Ones to Watch 2015

Over the next 10 days we’ll be publishing Breaking More Waves 10 Ones to Watch for 2015.

Of the artists chosen, the vast majority will be of no surprise to regular readers. This list is effectively a summary of many of the emerging music makers that we’ve featured on previous Breaking More Waves posts in the last year or so who we are taking guess on as worth keeping an ear and eye out for in 2015, although not necessarily because all of these artists will become big commercial hitters (although we hope that some of them do). There will however be one artist that we’ve not yet featured to date, just to keep you on your toes.

We've been asked by a number of people this year why do we publish this list so early? After all it’s still only November. 2015 is still a distance away. So this post provides an explanation of why:

1. Other Polls - Particularly The Blog Sound Poll

Over the December and January period there will no doubt be many Ones to Watch / Sound of type features cropping up on websites, blogs and the in media in general including of course the much debated BBC Sound of 2015 poll and the lesser known Blog Sound of Poll. As one of the organisers of the Blog Sound Poll we get to see every vote that is submitted by participating bloggers. Therefore we could be influenced by those votes in publishing our list and we very much want to make this list our own. So we write our list and the associated posts in October before the Blog Sound Poll voting starts, publishing in November around the time the voting nears completion.

2. Music Blogging Sometimes Has To Take A Back Seat

During late November / early December, with the exception of a small handful of posts, we take a few weeks off from writing the blog for personal reasons. Whilst we’ve got our blogging feet up (don’t worry – we’re very busy elsewhere, we’re not just lounging around eating mince pies, smoking a pipe and drinking fine sherry - there's a day job, family and friends to think about) the blog itself remains active, publishing first our Ones To Watch and then Albums of 2014 posts, one a day. They're all pre-written. We have to start publishing in November to fit it all in. Sure we could just do one post and do one big list, but we like the idea of a drip feed - something for regular readers to catch up on for a few minutes each day.

3. Signing Off A Year With A Bunch Of Lists Feels Good - A Sense Of Achievement

We could really publish a Ones To Watch post at any point in the year, looking forward to the next twelve months, but as we get close to the closedown of one year and start of another it feels nice to bookmark that time with these lists and enables us to take the time off described. 

4. Tradition

It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to publish this list every year around this time and go early with it. Want to see who we selected previously? There’s been a fair few big hitters, including the likes of Florence & The Machine, Mumford & Sons, Marina & The Diamonds, Ellie Goulding, Chvrches, Haim, James Blake, Lana Del Rey, Charli XCX and James Blake. Anyone remember Visions of Trees or Yes Giantess though? The full lists are below.

We’ll be publishing our first one to watch for 2015 at 9.30am today and then one will follow every day at 8.30am GMT until all ten have been published. The one rule for this year is that every artist must not have had a UK top 40 hit single before the list is published.

The Previous Ones To Watch Lists In Full

Ones to Watch 2009 (10 artists)

La Roux, Little Boots, Passion Pit, Yes Giantess, White Lies, Skint & Demoralised, Alessi’s Ark, Florence & The Machine, Mumford & Sons, Marina & The Diamonds

Ones to Watch 2010 (10 artists)

Ellie Goulding, Hurts, Beth Jeans Houghton, Unicorn Kid, Delphic, Clare Maguire, Stornoway, Mirrors, Holly Miranda, Clock Opera

Ones to Watch 2011 (10 artists)

Clare Maguire (2nd nomination after failing to release anything in 2010), James Blake, Misty Miller, The Vaccines, Starsmith, Let’s Buy Happiness, The Milk, D/R/U/G/S, Visions Of Trees, Spark

Ones to Watch 2012 (15 artists)

Lucy Rose, Spector, Alabama Shakes, Foxes, Dot Rotten, Lianne La Havas, Lana Del Rey, Willy Moon, Michael Kiwanuka, Queen Of Hearts, The Staves, Ren Harvieu, Outfit, Charli XCX, Rachel Sermanni

Ones to Watch 2013 (15 artists)

Chvrches, Haim, Gabrielle Aplin, Savages, Chasing Grace, Tom Odell, Sons & Lovers, Avec Sans, Laura Mvula, Curxes, Matt Corby, The Night VI, Luke Sital-Singh, Valerie June, Alice Jemima

Ones to Watch 2014 (10 artists)

Wolf Alice, Chloe Howl, Sophie Jamieson, Jungle, Flyte, Mononoke, George Ezra, Banks, Eva Stone, Iyes

Stay tuned as we publish one post a day for the next 10 days, including at the weekend.