Artists to Watch: Ten Artists and Bands Who Are Bringing the Future of Music, Today

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WHO On her first day as the only black kid in a Philadelphia private school, Santi White hid in a corner at recess. "I didn't know what to do," she recalls. But before long, the charismatic daughter of a lawyer had conquered the school's social scene. "I was part of this clique, the Fearsome Fivesome," says White, who now mixes electronic beats with punk guitars and New Wave synths under the name Santogold. "We were mean to everyone. The school called my parents, and my mom said, 'I don't give a fuck! She's the only black girl — I'm glad she fits in.' "

SOUND After studying Cuban, Haitian and West African hand drumming at Wesleyan, White got a job in the A&R department of Epic Records in New York. (She now lives in Brooklyn.) But when an old friend, the alt-R&B singer Res, called for advice on finding a producer, White left her job to write and produce Res' ahead-of-its-time debut, How I Do, which combined rock, reggae and R&B.

White — who recently went solo after singing in the punk band Stiffed — will make her debut as Santogold next spring on an album that ranges from the dub-influenced "Shove It" to "L.E.S. Artistes," which sounds like a Cars/Strokes mash-up, to "Creator," which strongly resembles her friend M.I.A.'s latest album. "Nina Simone and HR from Bad Brains are my two biggest vocal influences," she says.

KEY TRACK "L.E.S. Artistes" The lyrics blast pretentious downtowners, but the taut guitars epitomize New York hipness.

THE BIG LEAGUES Björk invited her on tour; Mark Ronson recruited her to co-write a song for Lily Allen; Spank Rock regularly pulls her onstage; and M.I.A.'s producers Diplo and Switch volunteered to work on her wildly eclectic debut. "Santi has a wonderfully bizarre approach to melody and lyrics and has no care for conforming to mainstream guidelines," says Ronson. "I envy that."

Despite playing venues as large as Madison Square Garden when she opened for Björk, White is still getting comfortable onstage. "I'm not a ham," she says. But she doesn't want her audience to be limited to hipsters either. "I want a lot of people to hear my music," she says. "Who doesn't like a pop song?" BRIAN HIATT

Photograph by Theo Wenner

Next: Brett Dennen

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WHO Not many rockers are versed in wilderness survival. But Brett Dennen is the exception. The laid-back folk rocker spent his early twenties as a camp counselor in Yosemite, California, leading teens on backpacking trips through the Sierra Nevada mountains. The kids in his crew, many of whom were forced into the Outward Bound-style program by social workers or probation officers, weren't exactly suited for the environment, but he taught them how to purify water and set up shelter. "I pushed them to their limits," says Dennen, who was home-schooled by his mom, a gardener, and his dad, a carpenter, in Northern California. "We used to go boot skiing, where you can catch a snow patch and ski in your shoes. There were times when I had to tackle kids who were veering too close to the edge."

SOUND Many of the songs on Dennen's most recent album, 2006's So Much More, are inspired by his rustic upbringing. The twenty-eight-year-old turns out relaxed roots-rock jams about walking through the trees and watching desert sunsets. He's also got some serious guitar-playing chops — his finger-picked, jazz-influenced chord structures could be mistaken for Dave Matthews or early John Mayer tunes. In fact, Mayer has become one of Dennen's biggest fans: After catching a gig in California last year, Mayer asked Dennen to support him on tour and, aided by that exposure, So Much More recently peaked at Number One on the eMusic charts. "Sometimes I feel bad because I don't know the names of his songs," says Dennen of Mayer. "But I definitely think he's the shit."

KEY TRACK "Ain't No Reason" Dennen bites Jack Johnson's steez in lovely folk-rock ballad about — what else? — peace and love.

GIVING BACK Dennen still remains down-to-earth, with his altruism intact. Last year, he started Love Speaks, an organization that helps various local nonprofit groups set up information booths and address the audience from onstage before Dennen's performances. "It's bigger than me just singing and an audience listening," he says. "It's about making a positive change." KEVIN O'DONNELL

Photograph by Adam Cantor

Next: The Cool Kids

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WHO When the Cool Kids posted the video for their hypnotic, BMX-boosting track, "Black Mags," on their MySpace page this fall, they were hoping to do for bikes what Lupe Fiasco's "Kick Push" did for skateboards. "Not everybody can relate to skateboarding, because it's hard to do," says the retro-rap duo's Chuck, 23, who broke his ankle doing skater tricks last year. "But everybody rides bikes." Since "Black Mags" debuted, the Cool Kids have gone from an underground sensation in their native Chicago to the hottest ticket at New York's CMJ festival, where they played with A-trak (Kanye West's DJ) and wowed Warner Music Group CEO Lyor Cohen. "He offered me a beer and was like, 'Good shit,' " says Mikey, 19. "It doesn't get much better."

