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Jalen N’Gonda has released the video to accompany his single ‘Holler (When You Call My Name)’.
Having already opened for the likes of Lauryn Hill, Jamie Woon and Laura Mvula (and been greeted by Martha Reeves with “you’re pretty young to be playing the blues like that”), Jalen has made a triumphant entrance to the UK music scene.
Purple Revolver caught up with Jalen for a quick-fire interview during Liverpool Music Week.
Interviewer: “I know you have had a pretty busy summer, touring and all that. Could you tell us where you’ve been?”
Jalen: “I’ve been a lot around Europe, up and down the UK, I did Latitude, Kendall Calling, Great Escape and did a few in Norway, Burgen Fest in Germany and Canada actually as well. So yeah, just around”
Interviewer: “Obviously, from your accent, you’re not from around here. So could you tell us a bit about where you’re from?”
Jalen: “I’m originally from Maryland, or Silver Spring whatever you want to call it. I’ve lived here (Liverpool) for nearly 2 years now, but yeah, Maryland is quite a boring place.”
Interviewer: “So what brought you over to Liverpool?”
Jalen: “Uni, I went to LIPA (The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) for a few years and that was the reason I came here, to do something new and get out of Maryland.
Interviewer: “Do you think moving to Liverpool has helped your sound to develop?”
Jalen: “Yeah, most certainly, its helped a lot. It’s opened my eyes to see how rock music, people do different forms of rock, British bands. IT’s helped with just the experience of living in Liverpool, it’s a real busy music scene.”
Interviewer: “Everyone goes on about how it’s difficult for northern bands to break out of Liverpool but you’ve come here and expanded your network and now you’ve moved to London… tell us a bit about London?”
Jalen: “Yeah, I’ve been getting busy down there a lot more often, a few gigs coming up down there.”
Interviewer: “So what can we expect in the next few months, any new releases?”
Jalen: “Yeah, I’m thinking about releasing the next single at the end of the next month the single will be released. But that’s pretty much, I’ll be touring a lot for the next few months and writing a lot.”
Watch the full video to ‘Holler’ www.facebook.com/jalenNgondauk