London-based singer-songwriter and producer Gareth Donkin has shared his funk-filled new single “GEEK OUT!” featuring quickly, quickly and The Breathing Effect. Over a swirl of gooey synths and an infectiously groovy bass line, Donkin joyously celebrates the high of making music into the late hours of the night.

Along with the release of “GEEK OUT!”, the 23-year-old has just announced his signing with drink sum wtr, a new label partnership between Ghostly International and Secretly’s All Flowers Group. Championing some of the most distinct voices in hip-hop and R&B, the NYC-based label is focused on artist development in an increasingly algorithm-driven landscape. “Gareth makes music reminiscent of the best era in R&B,” says drink sum wtr Founder & President Nigil Mack. “The sonic landscape of Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye approach. Great concepts with amazing atmospheric production. Gareth is a superstar, and we’re very excited to go embark on this journey with him.” 

Born with perfect pitch, Gareth Donkin was already fanatically obsessed with both jazz piano and drums before he turned 12. In high school, he began DJing and teaching himself to record and sample. By the time he headed to the Leeds College of Music to pursue a degree in production, he was already writing and recording his own material at home.

Donkin’s first single, “Catharsis,” would go on to rack up more than 1,000,000 streams on Spotify, and a series of subsequent tracks would find similarly organic success and help land him a deal with the label drink sum wtr. Gareth is quickly making a name for himself with his stunning mix of instrumental virtuosity and emotional intuition, blending sophisticated melodic and harmonic craftsmanship with moving lyrical explorations of longing, desire, and determination.

“It would have been around this time last year when I received one of my favourite texts to date from quickly, quickly (Graham Jonson) whilst I sat on a train from London to Leeds,” Donkin explains on the origins of “GEEK OUT!” “The text was a single .mp3 file titled ‘GROOVE HOG’; I untangled my earphones, played the track and was in complete awe, then played that track on repeat for the entire three-hour train journey. Two months had passed after receiving ‘GROOVE HOG’, and having listened to the track for days and weeks on end, I still had nothing. Then one day in April lightning struck the clock tower, and I finally started to write and record lyrics inspired by working on music into the early hours and geeking out about it! The same day, I sent a bounce of my recording to Graham and well, the rest is history.”

“‘GEEK OUT!’ came about as The Breathing Effect boys were in town for a weekend,” quickly, quickly adds. I had never met either of them before but had been a fan of the music for a while. We made the instrumental on the last day they were here, and it happened pretty sporadically. No metronome, birthed from a jam. After they left, I fleshed it out into a full track and figured, ‘I don’t have the voice to do this justice but GARETH totally does. I sent it to him, he sent me a demo like three days later, and the rest is history. Love what he did with it, the absolute bloody legend mate.”

“Graham invited us up to his home studio for a weekend and we were extremely inspired by his world and his workflow,” says The Breathing Effect. “This jam was an instant favorite, and we’re super grateful that Gareth heard exactly what we hoped the vocal would become.”

Photo Courtesy: John Liwag