SOUND From their rope chains to their spare, bass-heavy beats, Chuck and Mikey bring a knowing wink to the style of Eighties heroes like Eric B and EPMD. Their anthem, "88," cops a mantra from Nas' "Made You Look": "Do the Smurf, do the wop, baseball bat/Rooftop like I'm bringin' '88 back." And yet on singles like "I Rock" and "Black Mags," the duo sounds effortlessly of-the-moment, earning its boast of being "the black Beastie Boys."

KEY TRACK "Black Mags" A retro-electro beat backs the duo's slick boasts about BMX bikes.

RAP FASHIONISTAS Chuck and Mikey have been lauded for their alt-B-boy fashion sense: brightly colored vinyl jackets, shell toes, hats and scarves. But Chuck was still flummoxed when a Chicago paper did a piece on them and their style. "The stuff I wear, I just wake up out of bed and put it on," he says. "Next thing you know, people are like, 'That's a cool sweater!' " EVAN SERPICK

Photograph by Huy Doan

Next: Black Kids

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WHO When you call your band Black Kids, fans remember your name. "We like that 'Black Kids' seems subversive," says Reggie Youngblood, the Jacksonville, Florida, group's lead singer and one of its two black members. (His younger sister, Ali, is the other.) But Youngblood admits the name is trickier for the quintet's white kids. "For a while, when a stranger asked about the band, they'd just say, 'Oh, you haven't heard of us.'"

SOUND That excuse no longer works, since Black Kids have gathered so much blog buzz over the past few months that they're already playing sold-out gigs for fans such as the Beastie Boys' Mike D. That acclaim is due mostly to the freewheeling indie-rock songs they posted on MySpace, earning them comparisons to Arcade Fire and the Cure. But with coed harmonies and snatches of R&B, Black Kids have a more classic pop sound than your typical indie-rock band — and they're more humble. Songs like "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" come from times Youngblood has had to keep his ego in check. "I've often had great chemistry with a girl on the dance floor," he says. "And then she'd leave with her flat-footed boyfriend." CHRISTIAN HOARD

KEY TRACK "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You" This danceable tune mixes arch lyrics with Cure-like vocals and a megacatchy chorus that exudes warmth.

Photograph by Adam Cantor

Next: Liam Finn

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WHO Liam Finn is such a dynamic performer that a biker gang once forced him to play all night. When the New Zealand singer-songwriter was in his first band at age sixteen, some brawny motorcyclists invited the group back to their clubhouse for an after-party gig. "We were like, 'OK, we're going to stop playing,' and they were like, 'No, you're not!' " Finn recalls. "All of a sudden it was seven in the morning, and they were all off their faces." Luckily, his more recent gigs have been less intimidating: The twenty-four-year-old has toured with Crowded House, his dad Neil Finn's band, over the past year while also recording his gorgeous folk-rock solo album, I'll Be Lightning.

SOUND Recorded with a mixing deck that once belonged to the Who, I'll Be Lightning melds Elliott Smith-style melodies with loosey-goosey execution and the big, airy harmonies of yacht rock. Finn plays every instrument on the album — and during live shows. Triggering loops he creates via pedals, he'll riff on guitar, go nuts on theremin and pummel a drum kit for a one-man-band extravaganza. "The aesthetic is DIY, leaving the woolly edges," he explains.

KEY TRACK "Second Chance" A tightly coiled low-fi tune that explodes into a psychedelic swirl of purring loops and frenzied drumming.

IN THE NAME OF . . . During his decade-long career, Finn has learned a valuable lesson about band names. His first one was Betchadupa. "I got a T-shirt that said 'Betchadupa I'm Polish,'" he says. "I later found out it meant 'Bet your ass I'm Polish.' It wasn't a wise move because we were forever asked what it means." Things have been smoother as plain old Liam Finn, he says. "Plus, it's a lot easier to stay alive when you're only looking after yourself." CARYN GANZ

Photograph by Liam Finn

Next: MGMT

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WHO Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser get a kick out of being irreverent pranksters. While studying music at Wesleyan University in Middleton, Connecticut, the pair formed the electronic-rock group MGMT (pronounced "management") and played at the college's notorious "clothing optional" dorm. The set list? The Ghost Busters theme song, performed ad nauseam. But whenever VanWyngarden or Goldwasser weren't on a stage, the two wrote more-traditional songs together, with the aim of signing to a major label. "We were this unknown band, but we talked a lot about selling out as soon as possible," says VanWyngarden. Still, when Columbia Records came courting them last year, MGMT couldn't bring themselves to take the process seriously. "We were really sarcastic when we met them," VanWyngarden recalls. "They asked us for a list of dream producers, so we made one: Prince, Barack Obama, Nigel Godrich and 'Not Sheryl Crow.' "

Eventually MGMT settled on Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann for their debut, Oracular Spectacular. (The disc officially comes out in January but is available on iTunes now.)

