Maverick Sabre

It’s rather steep upward movement, when only 21 year old British-Irish singer goes straight to number 2 on the chart with his first album Lonely Are The Brave. But then again: how could you miss with such a soulfully impassioned voice, especially when the songs deal with the maker’s real emotions? Maverick Sabre’s almost talking and shockingly “experienced” singing is a seamless mixture of reggae, soul and rap, influenced deeply by Bob Marley and Ray Charles. A revenge of sorts of the old school then, in a totally modern set-up.

Maverick Sabre (real name Michael Stafford) was born in Hackney, London on the 12th of July, 1990, but grew up in Wexford, Ireland, where he was already featured on Terawrizt & Nu-Cent’s and Jermicide & Danny Digg’s rap albums. The teenager’s voice and phrasing were so impressive that British rapper Plan B advised him to move back to London to make his own music. Sabre did so and got to 31 on the single chart on Professor Green’s Jungle. Live performance on Later… with Jools Holland and on BBC’s Radio 1 boosted greatly his first singles Let Me Go, I Need and No One last year, not to mention the debut album last February.