BEST NEW ARTIST: TYNE

At only 19 years old, Cambridge, England’s Tyne is wise beyond her years, when it comes to crafting infectious, hooky Indie Pop!

Not yet able to legally buy a cider at the local pub, Cambridge’s Tyne has already had a full career. Initially launching under the handle Grace Sarah, Tyne released a handful of excellently-received singles - “Underwater” and “Come Down” most specifically - that set radio and the blogosphere alight with her tender piano pop and tender, intimate vocals. It’s like Adele without the histrionics, or Sarah McLaughlin without the hard plastic veneer, revealing a fluttering, beating heart, shot through with microfissures and the missing pieces that getting older can bring.

Older, wiser, Tyne emerged as a fully-formed persona and artistic vision, taking Grace Sarah’s personal reflections and hardwiring them to a more futuristic style Tyne refers to as “chill pop.”

You can hear Tyne’s chill pop best on her newest single, “Girly”, which is already threatening to outshine all of Grace Sarah’s achievements in a few short weeks with its feminine grace; slick, mellow beats; and sci-fi sound design. “Let’s hang out with champagne and dresses/and get girly,” sings Tyne in “Girly”’s catchy, infectious chorus (which will be the soundtrack for countless evenings getting ready for the club and weekend sleepovers, if our predictions at We Are: The Guard prove to be accurate), and yet “Girly” doesn’t sound particularly girly. Tyne doesn’t play up to feminine stereotypes, not just trying to be another Taylor Swift or Katy Perry knock-off, although her music is as melodic and memorable as either. Instead, Tyne speaks for a more empowered femininity - someone in control of their own life, their own sound, their own career.

TYNE - GIRLY

“Girly” sounds like the downbeat digital dancehall of Drake and Rihanna’s “Work,” if Rihanna had more than a guest verse, or Lorde if she were to ditch the rock ‘n roll for beats and synths. It’s the sound of an ambitious, aspiring artist claiming agency over her life, her sound, her image, and coming out gleaming on the other side!

“Girly” is both a continuation and an evolution from Tyne’s last single, “Somebody’s Something,” which caught the public fascination towards the end of last summer with its beguiling, hypnotic vibes. Chilled beats meet marimba and digital glitches - like Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” on a three week crying jag listening to James Blake and Future. “Somebody’s Something,” was striking in its distance and elegance, in the dog days of summer. “Girly,” on the other hand, arrives just in time for the early spring, sounding more ebullient and explosive, utilizing a broader pallet of primary colours, stepping out from the shadows and emerging from the gloom.

GIRLY - SOMEBODIES SOMETHING

Tyne may be one of the most successful artistic rebrandings we’ve seen, like Miley Cyrus if her brazen new persona had been a sonic improvement over Hannah Montana as well as being more culturally pertinent.

This is entirely the kind of thing we love to support in our Best New Artist features. Big ups to J. Simpson for finding and curating Tyne for We Are: The Guard!

→ https://www.officialtyne.com
→ https://www.instagram.com/tynemusic
→ https://www.soundcloud.com/tyne44
→ https://www.twitter.com/TyneOfficial
→ https://www.facebook.com/officialtyne

J. Simpson occupies the intersection between criticism, creativity, and academia. Based out of Portland, Or., he is the author of Forestpunk, an online journal/brand studying the traces of horror, supernatural, and the occult through music, fashion and culture. He plays in the dreamfolk band Meta-Pinnacle with his partner Lily H. Valentine, with whom he also co-founded Bitstar Productions, a visual arts collective focused on elevating Pop Culture to High Art.