Artist2watch Archives - Kekoas Korner

Creativity, togetherness and music are not dead even during lockdown. So a group of Swiss Music Bloggers got together and decided to create a series that showcases new up and coming artists. Every Sunday at 6pm you get to discover 2 new artists and here’s is one of mine:

Lauren Daigle

I am a huge fan of Lauren Daigle. A lot of people will recognize her song “You Say”. It’s been played on the radio quite a lot. I also assume most people think that Adele is singing that song. They have a quite similar sound. However, most people don’t know that the song is actually a religious song. Lauren Daigle is a christian music singer and a really good one at that. “You Say” won a grammy as well as her album “Look Up Child”.

You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
And You say I am held when I am falling short
And when I don’t belong, oh You say I am Yours
And I believe
You Say

Her album “Look Up Child” is one of my favs and I can listen to it for hours. The first track “Still rolling stones” is a gospel song and it’s so powerful! I’ve added her Spotify below so you should definitely listen to it – not just to this song 🙂 Each time you listen to the record you find a new jewel or a new nuance you haven’t heard before.

Lauren Daigle was supposed to go on a European tour and then Corona hit. So I can only hope that once this is over she will reschedule her tour and include a Swiss date!
And hope is what the album emits. Every song has strong meaning and a story behind it. Of course it’s also religious but I do think you would enjoy the songs even if you are not a religious person.

Last year Lauren also participated in a live stream event and I got to experience her online “live” 🙂 And her voice did not disappoint! Plus she was super nice and funny. She loves bracelets so all her fans give her friendship bracelets. She’s gonna end up with a really heavy arm soon if she continues like that!

On February 26th she’s releasing her new single “Hold on to me” which I am super excited to hear since it’s the first release after the 2018 album. It’s been a while so I am sure she had time to dig deep and write some jewels for the new record.

Lauren Daigle has a powerful voice and gives hope to us in a time where everyone needs a bit of hope. An amazing female vocalist who I cannot wait to see live!

Follow Lauren Daigle’s career

Instagram: Lauren Daigle
Facebook: Lauren Daigle
Homepage: Lauren Daigle

About the Lockdown Artist Discovery Series

Make sure to go check out the other blogs that are participating in this series. There will always be 2 new articles each week:
Music and Events published: Marius Bear and Tim Freitag
Loads of Music published: Jake Isaac and Luke James Shaffner
Erenblogs published: Daniel Donskoy and Heavn
Planet Sarah published: Wild Youth and Samora

Allgemein, Artist2watch

Lockdown Artist Discovery: Nathan Evans

February 14, 2021February 18, 2021 kekoaskorner

Nathan Evans – From postman to popstar

That’s the story of Nathan Evans. Only a few weeks ago the citizens of Airdire, Scotland were blessed with a singing postman delivering their mail everyday. But these days the world is small thanks to social media. Nathan uploaded a tik tok video of himself singing a very old sea shanty called “Wellerman” – and the rest is history as they say.

The 30 sec “Wellerman” video went viral and was watched by 12 million people on tik tok. Nathan Evans drums on his guitar to create a beat and his incredible voice with the very charming accent does the rest. Loads of other tik tokers started to duet with him. It literally took off like a rocket! Of course this couldn’t go unnoticed by the big music labels and here you go – Nathan is now a signed artist at a major label Polydor Records and is now in the midst of Billie Eilish or Selena Gomez.
Have a look at this cool compilation YouTube video:

“Wellerman” – the background

The 26 year old has obviously hit a nerve with the sea shanty that orgininated in New Zealand. The “Wellerman” was a supply ship between 1830 to 1840 that was part of the whale hunting company “The Weller Bros.” The whale hunting origin of the song can be seen in the word “tonguin” which describes the tiresome work of cutting a whale into pieces. A bit gruesome I know but the song is about longing and hoping – which to be fair we all do at the moment.

“Wellerman 2021”

The hopeful longing for the arrival of the Wellerman and for us right now the hopeful longing of a normal world. Is that why the this song hit a nerve? I don’t know. But what I know is that the song is an inspiration: Hard work and the pay off will come. So we just have to wait a little while longer. For Nathan the hard work has definitely paid off.
I honestly cannot wait for him to be able to perform this song live. I can feel the goosebumps already of thousands of people singing our lockdown tik tok anthem.

