Angus Powell was born in England but grew up in Mid Wales, in an old derelict mill house (‘Tyr Felin’:Mill House) converted by his father in a small village called Pennant. With Mountains as a back garden and a river either side of the house, the sound and feel of nature was part of his formative life. Attending a Welsh bilingual school he sang in Eisteddfods both solo and in choirs and played Piano, violin and Saxophone from an early age.
Angus spent hours lost in parent’s record collections, sitting with their oversized headphones on, playing the same songs over and over again, obsessing with the artwork. Otis Reading, Beatles, Motown and the favourite–Jeff Wayne’s dark concept album ‘War of the Worlds’ had a huge affect on his taste in music. A BA in performing arts followed in Manchester but he spent most of his time in basement studios, later moving away from acting, joining bands and touring worldwide, while he found his own voice and honed his songwriting skills. He delved into pop along the way, learning more about recording and finally turning to learn the guitar, the next missing part of his musical puzzle.
Going on to do a course in music production and audio engineering and taking a year out to study Songwriting, he continued writing in a glorified squat in London with no money, finally moving back to Wales where he set up a small bedroom studio and spent the next few months recording and writing, waiting until the roads were quiet after 10pm and spending the nights playing and recording his music.
This is where his song Monsters came from, the first signal of his dark, emotional, yet fragile musical sound. When Angus writes, he does so: " ..with images in my head, pictures and colours, creating scenes for the emotions to live. I think this is why the tracks work with picture – despite some people’s interpretation I don’t ever write about Love. It’s all about timeless spaces and open emotions, fears and realizations..."
Sending his music out to anyone and everyone he could find, with pictures in mind, it lead him to getting the attention of LA based music sync agent Danny Benair: "In the world of random emails with people asking you to listen to their music. I Listened…I loved his voice and his lyrics and the production. He sounds like a classic songwriter from another era and from 2017 and many years to come. I was blown away immediately as was the Film and TV community"
Danny sent out Angus's music to great reactions from Film and TV, and at the same time, Angus came to the attention of Halogen Music, a new London based, Sync/Hybrid company, who took Angus under their wing, making him their first key signing, finishing and releasing the "Monsters" EP worldwide. The title track from the EP soon became legendary US radio station KCRW's Top Tune of the Day and with Danny representing them for Sync in the US, his music was used in worldwide syndicated Television shows, including "Elementary", "Bones", "Kingdom" & "Finding Carter" and indie films like "Go North" (starring Jacob Lofland), 100 Streets (Starring Idris Elba) etc.
Over the past 18 months, Angus recorded his debut album, Before The Grey, with all three principals of Halogen taking roles on the record, Angus working closely with Halogen Producer Paul Moessl to create a lush sonic soundscape interwoven around his stunning songs. As Angus recounts: “I recorded both in Mid Wales and Great Malvern, travelling back and forth. I always took the mountain road, leaving before the world woke up and returning after the day had retired. There is nothing more inspiring than those sunrises and no better way to reflect on the days work than with those sundowns..”
The result is the beautiful, sometimes dark debut album, Before The Grey, mastered by Pink Floyd Engineer Andy Jackson, with tracks including the brooding "Shiver", the epic sound of "Pulls Me Under", the beautiful contemporary hint of the Welsh hymn “Calon Lan" that leads into Powell’s honest “Turnaround” and the song possibly that started this musical journey, "Monsters".
“Beautiful – So heart breaking so beautiful” Jen Long -BBC Radio one
‘Heart wrenching and cathartic’ Ally McCrae - BBC Radio One
‘Instantly evoking’ Ian Parker – For Folks Sake
‘One to watch’ Tom Robinson – Fresh on the Net /BBC radio*