Going right back to the days when industry bigwigs, sharks and money men realised there was serious cash to be made out of rock’n’roll, there’s been a rush to discover musicians who have that celebrated (and lucrative) star quality. If we believe the myths, those people arrive with it fully formed and ready for adoration. But the truth is it takes work to ignite that spark.
De’Wayne, from Houston, Texas, has it in abundance, but it’s taken toil and nurturing an encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music – his eclectic output so far has taken in classic and alternative rock, soul, jazz, hip-hop and Americana on his journey to work out a formula for the perfect blend of the rock’n’roll he grew up with and the rock’n’roll of the future. The world at large might yet be to bite in terms of traditional media (although the streamers of the world have already switched on), but his self-assurance screams that he knows he has that special ‘it’
