Searching for your new favourite artist? Here are 10 new acts poised to make a big noise in 2023, from post-punk to alt.trap-metal, old school rock 'n' roll to '90s-influenced hip-hop.
Sprints
Across the past three years, no band has delivered a greater succession of killer singles - The Cheek, Manifesto, How Does The Story Go?, Modern Job, Little Fix, Literary Mind - than Dublin post-punks Sprints. Fronted by the charismatic Karla Chubb, whose biting, brilliantly incisive lyrics deal with sexuality, mental health, politics and the myriad irritations of modern existence, the quartet have the support of 6Music and legendary indie champion Steve Lamacq, and have just today announced a record deal with City Slang. "This is the start of something big," the band promise. "Let’s fuckin go."
The Bites
How can you fail to fall in love with any band who have the chutzpah to introduce their individual members to the world one by one on their debut single. Meet The Bites, gritty Hollywood rock 'n' rollers, and the newest signings to iconic metal label Earache. Assembled around livewire frontman Tyler Jordan, a TikTok star with more than a hint of Bon Scott's roguish charm, The Bites deliver old school hard rock with swagger and balls on debut album Squeeze (due on July 14), and in 2023, that feels wonderfully refreshing again. "The stigma of 'rock is dead' has been so blown out of proportion, but The Bites are here to prove that theory wrong," says Jordan cockily. Bring it on.
Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers
Formed in 2015, at which point all four band members were 15, Canberra's punk rock and riot grrrl-influenced Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers released their sharply-titled debut EP Pretty Good for a Girl Band in May, with single Girl Sports - sample lyric "Honey, I think you'd look better if you smiled / This time I'm not asking I'm just telling you, Fuck off" - the pick of its five tracks. 'Repeat after me: 2023 is the year of Teeny Jeanies', the band posted this week on Instagram: consider yourself warned.
Alt Blk Era
Teenage sisters Nyrobi and Chaya Beckett-Messa began writing original music during lockdown, inspired by The Prodigy, nu metal, Rico Nasty, Tobe Nwigwe and more. The West Bridgford duo's Spotify profile describes their hard-hitting, in-your-face sound as "fierce, raw and unconventional", and all-action, genre-mashing tracks such as Rockstar and December single Off With Their Heads certainly tick those boxes. Last year, Nova Twins talked of smashing down barriers for young black women in the rock world and, in their wake, Alt Blk Era sound ready to crash fearlessly into the spotlight on their own terms.
DEADLETTER
Originally a North Yorkshire trio, now a South London sextet, DEADLETTER closed out their 2022 with a European tour supporting Placebo, a single (Madge's Declaration) on 6Music's B-List and their debut EP, Heat!, in shops, solid foundations to build upon in 2023.
In their own words, Zac Lawrence's band “channel the droll fury of Gang of Four and the lopsided rhythms of Talking Heads into a strain of vehement post-punk, exploring the darker side of existence through a lens of narrative-driven levity.” Which is nice. In their latest social media update, they tease 'Have we been in the studio? Time shall tell.' That'll be a 'Yes' then. Hurrah.
Fousheé
Largely due to her work with Steve Lacy (including a co-write and cameo on US number 1 single Bad Habit, which currently has 519,294,349 plays on Spotify), Britanny Fousheé has been tagged as an rising R&B star, but the 26-year-old New Jersey-born musician's ferocious debut album softCORE - which she has described as "a rebellious stance against men, gender norms, and a well-needed release for me" is firmly rooted in metal, grunge and post-punk.
This isn't just a phase, or a calculated attempt to straddle genres. When a writer from GQ posited the idea that black female artists are "having this moment where they're...adopting pop-rock", the singer stated, "it's not like we're pivoting to rock. If you go back in time it's something that was ours and was taken."
"The girls are angry," she says simply, "and we don't want to sugarcoat it anymore."
Joey Valence and Brae
The tragic death of Adam Yauch in 2012 effectively ended the Beastie Boys, one of the most life-affirming, exhilarating musical acts of the past half-century. And while it would be impossible for anyone to truly replicate the New Yorkers' uniquely playful, genre-detonating rhyming and squealing, Pennsylvania duo Joey Valence and Brae do a fabulous job of evoking the spirit of Check Your Head and Ill Communication on 2022 singles Startafight, Watch Yo Step, Tanaka, Punk Tactics and the recently Club Sandwich. The pair caused mayhem at their debut appearances at Reading and Leeds festivals last summer, and their 2023 promises to be a riot.
Carr
Newly signed to DCD2 Records, a label launched by Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy) and Spencer Smith (Panic! At The Disco), Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Carr (aka Carly McClellan) released Spit as her first single on the label in October. "Spit is a song I wrote about the quiet dude that’s really mysterious and fucked in the head," she said. "Which is always the type of person I’m attracted to because I’m equally as messed up. So I wanted to make one big fucked up love song." Previous singles Bedhead, Cold Charlie and How To Lose A Friend In 10 Days illustrate exactly why Wentz and Smith swooped for the alt.pop starlet.
Nessa Barrett
Given that she currently has over 6.5 million listeners every month on Spotify, and a staggering 19.8 million followers on TikTok, it could reasonably be argued that 20-year-old Nessa Barrett is already a star.
The alt.pop singer/songwriter's debut album young forever was released in October, and, dealing with themes such as borderline personality disorder (BPD), suicidal thoughts and toxic relationships it's a much darker, emotional album than it's surface sheen might suggest: "I like the darkness in things," she says. "I talk about a lot of things my generation is struggling with on this album."
Pit Pony
Newcastle five-piece Pit Pony have impeccable influences (PJ Harvey, Savages, The Horrors, Ohsees, Ty Segall, The Kills among them) and their excellent debut album, World To Me is one of the most powerful British rock albums released in 2022. With hard-hitting lyrics reflecting upon relationships, parenthood, and themes of anxiety, isolation and identity, it's a grown-up rock record made by self-managed musicians who served their apprenticeships in north-east punk, pysch and shoegaze bands, and are under no illusions about the likelihood of being adopted by the fashionable, beautiful people anytime soon.
"We’re well aware in the grand scheme of things we’re tiny, we’re not daft, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t all mean a lot to us," the band wrote on Instagram as they waved goodbye to 2022: if there's any justice, their music will also mean the world to a much bigger fan-base before 2023 draws to a close.
