Ashley Deveaux aka Novel

“Make Me Say” by Sketch feat. Novel

A couple of months back, I received an email from a young guy who’s producing and performing music in the Bahamas. For a while I couldn’t really figure out what he did (he describes himself as a ‘vocal producer’), but he’s one of a new wave of young Bahamians making smooth R&B and succeeding in getting local music played on local radio in his hometown of Nassau.

Bizarrely, his girlfriend lives in Wolverhampton (they met while studying in Jamaica) and he was over visiting, so we met up for a coffee and a chat, and I showed him around some of the nicer bits of Birmingham city centre.

Really interesting guy, particularly given that he’s possibly the first to incorporate traditional Bahamian sounds into contemporary R&B – and had a number one hit in the process (a song called ‘My Candidate’).

Novel’s a rapper and a singer as well as a vocal producer, though the majority of his recorded output since dropping out of medical school to pursue a music industry career has involved the vocals of others. He wrote and co-produced the track you can listen to above, and also provided the rap. His friend Sketch (Christopher Carey) is the singer.

So… not my usual musical territory, but a really talented and interesting guy, completely sold on the possibilities of digital social media for independent music. You should visit his website here.

I floated the idea of a possible Un-Convention Nassau, and he seemed to think that might be quite a good idea. Something to explore – and certainly something I’d be up for…