Jorja Smith and Maverick Sabre
U.K.-based singers Jorja Smith and Maverick Sabre are each rising stars in their own right. But put them together and the sonic slow burn only intensifies.
Maverick Sabre releases his first single of 2019, Slow Down — the third single off his forthcoming album When I Wake Up — complete with a wistful video featuring both artists. This R&B ballad is sophisticated and sexy in nature. It’s riddled with riffs that invite you to listen intently. It’s bass drums, low bassline, and poetic snaps scatter loosely throughout. “Slow down won’t you come around” the singers repeat in between verses — a call-out to past lovers in hopes that they’ll return soon.
Directed by Rashid Babiker, the rainy visual for the song positions Smith and Sabre as ships passing in the night in the most relatable, mundane manner. (Sabre plays a cab driver, Smith is his passenger.) It’s the shared glances in the rear-view mirror that bind them.
Sabre and Smith are no strangers to dueting. In 2016, the Wexford, Ireland-born crooner was featured on Smith’s second single A Prince. The song was later referenced on another duet Carry Me Home, off Smith’s 2016 EP, Project 11. In 2018, Smith was featured on Sabre’s single, Follow The Leader, a flexed-out track that embodies individuality and “accountability for your own decisions.”
Even though Sabre is more likely to experiment with jazz and electronics while Smith loses herself in soft beats laden in profound thought, their collaborations always offer something new and magical. The evolution of their work feels like an intricate dance that’s constantly adding footwork.
In the front room of his top floor flat in North London, Maverick Sabre (aka Michael Stafford) sits at his laptop, flicking through the clips of movies, music videos and short films that have inspired his new record. He has always drawn sentiment and atmosphere from things he sees and the world around him, then directed them into his music. For his new record, he’s drawn inspiration as varied as the 90s French social realism of La Haine to the hip-hop cinematography of Kahlil Joseph.
It’s been seven years since Mav first arrived on the UK scene as a fresh-faced Irish (but London born) rapper with a brassy singing voice. Championed by Plan B, his music drew a line between the Irish, American and UK rap scenes he grew up on and the timeless blues and trad Irish music of his family’s heritage. His debut album, Lonely Are The Brave, was a roaring success, arriving at #2 on the UK album charts and going on to sell over 250,000 copies.
Since then he has undergone a bold and inventive evolution as an artist, into a visionary and melodic songwriter capable of telling eternal stories that critique the world around him with a shrewd eye. His new album is dreamy and psychedelic at times, whilst also feeling haunting, gritty and rock inspired. There is nothing he will not turn his mind to, if he feels he has something to say, from the tragedy of Grenfell to the ways in which we place our faith in false icons. Rap may not be his biggest reference point anymore, but his hip-hop upbringing has instilled a passion for making music that is always brutally and unashamedly honest at all times.
Listen/Watch Now: Maverick Sabre – Slow Down (ft. Jorja Smith)
Impacting Radio: 2/25
Formats: Top 200 & AAA
For Fans Of: Jorja Smith, Amber Mark, JONES, Sam Smith
Focus Tracks: Slow Down ft Jorja Smith
Trivia: Maverick Sabre releases his first single of 2019, “Slow Down” — the third single off his forthcoming album When I Wake Up — complete with a wistful video featuring Jorja Smith. These two are no strangers to dueting, and the evolution of their work feels like an intricate dance that’s constantly adding footwork.
About Author
