Introducing... Javeon McCarthy

Having come up in Bristol as a vocalist under the MC guise of Shadz, Javeon McCarthy’s been steadily building his reputation as a singer in his own right. Signed to PMR Records, the outfit behind Julio Bashmore, Two Inch Punch, Jessie Ware and more, McCarthy’s voice has appeared on records by the afore mentioned Bashmore and L-Vis 1990, as well as on solo releases ‘Love Without A Heart’ and ‘Lost Time’. A little like Ware, McCarthy seems to be finding inspiration in melding his unctuous octave range with the ticks and gleams of electronic production and working with beatsmiths like Two Inch Punch (who made ‘Precious’ which you can watch below) Julio and Bristol based slow-mo house producers Behling & Simpson seems to be giving his classic soul tones a unique and decidedly current edge. Ahead of his appearance this Friday in Room One, where he’ll be performing live to help us celebrate our venue reaching puberty, we wanted to catch up and better introduce his work to your ears. I read someone called you Bristol’s answer to R Kelly. Are you cool with that? Haha… Haha, yeah I think it’s great that someone has said that, I’ve got a way to go before I’m toe to toe with kells…but I’m happy with that. I’ll take it. I mean obviously there are elements of his work in your music, being that you sing and it’s slow and soulful, but where do you think your sound is headed? If it sounds like that, it's unintentional. The last thing I want to be is a double of my influences, amazing as I think they are! I’ve grown up with and been into r&b/soul and underground dance music, my sound will continue to be a combination of the both. Some will lean more towards tracks of mine like 'Love Without A Heart', and others will be more like 'Lost time (T.Williams Remix)'. How did you get into singing like this anyway… how did you come to realise you had a voice like that? Were you singing from an early age? Yeah, well I sang from an early age. I wasn't that great but I practiced because I enjoyed it and eventually got better… The last thing we heard from you was ‘Precious’. We’ve also heard along the line that you’ve done a few more tunes with Two Inch Punch, who is also on PMR, but what can we expect from your new material? Who else are you working with? Yeah, I’ve been going in on the studio pretty hard! I think from my new material you can expect to hear me coming into my own more as I know where I’m aiming a little better. Not everybody does straight away, which is why this time has been important for my development. I've been working with T.Williams, Behling & Simpson, Perseus, Rudimental and more What’s next for you material wise? Is there an album in the future? Since my last release I’ve been working on putting my album together, I’m really excited about it, it's shaping up nicely and looking forward to its completion You’re playing here on the Friday of our birthday weekend? What can we expect from a Javeon performance? Yes I’m looking forward to it, thanks for getting me down! From my performance you can expect some new music, energy, and a couple high notes. Catch Javeon performing live in Room One this Friday.