SUCCESS: Akelle Charles, Louis Rei and Haile are collectively known as WSTRN.

By Geoffrey Rowlands


South London has Tinie Tempah and Stormzy, the east has spawned Dizzee Rascal and Wiley while the north can boast Wretch 32 and Skepta. West London was conspicuously absent from the UK rap/R&B music scene. But this has changed now with the emergence of Akelle Charles, Louis Rei and Haile, collectively known as WSTRN.
“Our name is actually pronounced as west turn,” explained 24-year-old Akelle. “Louis is from Ladbroke Grove, Haile is from Hammersmith and I’m from Shepherds Bush. The other areas have had their periods of prominence so we wanted to make sure everyone knew we were associated with west London. We chose our name to say it was the west’s turn to have a major player.”
Confidence in their ability was certainly expressed in their choice of name. The UK smash hit success they are currently enjoying through debut single, In2, has been achieved with a song recorded during their first session together.
“Akelle and I are cousins so we’ve known each other all our lives,” said Haile, 20. “We’ve played music and created songs together for as long as I can remember.
“We were working on a project called ‘Retakes’ and Louis was on a song called This Ain’t a Dream. We knew how talented he was so we had the idea of getting him to sing on one of our own tracks. He came in and did his thing but we also started working on new material as a trio. That’s how we created In2.”
“We made the song and then put it aside,” revealed Louis, 25. “We knew we had a special track but we just wanted to chill for a while and then come back to it. There are times when you really think you’ve done something special but it doesn’t sound so good when you listen again after a time. We wanted to be sure In2 was the real deal.”
“We obviously talked about the track while we were chillin’ out,” Haile added. “We thought if we could create something so good in our first session as a trio then we should be able to come up with some amazing stuff after we’d worked together for a while.”
As an unsigned act, WSTRN self-promoted In2 and were rewarded with plays on numerous outlets including BBC Radio 1 and Radio 1 Xtra. They supported this publicity with a self-financed video and found themselves being called by a host of very interested record companies.
“It all happened so quickly,” Akelle remarked. “One day we were doing everything to promote the song ourselves and the next we were signed to Atlantic Records with all the promotional power of a major label behind us.”
UK chart success came just as quickly. In2 debuted at number four.
“I actually laughed when I got the news,” Louis recalled. “It wasn’t a laugh at something funny, it just came from a feeling of utter disbelief. I knew we’d created a great song but the vast majority of new artists just don’t have that kind of success with their first release. It was so humbling to have such a big hit. I felt so grateful to everyone who had made it possible.”
A mix of R&B, hip hop, soul and pop, the eclectic nature of their music makes it difficult to accurately categorize WSTRN. Drake and The Weeknd have been mentioned in comparative terms.
“We’re incredibly happy to even be mentioned in the same breath as those artists,” Akelle stated. “Something I will say about our style of music is that we tend to concentrate on relationships in our lyrics rather than the drugs, guns and violence in so many hip hop songs. We’ve been described as the romantics of London’s urban music scene and we’re happy to go with that.”
WSTRN’s next single is scheduled for release in January with an album to follow later in 2016.
“The label bosses are very pleased with the tracks we already have for the album,” Haile revealed. “I think our songs are genuine and offer listeners a kind of feel-good factor. We’re not alone in this but I think it’s quite rare in our musical genre so we hope people appreciate the positivity we try to create with our work.”


in brief
Foo Fighters

American rockers Foo Fighters are offering fans a free five-song EP.
The “St. Cecilia” EP was recorded in Austin, Texas, when the band was there to perform at the Austin City Limits music festival. It can be streamed and downloaded from links at www.saintceciliaep.com. The full EP, plus each individual track, has also been posted on YouTube.
Another link on the website is to letters by frontman Dave Grohl written to Foo Fighters fans. The first letter was composed in a Berlin hotel room. It looks back at the band’s more recent career dealing with the making of their “Sonic Highways” album and reflects on the after-effects of Dave breaking his foot.
The second, much shorter, missive is really a preface to the first letter. It was written in the wake of the Paris atrocities. There is also a link to where donations can be made to help the families of those who died in the attacks.

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber has broken a US chart record previously held by The Beatles.
The Canadian heart-throb singer has 17 songs in the Billboard Hot 100. This smashes the mark of 14 top 100 listings during a single week set by The Beatles in April, 1964. This record had been matched by Drake earlier this year.
Without wishing to take too much credit from Justin and Drake, it should be remembered that digital downloads did not exist during the era of Beatlemania. A physical copy of their singles had to be available. If Beatles tracks could have been digitally downloaded in those days, one wonders just how many of their songs would have made the top 100 in any given week.
Justin’s fourth studio album, “Purpose,” has stormed straight to number one on the Billboard 200. It is posted in full at www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jE2sGlaKvc&list=PL2FB8ATYTKvlrexWKY6qChVcPvBblh9ZC
Be quick to listen though, his record label have already demanded the removal of numerous other postings where the album could be heard.

David Bowie

David Bowie’s latest studio album, “Blackstar,” is scheduled for release on January 8, his 69th birthday.
The title-track has been issued as the lead single. Lasting just under ten minutes, it began life as two separate songs before David and producer Tony Visconti effectively stitched them together. The original version ran for more than 11 minutes but was edited after David discovered iTunes will not post singles that break the ten-minute barrier.
The video for Blackstar can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw.

Kylie & Dannii Minogue/Cyrus Villanueva

Cyrus Villanueva was obviously delighted to win the 2015 series of Australian television’s X Factor. The smooth-singing 19-year-old’s X Factor. performance of his debut single, Stone, can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=x67u7R7JE5g
But his big night was overshadowed at least to some degree by a very special television event. X Factor. judge Dannii Minogue joined forces with her sister Kylie to perform their new single, 100 Degrees.
Although they have occasionally sung together on stage, this was the Minogue siblings’ first televised duet since 1986 when they performed Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves on the variety show Young Talent Time.
The audience response to 100 Degrees bodes well for chart success. The track is taken from the deluxe edition of Kylie’s newly released 13th studio album, and first holiday album, “Kylie Christmas.” The official video is posted at www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SKyU1k7juw



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