It can be notoriously difficult to break into the music industry at the best of times, without chucking a pandemic into the mix. But with a bit of patience, work and determination (and lot of balls), it’s still possible.
In Manchester, we’re lucky enough to have some of the most exciting up-and-coming artists and bands around. And so our Manc Audio x Open Beat Introducing series continues this week with a look at five artists that need to be on your radar in 2021.
These lot represent the emerging artists of the city – the ones with that patience, work and determination to make it.
Have a listen to their music, drop them a follow, like what you can, it all makes a difference.
Manta
Twenty-one-year-old Manta has been busying himself with song writing, producing and directing his own music videos all from his bedroom in Manchester. His debut single “Dream World” was done entirely from his house – including the video which features a load of messy red paint and we’re not envious of that clean up operation.
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But Manta admits that music wasn’t always his chosen career path. He’d studied for years to get onto his chosen course in architecture at the University of Manchester, before realising it wasn’t the one for him. By the end of his first year, he dropped out of the course after falling into a dark place mentally. He found that music was a release and chose to explore that instead.
Manta’s lyrics dig deep emotionally, because of how much music has influenced his personal journey. His style has a lo-fo vibe which takes elements of hip-hop and pop, shown in his debut track “Dream World”.
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So, with self-managing himself, self-producing and self-releasing, Manta’s DIY approach shows that you can do it on very few resources.
Hailing from Somalia, HMD (pronounced Hamdi) is now Manchester based, but has spent time living Denmark in the past. His music is heavily influenced by these places, but particularly by the area he grew up in in Somalia which is known locally for its poetry and storytelling, making HMD’s lyrical prowess a given.
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The singer-songwriter likes to explore themes of identity, love and loss with clever lyrics that resonate with probably the majority of us. He channels a pop and R&B sound, which stems largely from his time in Denmark.
His latest track Many Maries shows why HMD is an exciting artist to watch this year – and we’re lucky to have him in Manchester.
Newcastle-born Sweets moved to Manchester to have a crack at his music career not too long ago – and it’s already paying off. He started out messing about with lyrics and freestyling with his mates and uploading beats to Soundcloud. Up in Newcastle, he became a member of DJ collective Well Irie, where he began MCing for their garage and grime events.
After making the move to Manchester, Sweets started playing open mic nights and gigging some of the smaller venues in the city. He says his experience of working the Manchester circuit was what really helped him find his voice and sound. Now, Sweets’ music is more mellow and refined, using hip-hop style beats.
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He’s been working with a variety producers and writers over the past few months to create something very special that’s coming soon. In the meantime, his track “Ashtray Cowboy” is a taster of what’s to come.
Bolton-born Harriet Dagnall was raised on a musical diet of Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell – if you cut her, she says she bleeds “dad music”. But there’s nothing wrong with a good classic. Now, Harriet takes inspiration from The Japanese House, Marika Hackman and Rae Morris which all encompass beautiful vocals alongside timeless piano soundtracks.
Living in the city centre has allowed Harriet to immerse herself into the music scene and it’s enabled her to consistently perform and write which has massively developed her music. Her debut EP is out this year and we can expect something eclectic and exciting when it comes, as she doesn’t like to be confined by genre.
For now, have a listen to her new track “Tied Up” out now, and follow her on Instagram here to stay up to date.
Five-piece rock band The Demo from Middleton take inspiration from early 00s rock from both sides of the Atlantic. They cite The Strokes and Kings of Leon as their main influences though and try to put their own twist on this style.
Their key focus at the moment is not to play the big venues, but to refine and perfect their song writing – and fair play to that. But going off their latest selection of songs, it looks like they’re already there. Ever the perfectionists! But if you’re gonna do something, you might as well do it properly, right?
Have a listen to their latest song “Apart” for yourself and follow them here.
All five of these artists (plus loads more) are featured on our Manc Audio x Open Beat Introducing playlist which is on Spotify now! Have a listen below and follow The Manc Audio and Open Beat for more.
Music
Posters around Manchester city centre spark serious rumours Charli XCX is set to headline Parklife 2025
Danny Jones
Some pretty big, green posters are popping up around town and, not to get ahead of ourselves, but it looks like they’re hinting at Charli XCX headlining Parklife 2025…
Feel free to lose your bratting minds.
