Summary: Born in Zimbabwe 25 years ago, Tinashé is a prodigious pop talent whose accessible guitar and keys driven future classics take gleeful inspiration from everyone from Arctic Monkeys and the Bloc Party to Jack Penate, Jamie T, Paul Simon and original afro-beat sounds. Filtering his own life experience into supremely addictive chart-friendly tuneage, Tinashé exacts a lightness of touch that means the results are always euphoric and life-affirming. Take the strutting guitars and elegant strings on the delirious new single also called ‘Saved’, which was written after Tinashé was accosted by a particularly forthright tramp who thought he was an angel. He wrote and produced his debut album, with assistance from engineer Cenzo Townshend (Bloc Party, Late Of The Pier, Florence and the Machine). Front and centre is Tinashé’s signature vocal, instantly recognisable and easily sliding from giddy and urgent, as on the yearning love song ‘If You Say So’, to lived-in and careworn, especially on the end-of-his-tether ballad ‘Decency’. Tinashé has more than proved his talent as a live performer, with a host of thrillingly addictive shows, supporting the likes of Ellie Goulding, I Blame Coco, Marina & the Diamonds and Kate Nash and her new riot grrrl band The Receeders.
