you to earn money through your TikTok content. Live streams allows you to receive donations from your users. Promote your merchandise on your platforms. Direct people to your various streaming accounts. If you become a frequent and consistent content creator, TikTok has made a creator fund which pays and incentivises it’s users to keep creating content.
  7. A&R Music managers are using TikTok to find new talent before anyone else does, TikTok will get you noticed.

If these points aren’t enough to convince you, then I don’t know what will. TikTok is highly likely to take over platforms like Facebook and Instagram this year. You should jump in and start already.

Get your music out there!