Since breaking into the mainstream last year, Michael Stafford, or Maverick Sabre as he’s better known, has drawn critical acclaim, culminating at this year’s Brit Awards where he was runner-up in the ‘Critics Choice’ award for his soul-hip hop fusion, powerful vocals and, most notably, his unique vocals.
His album Lonely Are The Brave hit second spot in the UK charts in January, supplementing two top 20 singles at the end of last year. When I met him on a tour bus outside of Leeds Metropolitan University a couple of months back, he was open and candid about his feelings on the album’s success so far: “To be honest, I didn’t really have any expectations because when I sat down to write the tunes, I wrote them because I wanted to write them. It was out of love. Writing music, for me, is something that I do every day. I don’t really have any expectations.
“I have an expectation for what the track will sound like, I never have an expectation of what people will think of it. For me, I’m just glad that there’s so much positivity coming back off it.”
It shows, in the midst of a sell-out nationwide tour, and with an academy tour on the way, he’s relaxed about the way things are going. “The tour’s going great. We had a big night in Glasgow last night and I managed to miss my own bus! I had to hitch a ride with Miss Dynamite’s (who is supporting him on tour) crew.”
Lonely Are The Brave, Mav’s debut album, has drawn praise for its hard hitting candid lyrics, with subjects ranging from last summer’s London riots to his own experiences of addiction to whiskey (which he says no longer touches his lips, as he sips water before responding to my questions) and run-ins with corrupt policemen.
He speaks passionately about his stance on the ‘Broken Britain’ that we’re currently trapped in, barely taking a breath to sip a glass of water: “I think we’re in a broken world right now, to be honest. I think there’s a lot of similar occurrences happening around the world, with the riots, the unrest within young people and people in general. I feel like people are getting fed up of the fact that the people who are supposed to represent us and keep our world safe and keep us safe, and keep us in jobs, and keep us fed are not doing their job. And I think that’s coming out more and more, and I think that people are going to get louder, more aggressive, and I think music always used to represent a people, a feeling or a time, you know, a message.”
It’s easy to see where he’s coming from, and that determination to spread a message through music spreads to a critique of the likes of Flo Rida and David Guetta’s music; “You know, it seems like when you listen to the charts and take that as a representation of the world, you’d think that everyone is in love, in a club or fucking dancing 24/7 with bottle of champagne.”
“Well we’re not. I don’t wanna be one of them artists who says, “Oh, he’s a bit depressing”, I’m not saying every artist needs to talk about social issues, or needs to talk about ‘Broken Britain’ or ‘Broken World’ or ‘Broken…’ I don’t know, whatever, but I feel like there needs to be something to represent what’s going on because if you don’t give a voice to what’s going on, that will end up turning out another reaction from people.”
On a somewhat lighter note, we move onto discussion of comparisons with other artists. From the late Amy Winehouse to Plan B, likenesses have been drawn to almost any other unique soul artist out there. On Plan B, who he lived with when he first moved back to London, Sabre says in his distinctive Irish twang; “Comparisons are always gonna be made between us. We’re both white, we both sing soul. When he gets his hair cut short, and I get my hair cut short there’s similarities, but it’s always gonna be an easy comparison. Ben gave me a lot of advice and that’s what influenced me most, the advice and support,” and it shows. Stafford strikes you as someone who is street-wise beyond his 21 years, having toured across Europe and the world. The variety is something he values:
“A lot of different shows have different feelings attached to them. There’s certain acoustic sets that I would do, and have done in the past, that have a totally different experience in comparison to doing V Festival in the summer, with 12,000 people in a tent singing one of my songs. They’re two different things; there’s an intimate reaction you can get, and then there’s a euphoric, almost stadium-like euphoria musical reaction, if that makes sense.
“I’ve been touring with Chase & Status last year and that’s a different energy again. I’ve been all around the world with them and just the energy and the feeling you get off that can’t be matched anywhere else. Again, I’m not saying it’s better or worse, it just can’t be matched because it’s so specific and it’s just energy filled.” It all pales into perspective when you consider the progress he’s made in the space of two years.
In terms of what’s still to come, he says, “Just shows. I can’t wait to start the festival season, I fucking love it. So, yeah, festival after festival after festival. Just bringing my music to any venue, city, county, country, fucking continent that’ll have me. I just wanna push the music out because you don’t know what tomorrow can hold.” His first academy tour begins in September, so perhaps a night at Fibbers is optimistic, but this is unlikely to be the last you’ll hear of Maverick Sabre…