Few cities have shaped British guitar music like Manchester. The Madchester scene of the late 1980s, built around bands like The Stone Roses and venues like the Haçienda, gave way to the Britpop years of the 1990s, and the city has a habit of producing the sound a whole generation sings back at itself.
Oasis, who formed in Manchester in 1991, became one of the defining bands of Britpop alongside Blur, and their debut album Definitely Maybe arrived in 1994. The Verve, from nearby Wigan, carried the era's swagger into the late 1990s, and later bands such as Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian kept that guitar-band attitude alive for new audiences.
That is the tradition Cartyr steps into. He is the Britpop and indie-grit artist of DGG Productions, the Mancunian voice of swagger and grit: confident, unpolished and unmistakably Northern. His influences read like a Britpop reading list, from Oasis and Blur to Arctic Monkeys, The Verve and Kasabian.
His debut single, "The Mancunian (Northside)", is a Britpop-inspired anthem of Manchester pride, built on gritty guitars, a punchy mid-tempo groove and a vocal mixed right at the front. It is made for a pub singalong as much as a stadium chant, and it is due out soon.
As with every DGG Productions artist, the songwriting is human. Luke Carter, who performs as Sammi Dae, wrote, produced and sang the song himself before it was re-voiced through Cartyr's identity, which makes Cartyr the younger AI self of his creator, with a Mancunian accent to match.
Songs in this vein suit football and stadium content, travel and city-pride campaigns, and British drama, and they are available for sync licensing. Cartyr's profile has the full story.
