His sprawling content, consisting of love, loss and religion, is incredibly see through and relatable, as he guides the listener through his multifaceted life. Set to release his debut album later this year, the follow up to 2014 mixtape Bespoke and 2016’s Painting Sounds, he is laying down yet more bricks of his life, mapping out an overall journey of self-discovery and growth. “I’m really proud of this album,” Barney says, “because I know that’s what I stand for and how I want people to feel about what I say, and now I have a platform to say it. The ability to be able to do that is important.”

The album is the culmination of a life-long journey for Barney. Growing up in Forest Gate, East London in a single parent household, he was immersed in the church by his mother but also “taught to be tough” in an area where many had nothing but protected it strongly. He found his musical calling as a late teenager, substituting a passion for acting when his best friend, fellow artist Alfa Mist, introduced him to jazz music. “[Alfa] teaches himself the piano at 17,” he explains, “and I was doing really shit grime at the time, then I realised the beats that he was making were jazz influenced, so I started my bars to that sound. I was really into entertainment and I just worked really hard on the music before listening to any hip-hop – I did it the wrong way around. I started from Tribe, Kanye, Lupe, finding who influenced who and going back in time. You learn so much that way and find out so many cool things.”

He released his first songs in 2013 and hasn’t looked back, scoring arguably his biggest release in 2014 with ‘Space’. Resultingly, his music has garnered over two million streams on Soundcloud, three million on Spotify and over 100,000 on YouTube, and support from the likes of NME, i-D, Clash, Complex and GRM Daily and a guest spot on BBC 1Xtra documentary The Skin I’m In. He is also a strong presence on stage, having just concluded a UK wide support tour with Alfa Mist and is set to rip up the festival stages of the Ghostnotes, Love Supreme Jazz Festival, World Island Barn on the Farm later this year.