Nick Mulvey

Nick Mulvey is the kind of singer-songwriter that shows how uninspired most other singer-songwriters are these days. Yes, he might sing hushed folk songs backed by an acoustic guitar, but his musical education began in earnest when he was 19 years old, and he moved from his native London to Havana, Cuba to study music and art. The intensive course exposed him to styles of music from all over the world, and when he returned to London he capitalised on it by taking up an Ethnomusicology course at the School of Oriental And African Studies at the University of London.

While he was there he met the other members of his first band, Portico Quartet. The band officially formed in 2005 and developed a sound that was as influenced by world music as it was by pop music. After two years of small gigs and busking shows the band signed to the independent jazz record company Babel Label, and their first album was released in November 2007. The band saw some legitimate success, as their debut album was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Award, but come 2011, Mulvey was ready to move on. He left the band in January to start a solo career and released his first E.P, “The Trellis” in November 2012 on Communion Records.

His debut E.P landed him an E.P release contract with Universal Music Group for his second effort, June 2013’s “Fever To The Form”, and after a high profile tour supporting Laura Marling, a major influence of his, he signed a more concrete contract with Fiction Records. By the end of 2013, Mulvey was short-listed for the BBC’s Sound of 2014 list, and his debut album “First Mind” was released in May of the same year. It was an immediate hit, charting at number 10 on the album charts and leading to sold out shows at Shepherd’s Bush Empire and prime slots at that year’s Glastonbury Festival. Because he’s accomplished so much with just his debut album, Nick Mulvey comes highly recommended.