How Bakar is bringing back rock

London being the melting pot of culture that it is, young musicians of all kinds flock to the city to share their message with today’s youth.

Unfortunately, some of these genres tend to get underrepresented, and with the rise in popularity in grime, electronic and indie, the popular sentiment that good ol’ rock & roll is dead, stuck in the past and not going anywhere, is a sentiment that has never been more prominent.

Jack White, ex-frontman of the White Stripes, recently commented that rock needed ‘an injection of some new young blood to really just knock everybody dead right now’.

Bakar, born and raised in Camden Town, is the young blood that the genre needs, bringing a modern Foals-influenced sound to his rock music.

Having released his latest album Badkid in May this year, the musician has been working hard performing and is touring the country in October, playing in Bristol, Dublin and London.

The Badkid himself built his fanbase from nothing, relying on the beauty of the music he made to speak for itself rather than paying for publicity or selling out on social media.

Badkid is an album that covers a whole variety of sounds and emotions. Bakar himself explains that it was meant to be ‘a scrapbook – an intense half hour of different moods and ideas,’ an album that represented ‘the sound of London right now’.

Combining hazy, beautiful riffs with trap beats and a powerful punk sound at times, as well as politically infused social commentary in his lyrics, it is a beautiful album which has been praised by such prolific artists as Skepta, Elton John and Virgil Abloh.

In an era where originality is so hard to find, Bakar should pride himself on his unique sound.

If you’re looking for a new young rockstar to follow, then Bakar is the one for you.

Badkid is out on Apple Music and Spotify for streaming.