The original Tik Tok video is great but of course it needed a little make over to be played in clubs – haha I know there are no clubs at the moment, but there will be. “Wellerman 2021” has great dance beat and didn’t loose it shanty character! I am currently listening to both songs on replay.
And yes – I’m so proud to say that the radios are starting to play the song as well! 🙂 Kekoas Korner is also super stocked that I got to interview Nathan Evans! Read more here.

Nathan Evans has a brilliant unique voice and I can’t wait to hear more songs! But what I love most is his story from postman to popstar within a few weeks thanks to tik tok. I wish him all the success in the world and hopefully we’ll get to see him live soon!

Follow Nathan Evans’ career

Tik Tok: Nathan Evans
Instagram: Nathan Evans
Spotify: Nathan Evans

About the Lockdown Artist Discovery Series

Make sure to go check out the other blogs that are participating in this series. There will always be 2 new articles each week:
Music and Events published: Marius Bear and Tim Freitag
Loads of Music published: Jake Isaac
Erenblogs published: Daniel Donskoy
Planet Sarah published: Wild Youth

Allgemein, Concerts

Jacob Banks’ voice is pure magic

October 24, 2017June 23, 2019 kekoaskorner

I’ve only discovered him a few weeks ago as you might have seen on my blog. I nominated him as one of my artists2watch and boy is he one artist to watch! I had the pleasure to listen to his voice yesterday at Mascotte Zurich thanks to Just Because. After listening to „Chainsmoking“ on YouTube I had high expectations but he did not disappoint.

First of all Jacob Banks brought out a young talented singer called Joy Crookes. She’s got a beautiful jazzy voice and plays the guitar. For all the guys reading check out how beautiful she is 😉 In addition to this she is also very funny and warmed up the crowd pretty nicely.

At 8.30 Mr. Jacob Banks took the stage and I was blown away from the very first minute! I don’t have enough superlative words to describe his voice. Seriously if you are a fan of Rag’N’Bone Man’s voice then check out this guy. With „Worthy“ and „Unholy War“ he started gloriously and from reactions of the audience they were as blown away as I was. It took him only a few minutes to win over the sold out Mascotte who were clapping, wooping, whistling louder after each song.
Apparently both artists tonight had shit relationships because they used almost the same words to introduce their next songs. Me being cheeky is wondering if they might talk about each other ;-)) Oh well we’ll never know but we got a beautiful song called „Part Time Love“. He then took his e-guitar and sang „Pilot“. Just his voice and the guitar it was magical.

„Silverlining“ and „Diddy Bop“ were next and then something happened which has never happened to me before. The music was quite loud so I put it my earbuds at the beginning of the concert and then suddenly one of them fell out. It seems like his voice popped it out. I couldn’t stop laughing. After he sang „Emty/Photograph“ he told us a joke:

What’s the church of Batman?
Christian Bale!

Everyone had to laugh! It was so random which made it very charming. After „Unknown“ someone from the audience shouted „Another Joke“ but he to sing his next song „Mercy/Grace“ so he we didn’t hear another joke. Overall he didn’t talk a lot but he didn’t really need to. His voice transported so much emotions that you felt connected to him without a lot of words in-between. So the next three songs „Love ain’t enough“, „Homecoming/Redbone“ „Sink or swim into Monster“ he sang without talking between them except a humble „thank you“.

On the setlist it says „Talk my Shit“ when he’s supposed to say something to us. Very funny! This hour of incredible music went by way to quickly and the last song before the encore was „Unholy War“. Us front-rowers we were feeling it and were dancing to it. Again I have to praise live music! This song and his voice is undescribably good but live they are fantastic!

This song took my breath away when I first heard it and now I had the honour to listen to it live. „Chainsmoking“ is one hell of a song. I will add the YouTube video again because I was enjoying it too much to video it. However a snippet of this incredible song can be found in my Instagram stories. Mr Jacob Banks left the stage after this wonderful show and me and my two concert buddies felt blessed to have seen this guy performing live in such a small venue because believe me he will come back in a much bigger venue. Jacob Banks has a thriving career in front of him.
Were you there and witnessed Mr. Jacob Banks live? Please share your opinion with us in the comments below.

Tag: Artist2watch

Lockdown Artist Discovery Lauren Daigle