Secret Night Gang sign to Brownswood

Following on from their now legendary (because we said so) live session as part of our stage at We Out Here; Online & On Air in 2020, Manchester’s SNG sign to Brownswood.

Handpicked by Gilles Peterson from Manchester’s vibrant live music scene, and newly signed to Brownswood, 2021 set to be the main stage for them to breeze on to the scene, as a multi-generational band breathing new life into the classic British street-soul sound, founded by singer/song-writer Kemani Anderson, multi-instrumentalist and song-writer Callum Connell and Manchester music scene stalwart Stuart Whitehead.

Kemani started singing as a child in the pentecostal church “I would hear songs sung about life, joy, happiness, sorrow and pain. Hearing such beautiful gospel music growing up as a child and even to this day was and is the reason why I’m so into music now and going forwards. Gospel music has a special place in my heart as it would be the genre of music I would hear my mother sing and shine on the praise and worship team or hear my brother play bass/drums a long with the other musicians in the church.” He connected with Callum at school, where they played in the steel pan band together. Having a shared love of writing music they bonded sharing their own influences from gospel, folk, soul funk and R&B. Together, encouraged by their music teacher Tom Burford (aka Rhythm Section’s Contours) they started attending jam nights like ‘Jam Street’ and ‘Matt and Phreds’. From these nights they connected with bass player Stuart Whitehead in 2018, and after a summer of endless late nights was spent rehearsing and writing at Old Trafford rehearsal rooms next to a tram yard, decided to form Secret Night Gang. With the band expanding to include drummer Myke Wilson (52nd Street, The Jazz Defektors, Swing Out Sister) and Jack Duckham on guitar, the generations come together to carve out their own lane, a real celebration of exceptional songwriting and musicianship to expand on their indefinable eclectic sound.

Check out their session below and head over to here to grab a copy of the latest single, The Sun.