J-14 is scouting out the hottest music around and this week's pick is... Conor Maynard!
Here are five things you need to know about Conor Maynard whose debut single "Can't Say No" is out on April 16!
1. Nineteen-year-old Conor Maynard is from Brighton, England. He's been gaining buzz throughout the past few months after he uploaded cover songs, and they went viral on YouTube. After R&B artist Ne-Yo happened to see one of Conor's videos, "Beautiful Monster," he gave him a call and offered to work with him!
2. Conor's friends first discovered his singing abilities while he was walking home from school one day, and they overheard him singing to himself. It was then that Conor decided to start putting up videos online to get his talent out there.
3. Discovered via YouTube like Justin Bieber, Conor's become used to being compared to the pop star as the next big thing. "In terms of the music, it ends there," Conor says. "[I have] a very different sound. But it's obviously flattering to be compared to one of the biggest artists in the world right now when I haven't even released my first single yet."
4. Though he's still finishing up his album in the studio (after losing his voice during the recording process!), Conor describes the album's sound as vocally driven. "It's very urban. A lot of the songs have got that soulful input as well," Conor says. "For me, I definitely wanted to make it more driven by my voice rather than the music and effects and stuff like that -- more kind of the way I perform it myself."
5. Conor's debut single "Can't Say No" is set for release next week and has already clocked over three million views in only a month. "It's been interesting. For me, I was nervous about putting it out in the first place because this is the first original piece of material released and it's very different from the covers I've done so far so I was kind of worried the fans that were already there from all the covers I've done, they'd be like, 'Who's this? This doesn't sound like Conor,'" he says. "But no, they loved it!"
Check out his the music video for his single "Can't Say No" below and let us know what you think!
Photo: Courtesy of Conor Maynard
