A quick chat with MNEK

MNEK is one of those singers whose name you keep seeing in brackets (or parentheses if you're posh) on other people's songs: Rudimental's Spoons (ft MNEK) and Gorgon City’s Ready For Your Love (ft MNEK), to name a few.

He also co-wrote the bracket-tastic Need U (100%) for Duke Dumont and Gecko (Overdrive) for Oliver Heldens and Becky Hill.

In other words, he's pretty damned good at his job.

His first solo single, Every Little Word, came out in April and now we have a dippy-trippy video for the follow-up, Wrote A Song About You. A constantly shifting deep house barnstormer with a sublime "la la la" moment, it's one of my songs of the summer.

MNEK - Wrote A Song About You

I caught up with MNEK (real name Uzoechi Osisioma Emenike) at Glastonbury a couple of weeks ago, where he told me his debut album was "almost ready", with the artwork finalised, and everything.

"There's only one duet , one collaboration, and everything else is me," he said.

And, although he's known for club hits, the album promises to be more diverse.

"There's ballads man! There's many ballads! The struggle was to get more uptempo songs on the album. A good album is a journey rather than being too low or too up."

The 19-year-old also joked that he kept an eagle eye on the exit doors when he was on stage.

"I always pay attention to that when I’m performing. If I see someone go out, I should start calling them out: 'Halt the song! Halt the song! Come back here and explain yourself!'"

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