Pharrell Williams Loves Him. We Love Him. Get To Know Rationale...

Eloquent, a voice like silk, the backing of Pharrell Williams - Rationale seems to have the whole package so it was a no brainer to include him in our Brand New For 2016 list this year.

With just one official EP released so far, and the brand new 'Something For Nothing', you'd be forgiven for not having yet heard his considered, soulful tones but this changes now. During the filming with our Brand New artists we caught up with the 'Fuel To The Fire' singer to talk his influences, getting the nod from Pharrell and more...

"I've been writing music for as long as I can remember and producing music, I think it came about as a necessity," he said. "Much like any musician I think you find yourself in a position where you have to do things by yourself.

"A lot of my music is born out of pure stubbornness and perseverance, so the production has just come as long as I've been songwriting."

"Hip Hop has had a massive influence on the things that I do," he continued. "Although you wouldn't miss a day when I was 16 and rocking out to S Club 7...Um, I just said S Club 7...that's OK. They were brilliant. Pop music is a massive, massive influence on me. In this particular project I think it's heavily influenced by a lot of 80s music and 80s pads and synths and just melodies that are really interesting and almost romantic in an odd way."

Last year Rationale was propelled to No.2 in Spotify's Global Viral Chart when Pharrell Williams spun the elegant 'Fast Lane' on his Beats1 show. Speaking of how the track came about Rationale told us:

"You know when you're making music you can pop out lots of demos and tracks in a week if you want to. ['Fast Lane'] was almost a beautiful mistake, and I went in with that kind of idea and it literally just happened really, really quickly. And the reaction to that one track was absolutely insane.

"Pharrell Williams was really, really complimentary about my music alongside Justin Timberlake which was nuts in itself, and these are people that I used to stand in a mirror in my bedroom throwing shapes to and trying to mimic and all of a sudden they were complimenting my music."

"I'm not really good at gauging how good or bad my music is, I think I just tend to make it. One thing that I always tend to remember about any act I love is, not necessarily what they look like or what they're rocking in terms of clothes and stuff like that, it's just the music, it's everlasting, it's the only thing that's going to matter in the end.

Of the music he's released so far he explained: "We had the music pop out and the reaction was based on the music, so we thought let's just keep pushing the music out, let's not worry about the image behind it, that was sincere, hopefully, and successful on those merits, hopefully."

Looking forward though, he told us: "2016 will be for me hopefully an awesome year, you release something and it's there and available for people to enjoy. So for me, much like the idea of the project, it's just to cut the fat off anything that's unnecessary and pop out as much music as possible and the shows are something I'm going to work really hard on. I want them to be inclusive and something you go and visit and watch and come back remembering it, and making sure you tell people about it because it was that exciting."

To vote for Rationale, tweet "#MTVBrandNew Rationale", post a pic on Instagram with #MTVBrandNew Rationale" in the description or comment the same on this Facebook post here.

By Michael Pell

MTV Brand New For 2016 is presented by Emporio Armani Diamonds.

7 Things Every Rationale Fan Needs To Know

• 1. He was born in Harare…

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• 2. … but now lives in London.

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• 3. He has some famous fans including Pharrell and Justin Timberlake.

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• 4. Pharrell Williams even played his track 'Fast Lane' on his Beats1 show.

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• 5. He admits that Hip-Hop has always been a big inspiration, but that didn't stop him rocking out to the likes of S Club 7 as well.

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• 6. His current project is heavily influenced by the 80s.

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• 7. He will be heading on a headline tour later this year so be sure to get your tickets soon!

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