Banners shares the emotive new single 'Perfectly Broken', out September 30th through Nettwerk

+ ANNOUNCES UK HEADLINE TOUR

LIVERPOOL’S BEST-KEPT SECRET, BUT NOT FOR LONG!

LISTEN TO ‘PERFECTLY BROKEN’ HERE

Having released the singles ‘Keeps Me Going’ and ‘Happier’ in recent months, his first pieces of new material since the widely-praised 2021 EP ‘It’s Gonna Be OK’, which has since garnered more than twenty million streams since its release, Liverpool native Michael Nelson aka BANNERS continues his upward ascent on the emotive new offering ‘Perfectly Broken’.

Known for his powerful lyricism around the imperfections of modern love and admiration, ‘Perfectly Broken’ offers up another rousing display of tender tones and heartfelt textures throughout. Blending the warm and vibrant piano-led melodies with some beautifully progressive production, he once again shines a light on unconventional romance to highlight the most alluring parts within all of us.

Speaking about the new track, he said, "I wanted to write a song about how our imperfections are what make us interesting. How other people's imperfections are what make them interesting and when our jagged edges fit into their jagged edges, that's when we fall in love."

BANNERS also recently announced a UK headline tour, the Perfectly Broken tour kicking off in Scotland at Glasgow’s Oran Moor on February 18th the twelve date tour visits key cities across the country including London’s Scala on February 23rd. Full list of dates below. Tickets on sale HERE

February

18 – Glasgow, Oran Mor

20 – Birmingham, The O2 Institute

21 – Bristol, Thekla

22 – Manchester, Gorilla

23 – London, Scala

25 – Brighton, Patterns

26 – Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms

27 – Cambridge, Cambridge Junction

28 – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms

March

2 – Sheffield, The Leadmill

3 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club

4 – Newcastle, The Cluny

Award-winning singer-songwriter Michael Nelson, who records under the moniker BANNERS, has a staggering 1.5 billion streams to his name to date – not bad for a lad from Liverpool who began his musical career in the city’s famous cathedral.

Michael was just seven years old when he started what he describes as his “musical apprenticeship” in his home city, singing every day after school in one of the UK’s most well-known cathedrals. “It was like a full-time job,” he laughs from his home in Liverpool, having moved back there recently after a spell in Toronto, Canada. “When all my friends at school were watching like Terminator 2 or Back To The Future, I was just singing songs from the 1600s! It was really, really hard work but it was such a brilliant training ground for me. Everyone was just so proud of singing in that building that you gave it your all. It was a wonderful education.”

Michael sang in the choir until he was 15, after which time he started to spend time at Liverpool’s famous Parr Street Studios after school and at weekends, hanging around musicians whenever he had the opportunity.

Nelson’s father is well-known record producer Ken Nelson, who produced albums for the likes of Coldplay, Gomez, and Badly Drawn Boy. “I remember going to the studio and just being enthralled by it all,” he recalls. “I knew that was where I needed to be for the rest of my life.” Michael observed his father working with bands and started to think about the craft of songwriting for the first time. “I started to write songs. At first, I wrote a few for a girl I had a crush on,” he says, laughing about his early teenage ventures in songwriting. “After that, I also started doing some backing vocals in the studio and started to try to find my own path in this business.”

He went on to play any and every open mic night he could in London and across the North-West, but it was a chance trip with his father to Toronto that proved life-changing for the musician. “I was in the middle of nowhere in this studio in Canada, in like -30 degree conditions,” he laughs. “I was making cups of tea for the guys in the studio as per, but I started to meet a bunch of musicians whom I jammed with and we had something,” he remembers of his time out there. After returning home, he kept in touch with the musicians and decided to save up to go back out there as soon as he had the chance. Working any and every job he could find, he saved the money, flew out a few months later and started his first serious attempts at professional songwriting.

Within a short time, Toronto taught him how to “navigate the business of music” and provided a wealth of opportunities for young artists like him to make their name. A demo CD he made found its way to Grammy-nominated producer Stephen Kozmeniuk (Koz). A short time later, his first single shot straight to number one on the alternative radio charts in Canada, garnering 10 million Spotify streams almost overnight. Soon, he found himself signed to a major label and invited to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “What was mad about that performance,” he says laughing, “was that I’d not really played a lot of gigs before that. It was like my tenth gig maybe! I was still at the point where I was in my bedroom, writing songs and suddenly I was thrust into this world at full speed. It was a crazy, unreal time.”

His ascent didn’t stop there. He became a household name in North America and Canada, had a viral TikTok moment with his song ‘Someone To You’ that led to him earning 15 million engagements daily (a figure that’s still growing) and his music amassed over 1.5 billion streams. ‘Someone To You’, also went Platinum and Gold in multiple countries and he appeared on American Idol as a mentor to the contestants.

He’s Liverpool’s best-kept secret right now, but that won’t last for long. It will only be a matter of time before the city has another musical hero to call its own.

DISCOVER BANNERS

lorraine longSeptember 30, 2022