SOUND VanWyngarden and Goldwasser spike their pop songs with plenty of grit: "Kids" is a noisy New Order-style synth jam, the acoustic psych-rocker "Weekend Wars" cribs from the Rolling Stones, and "The Handshake" is a funked-up avant-rock composition that doesn't have traditional choruses or verses. "We redid a lot of our songs that sounded too polished," says Goldwasser. "Dave ended up running the tracks through this thing that crushed them and made them sound really gross again. They're a lot better now."

Despite major-label backing, MGMT have kept some indie cred: They've toured a few times with Of Montreal, and the art-rock group's frontman, Kevin Barnes, is working with VanWyngarden on a side project called Blik Fang. "They don't get hung up on having this anti-corporate punk-rock attitude," says Barnes. "And I think it's a good thing."

KEY TRACK "Time to Pretend" This space-rock gem mocks the clichéd coke-and-hookers rock-star lifestyle, over big synth whooshes.

BACK TO NATURE Even though VanWyngarden and Goldwasser have gone straight careerwise, they've kept their sense of humor. The keyboard melody on MGMT's best song, "Time to Pretend," a spoof of the stereotypical rock-star lifestyle, was inspired by the jerky movements of the duo's pet praying mantis. After the insect died, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser kept its egg sac, which soon hatched, unleashing hundreds of baby praying mantises in their house. "We tried to name them all, but they died after a day," says Goldwasser. "It was the dead of winter, so there wasn't much we could do," adds VanWyngarden. "But the praying-mantis dance inspired us." KEVIN O'DONNELL

Photograph by Chris Stanford

Next: Kate Nash

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WHO Last April, the future looked bleak for Kate Nash. She'd been rejected twice from college and was slinging jeans at a chain boutique in London when a spill down the stairs left her with a broken foot. "I couldn't face another year of rubbish jobs," she says. Laid up in bed with a laptop and a guitar, Nash posted demos to her MySpace page. One caught the ear of Lily Allen, who bumped Nash into her Top Eight. The boost launched a frenzy of comparisons — "Can everyone please stop calling Kate Nash the next Lily Allen?" Allen pleaded on her blog — but it helped Nash's debut album, Made of Bricks, hit Number One in the U.K. It's due stateside in January.

SOUND Nash lambasts misbehaving boyfriends over breezy piano and acoustic guitar. And she doesn't mince words: "Why you being a dickhead for?" she spits at one dude. Nash, who studied at the same performing-arts high school as Amy Winehouse, says she sees herself as a storyteller, and her raconteur chops are especially sharp on "Foundations," where she chastises her sloppy-drunk crush for puking on her new sneakers. True story? "Actually, it was me — I threw up on my friend's shoes!" she admits.

KEY TRACK "Foundations" Nash makes dude-dissing fun on this bouncy cut, airing boyfriend grievances over sunny piano pop.

STAR-STRUCK Nash, who still lives with her parents, is resisting the celebrity vortex. She even nixed an invite to Björk's Halloween party. "I feel like an outsider looking in on all these celebrities," she says. "I would just be in the corner getting drunk." NICOLE FREHSÉE

Photograph by Clair Nash

Next: Estelle

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WHO Talk about a self-made star: British singer-rapper Estelle spent her childhood "flipping secular music to gospel" with her eight siblings. "We'd take Brandy's 'Best Friend' and make it about God being your best friend," says the twenty-seven-year-old West London native, born Estelle Swaray. Years later, she took a job at a London record shop frequented by stars like Talib Kweli, and started making her own rap albums. But local labels were baffled by her unique style. "That's been the story of my career," Estelle says, sighing. " 'We don't know what to do with you because it's not been done before.' So I just do it myself."

SOUND Estelle started a label, released mix tapes and approached a pre-College Dropout Kanye West cold after spotting him outside Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles in Los Angeles. Kanye hooked her up with John Legend, and the two R&B singers hit it off at a studio the next day, and later collaborated on The 18th Day, her debut full-length, which got play nearly everywhere but the States. Together, Legend and Estelle also prepped her forthcoming album, Shine, the first release on Legend's Homeschool Records. Kanye, Mark Ronson, Swizz Beatz and Cee-Lo make cameos on the disc, which swings with the boogie funk of "American Boy" and reggae-rooted tracks like "Magnificent."

KEY TRACK "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)" A groovy girl-power twist on Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You."

REMINDS ME OF . . . When Estelle jumps from singing the hook of the Will.i.am-produced soul-hop single, "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)," into a laid-back but feisty rap, it's nearly impossible not to mouth the words "Lauryn Hill" — even Wyclef Jean says Estelle's an artistic dead ringer for the Fugee. But Legend says his éprotégé holds her own creatively. "I think because she's West African and West Indian and British, that unique blend comes through in the eclectic nature of the album," he says.

