Introducing hot new act AJ Wander who has just released his eagerly awaited debut single “Time Out” today the 5 November - following huge signings with the US-based Elevation Group and UK-based BDi Music during the pandemic. Produced by Brad Mair (Dean Lewis, Jamie Cullum, Kygo, Twin Atlantic), “Time Out” is a prime example of London-based AJ Wander’s type of emotive, substantive pop songwriting. He is one of the British artists to watch in 2021.

The song, written soon after an explosive breakup, offers an intimate take on a universally relatable topic - relationships. The catharsis that came from writing “Time Out” inspired Wander to continue down this creative path - resulting in the tracks “Eye to Eye”, “Way We Walk” and “Back to Back” – all recorded and produced in Barcelona by Mair just prior to the lockdown and scheduled to be released in 2021 as a part of Wander’s debut EP.

“It definitely plots out the course of the aftermath of a breakup” AJ Wander says of these tracks. “It's me reasoning with myself and working out why it happened and justifying it and trying to understand it. My songs are a sort of self-therapy - they are a way of me dealing with my emotions.”
While these songs tackle relational pain lyrically, each track is uplifting, not despairing. They carry a more cinematic, inspiring quality that stays with the listener in the truest sense of pop traditions. Wander’s emotionally engaging tenor and melodic piano riffs provide a warmth and depth rarely seen from a young songwriter. He takes pride in having found his true voice as a pop songwriter, pointing to the masters of the genre, from Elton John to the late Amy Winehouse, as inspirations for his own work. He explains “I think people often get afraid of labeling themselves as ‘pop’ because they think it cheapens them. But I try to make pop with substance.”

In a strange way, brand new, pop singer-songwriter, Wander, can look at the COVID-19 pandemic as the time that his moment arrived. Prior to the ongoing pandemic, AJ Wander had been running himself ragged playing covers at piano bars and hotels across the United Kingdom. “Even though I knew my passion was my own music, I got sidetracked as I needed to pay the rent” he admits. When the UK’s lockdown eliminated his ability to grind out a living, Wander took the pandemic’s early days to reconsider his priorities, turning all focus to his own music and a career as a solo artist.

Through his unwillingness to cave in the face of a global shutdown, Wander networked his way to a management and recording deal with Elevation, a USA-based music company that specializes in artist development, the production of music festivals and who won an Emmy Award for their 2011 Music of Ireland documentary hosted by Moya Brennan, featuring U2, The Chieftains, The Cranberries, Glen Hansard, The Script and many other great Irish artists. Simultaneously, Sarah Liversedge, MD of BDi Music, a highly respected music publishing company in the UK, signed Wander to an exclusive publishing agreement. BDi is administered globally by Bucks Music Group.

Wander, a one-time member of the English indie band Tors, delivers “Time Out” across all digital platforms worldwide today the 5 November 2020.