For the surfing communities of Devon and Cornwall, there’s definitely something in the water (besides surfers) that drives them towards artfully constructed folk and blues - the kind of thing that sits well on a playlist next to Van Morrison or Jack Johnson. So when Ben Howard made the move out west as a teenager and started getting involved in the surf scene, while trying to make his own music, it was inevitable that it would come out warm, intricate and jazzy, as on his debut album, 2011’s BRIT Award-winning Every Kingdom.
Since then, he has been nominated for the 2012 Mercury Prize, performed at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Hackney and made his Glastonbury debut in 2013 on the Pyramid Stage. It’s a journey he described in some detail in a special Â鶹Éç Introducing masterclass with Zane Lowe in 2013. His second album, I Forget Where We Were, was released in August 2014, and pushed his sound into wilder terrain, while hanging on to the specially-tuned guitars and vocal idiosyncrasies that make him such a unique stage presence.
For the surfing communities of Devon and Cornwall, there’s definitely something in the water (besides surfers) that drives them towards artfully constructed folk and blues - the kind of thing that sits well on a playlist next to Van Morrison or Jack Johnson. So when Ben Howard made the move out west as a teenager and started getting involved in the surf scene, while trying to make his own music, it was inevitable that it would come out warm, intricate and jazzy, as on his debut album, 2011’s BRIT Award-winning Every Kingdom.
Since then, he has been nominated for the 2012 Mercury Prize, performed at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Hackney and made his Glastonbury debut in 2013 on the Pyramid Stage. It’s a journey he described in some detail in a special Â鶹Éç Introducing masterclass with Zane Lowe in 2013. His second album, I Forget Where We Were, was released in August 2014, and pushed his sound into wilder terrain, while hanging on to the specially-tuned guitars and vocal idiosyncrasies that make him such a unique stage presence.