Conor Maynard

“A million is not enough anymore,” brags 19-year-old Brighton lad Conor Maynard – he’s not referring to outrageous earnings, though we’re reasonably confident that that too is on the horizon. The young singer found success online by covering popular songs on YouTube, his videos racking in high audiences. A cover of Ne-Yo’s “Beautiful Monster” scored a million views and video hits followed suit. “After that it just rocketed,” he beams, “I now have two videos that have over eight million views each, and others with two or three. It’s amazing.”
Discovering his talents, seemingly by accident, was a girl at school who overheard Conor singing the R Kelly and Usher song “Same Girl”. The following day word spread among the student populace and Conor found himself being hassled to sing all the time. Eventually he decided to upload his efforts on the internet and share his vocals more easily. As the online visits skyrocketed, it wasn’t long before interest came from a suspicious source.
“I was contacted by someone from New York who said they worked with Ne-Yo and that he wanted to sign me,” he recalls, “the caller sounded like he had such a typical New Yorker accent that I thought it could be one of my friends down the road. But we arranged to have a meeting over Skype, and one night I received a Skype call; it said ‘Santos calling’ or something, and I thought ‘Oh god, is it going to be all my friends having a laugh?’ – but it was Ne-Yo. He said, ‘Hello sir.’”
After one of the biggest names in R&B pop had shown interest, attention quickly followed from major record labels. “They were all asking, ‘who is this British kid that Ne-Yo wants to work with?’” Signing to Parlophone at the end of last year, he is now preparing for the release of his debut single. But wait, an internet star who draws the attention of a major artist and gets signed by a major label to release their own material… didn’t Justin Bieber live this modern fairy tale already?
“If I am going to be compared to one of the biggest artists in the world right now, then it’s not a bad start,” Conor ripostes. “But the album will cut through the comparison,” he adds confidently. Working with major names across the globe, including Jermaine Dupri who produced Usher’s, one of his idols, albums, his pop-infused, hip-hop-tinged beats will see him closer to his ultimate hero, Justin Timberlake (“he has done everything I want to do with my life”). But he’s already well on his way to success with awards – he was granted the MTV Brand New For 2012 gong even before he released his debut single, “Can’t Say No”. And with a 175, 000-members Facebook fan page and a YouTube channel that’s the 7th most watched channel in the UK, he’s got his online fans’ unwavering support on his side. But has he received any suggestive emails or tweets from fans yet?
“I don’t think I’ve had any cases of that just yet,” he laughs. “But someone once told me that they conceived a baby while one of my songs was playing in the background. Which must have been a beautiful moment. But it’s kind of weird at the same time.”

[Originally published in Rollacoaster Issue 4, February 2012. Photography by Ben McDade.]