A number of tall, let’s call it ‘apple’ green posters have been sighted in various places across Manchester city centre this Friday, 22 November and the last time we saw this slightly low-resolution, plain black Arial font and colour combo we got a reworked version of Charli XCX’s brat album.
Listen, all we can tell you is that this is almost exactly the same marketing and the letters on the poster simply read, “PL25”. Come on… you do the math(s).
Spotting at least two of the posters for ourselves around both Newton and Thomas Street in and around the Northern Quarter, plenty of people have been double-taking at the simple but bold and undeniably eye-catching portrait posters.
Trust us, we weren’t the only ones stopping to take a picture and frantically send them to half of our phonebook either.
Charli herself hasn’t given us any other clues on social media thus far – to be fair, this one feels fairly obvious to us – but it’s well worth keeping your eyes peeled on her stories as she did plenty of teasing before dropping Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.
Still can’t get over that actually being the title, by the way.
It’s also worth noting that Parklife themselves recently confirmed that festival fans can expect to find out their headliners and the full 2025 lineup very soon. Check out that colour…
Oh, who are we kidding? That’s not apple green it’s straight-up BRAT green, b*tch. We’re fully getting carried away and you’ll just have to deal with it.
Even if it somehow turns out she’s not headlining it’s certainly looking like she’s going to be there and it wouldn’t be the first time.
Better yet, fans of the pop sensation won’t have to wait too long to see her right here in Greater Manchester because Charli is bringing her already smash-hit tour to Co-op Live next Wednesday, 27 November and in case you couldn’t tell by all the shouting in capitals, we’re very excited.
Roll on ‘PL25’. Other than Charli XCX, who else would you like to see as your Parklife headliners next summer?
Bez and Shaun Ryder are starring in a new gangster movie – nope, not kidding
Danny Jones
No, you didn’t misread the headline and you’re not on acid: Manchester music legends Bez and Shaun Ryder are set to feature in a brand-new gangster film.
Yes, the ones from the Happy Mondays – why are you having such trouble processing this?
Seriously though, we did a little double-take ourselves when we came across this news, but the familiar Manc faces look to be among the ensemble of a brand-new gangster movie by Irish writer, actor, producer and filmmaker, Ciaron Davies.
And this is just a little leak or rumour that may have been blown out of proportion: you can take it from the horse’s mouth as Happy Mondays frontman, Ryder, recently shared the news on social media.
As you can see, the new film is called Geezers and is billed as a “British crime caper” written and directed by Davies, featuring Shaun as hard-man Robbie and Bez as ‘Monk’. If you saw Ryder shaking off that snake biting his hand like it was nothing then you already know he’s hard as nails.
Although it’s not strictly listed as a comedy per se, ‘caper’ would suggest plenty of humour and light-heartedness, so we’re thinking more like The Gentleman, Italian Job, or maybe even Four Lions, rather than a serious crime thriller.
Now, while we’ve seen both of the Salfordians on screen before not only in the likes of music videos, interviews, panel shows and even as two of the funniest guests to ever go on Celebrity Gogglebox, this latest venture will serve as their respective acting debuts.
According to the IMDb page, the synopsis of the film is as follows: “Crime caper about a stolen bag of money. Caught in the crossfire are ‘The Geezers’ a bunch of wannabe criminals who have bitten off more than they can chew. With 24 hours to grab the cash, London may just go up in smoke tonight.”
Shame it’s not set on the mean streets of Manchester, or better yet Salford, but you’ve still very much caught our interest.
You can see the first promotional poster for the film down below.
As for Davies, he has been involved with a number of small-budget TV film projects, as well as appearing in shorts and even video games, so it’s fair to say that getting 62-year-old Ryder and his ever-energetic hype man, 60, involved is quite the coup for his movie-making career.
Although the film has no release date just yet, we know that filming locations having included parts of Warrington and Pinewood Studios, will be produced by Loose Gripp Films and distributed by publishers High Fliers.
Given the high-octane nature of Geezers and its genre, the feature will involve lots of action, stunts, violence and even martial arts – though how much kung-fu these two will have learned for the project remains to be seen…
All we know is that the film is supposedly “coming soon” and if you don’t want to see Bez and Shaun Ryder doing their best impression of a Guy Ritchie gangster movie then you’re lying to yourself. Praying for a Rowetta cameo to put the cherry on top.
Hannah Starkie -
26th March 2021 
