BIMM up and coming: February artists to watch out for
With so many incredibly talented artists and music professionals at BIMM Institute, it can sometimes be hard to keep track of them all. Last month, we highlighted the ten artists to watch out for. So here’s our round-up of artists and bands who are on impressive trajectories within their scenes, sounds and cities.
Adam Pavlovčin
BIMM Institute London graduate, Adam Pavlovčin, who has been singing since an early age, was trained by reputable opera singer Hana Peckova. After moving to England to study songwriting with us in London he continued to perform with his band, PACE.
The singer-songwriter, dancer and model recently won SuperStar, the joint Czech-Slovak version of Pop Idol, along with prize money of €75,000. Adam is the first openly queer winner of the joint singing contest and has described his victory as a “huge step forward” for the Slovak society where same-sex marriage is still not recognised by the government.
Pastiche
BIMM Institute Dublin graduate, Pastiche brings a fresh perspective to pop music. Her infectious and unapologetic pop sound has been described as brazen, fiery and memorable, with fellow graduate and BBC radio presenter Gemma Bradley quoting “a promising future ahead” for her and Hot Press describing her as ‘one of the most exciting Irish pop acts of recent memory’.
She has amassed almost 140k streams and a monthly listenership of 8,000 people, not bad for an artist who has only been on the scene for just over a year and is fully independent!
Insurgent
BIMM Institute Birmingham graduates Insurgent is, according to Metal Planet “one of the UK’s most thrilling new metal prospects”. Finely-crafted and fully mature songwriting has allowed this group to tour as far afield as Ukraine, despite their relatively short time making music together.
They all met and study at BIMM and take influence from TesseracT, Trivium, and Jinjer. The group, led by Kate Teitge’s brilliantly powerful, emotive vocals, and backed by the technical skill and intensity of Joe Rowley on guitar, Jake Brettle on bass and Mike Tebone on drums, Insurgent are ready to take over.
BABii
Ex BIMM Institute Brighton student BABii was born in Yorkshire and raised between Canada and Kent. A skilled and conceptual artist both sonically and visually, BABii’s unique and instantly recognisable vocals blended with challenging productions have gained her a loyal following of fans.
Her 2019 debut album HiiDE, GLOO collective collaborative album XYZ and most recent EP iii+, proves that BABii is an accomplished multidisciplinary producer, songwriter, vocalist and visual artist. She has been consistently championed on the airwaves by the likes of Tom Ravenscroft, Lauren Laverne and Jamz Supernova and by tastemakers including Loud and Quiet, Clash, The Line of Best Fit and more.
The Hara
The Hara are a three-piece that attended BIMM Institute Manchester. Their alternative rock style has led to them storming their way through the iTunes album charts with their 2020 releases, EP’s Play Dead and We Are The Movement, which reached no.1 and no.2 in the rock chart, respectively.
BBC Introducing Lancashire quickly picked up on the band playing their music and headlining them at the Highest Point Festival. Other early adopters included Bolton FM, The Heart Radio, and Radio Saltire.
Gemma Bradley
Gemma Bradley, who studied with us at BIMM Institute Dublin, is a pop and R’n’B vocalist who has immersed herself in the highly competitive Irish music scene. She’s played a host of festivals including Electric Picnic, Stendhal, Vantastival, and was crowned the winner of Dublin’s Christie Hennessy Songwriting Prize in 2018.
After less than a year presenting on BBC Radio Ulster, Gemma replaced Huw Stephens in the BBC Radio 1 family, presenting the esteemed BBC Introducing show on Sunday night. She will be leading the hunt for new musical talent in the UK.
Comma Sounds
BIMM Institute Birmingham graduate, Harshiv Parekh makes up one half of Comma Sounds, a producer and DJ duo. Harshiv and the other half of Comma Sounds, Soham Bhatt, both come from Leicester and they started creating online radio shows and performing DJ gigs throughout the Midlands. Since 2020 they have been carving their own path in the rap and trap scenes.
They are also library composers and produce music for licensing opportunities for movies, TV shows, video games and adverts.
Mengelmoes
BIMM Institute Brighton students Mengelmoes are a multi-genre band originally from Norwich. Fusing jazz, funk, rock, Latin, R’n’B and everything in-between, the band pride themselves on sounding individual, although they do cite Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai and Tom Misch as influences.
After two mini-tours in Europe, the band won The Rocket from the East competition in 2019, solidifying them as one of Norfolk’s best live acts. The band are looking set to take over, with a string of delightful singles that saw out 2021; we reckon they’re going to smash it in 2022.
Ciara O’Connor
Ciara O’Connor studied the Vocals stream of our BA (Hons) Commercial Modern Music degree at BIMM Insitute Dublin. She has worked as a backing vocalist for Dermot Kennedy, Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue, James Vincent McMorrow, among many others. Her work over the past three years has primarily been touring and performing with Dua Lipa.
Ciara has toured stadiums throughout Europe, America, and Asia. She’s also made appearances on a selection of prime-time television programs including, Jools Holland, Graham Norton, Good Morning America, The American Music Awards (AMA’s), Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and many more. She has also done shows for Amazon, Adidas, Cartier, Spotify, Warner Records, Deezer, Yves Saint Laurent, Formula 1 Grand Prix, and Chanel.
The Magic Gang
Originally meeting at BIMM Institute Brighton, The Magic Gang are Jack Kaye, Paeris Giles, Angus Taylor, and Kristian Smith. The band has toured with the likes of Courtney Barnett, Wolf Alice, and Swim Deep and released a single and an EP both through Telharmonium. In early 2018 the band was nominated for Best New Artist at the NME Awards, this was quickly followed by their lead single from their debut album, Getting Along, being named Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World.
Their debut studio album was released in March 2018, it charted at no.12 in the Official UK Music Album chart, which subsequently led to the band getting signed by Warner Music. Their second album, Death of the Party, was released in 2020, peaking at no.16 in the Official UK Music Album chart but received acclaim from the likes of NME, DIY Magazine, and The Line of Best Fit amongst others.
Wow! What a list. You can check out more successes from our outstanding students here.