Cementing that point, Estelle reveals, "Freddie Mercury is my dude, and I loved Guns n' Roses, Aerosmith and Duran Duran." And if that sounds like a strange combination of influences to you, she doesn't really mind. "Love me or hate me, who gives a damn?" she says with a laugh. "I'm a real chick." CARYN GANZ

Photograph by Adam Cantor

Next: Year Long Disaster

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WHO When Daniel Davies was learning to play guitar at fourteen, his dad complained about the noise — not unusual, except that his father is the Kinks' Dave Davies. "Even when your dad does something cool for a living, he's still your dad," says Daniel, who picked up the instrument in order to bond with his father. Over the years, Daniel's noisy skronk evolved into Zeppelin-style anthems. Now he channels that spirit in the L.A. trio Year Long Disaster.

SOUND With Davies' reedy yowl, Richard Mullins' speed-rock bass line and drummer Brad Hargreaves' assured rhythms, YLD play raw, Seventies-style rock with exotic song titles: "Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu" takes its name from Davies' Italian poster for Clint Eastwood's For a Few Dollars More, and "Leda Atomica" is the title of a Salvador Dali painting.

KEY TRACK "Leda Atomica" A speed-metal mash-up of "Smoke on the Water" and "Gimme Shelter."

GETTING KINKSY Davies and Mullins bonded over drugs in 2003 and became roomies. A year later, they sobered up and saw Hargreaves perform and asked him to play with them, not knowing Hargreaves had been rehearsing with Third Eye Blind to portray the Kinks on NBC's American Dreams. Blown away by the coincidence, Hargreaves joined and YLD were born. EVAN SERPICK

Photograph by Jeremy Cowart

Next: OneRepublic

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WHO It's taken OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder seven years and four record deals to finally capitalize on his big break. Back in 2000, Tedder won a Lance Bass-sponsored talent search, performing a self-penned, falsetto-laden pop song, "The Look," on MTV's TRL at the height of that show's popularity. A deal with Bass' label didn't amount to anything, but Timbaland happened to see the TRL performance, and he sought Tedder out. "He sounded like John Mayer, but better," says the producer, who had Tedder accompany him to studios around the world for two years and gave him a guest spot on the 2003 Bubba Sparxxx song "She Tried."

But Tedder was no closer to an album of his own, so he parted ways with Timbaland and started a band with his school pal Zach Filkins. As OneRepublic, they quickly signed to Columbia — which dropped them just as quickly after they turned in their debut. Finally, Timbaland — now boasting new-found pop cred and a new label with Interscope — came back into the picture last year, signing his long-lost éprotégé to a new deal. He included a remix of the OneRepublic ballad "Apologize" on his platinum album Shock Value, and it's now a Top Ten hit. "It's completely bizarre," Tedder says of his band's long and complicated backstory. "But when something good happens, you accept it and roll with it."

SOUND OneRepublic's debut album, Dreaming Out Loud, is an ultracommercial blend of lightly rocking Coldplay-style tunes and R&B-flavored ballads, topped by Tedder's supersmooth vocals. Tedder cites Stevie Wonder, Oasis, the Beatles, Peter Gabriel and Radiohead among his influences. "It's really just a collection of everything that I love musically," he says.

KEY TRACK "Stop and Stare" After the R&B-style "Apologize," O.R. prove their rock chops with this Coldplay-esque slow-burner. LISTEN

SECRET IDENTITY Tedder also has a lucrative side career as a writer and producer under the name Alias — he's written and produced songs for artists such as Jennifer Lopez, American Idol's Blake Lewis, even Tupac. But now he wants to focus on his own band. "I didn't move to L.A. to be a writer-producer, I moved here to be an artist — and you get one shot at this in your life," he says. "Well, I guess I've had two." BRIAN HIATT

Photograph by Stephen Albanese

Next: Check out the Artists to Watch from Issue 1023 — April 5, 2007

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Artists to Watch 2008
Low vs Diamond, Laura Izibor, Ra Ra Riot, 3OH!3, Lykke Li and Dead Confederate
[From Issue 1060 — September 4, 2008]

Artists to Watch 2008
Foals, Leona Lewis, Chester French, Duffy, PlayRadioPlay!, Wale and Does It Offend You, Yeah?
[From Issue 1049 — April 3, 2008]

Artists to Watch 2007
The Academy Is..., Mika, Lavender Diamond, Rich Boy, the Fratelli, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lifesavas, Amy Winehouse, Manchester Orchestra, Rose Hill Drive
[From Issue 1023 — April 5, 2007]

Artists to Watch 2006
TV on the Radio, the Boy Least Likely To, Rock Kills Kid, Wolfmother, Nicole Atkins, Matt White, the Whigs, Papoose, Daniel Powter, Bonde do Role
[From Issue 997 — April 6, 2006]