AJ Wander, the son of a pianist father, had music in his genes from an early age. Varying instruments were scattered around his childhood home in the suburbs of south-east London – a musical landscape that inspired a young AJ to sing, play and eventually to write.
AJ’s debut single, ‘Time Out’, was written soon after an explosive breakup and represents the moment that AJ realised he had to let his first love go. This single has garnered over 4M streams in just over one year.
The song is one of several tracks recorded in London and Barcelona with producer Brad Mair (Dean Lewis, Jamie Cullum, Kygo) which will culminate in Wander’s first EP due in late 2022.
While his songs tackle relational pain lyrically, they are uplifting and 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.
His forthcoming EP “definitely plots out the course of a breakup and its aftermath,” Wander says of these tracks. “It’s me reasoning with myself, working out why it happened, justifying it, and trying to understand it. Self-therapy through music – a way of me dealing with my emotions.”
“The songs I write mean the world to me. There would be nothing more amazing than to see them mean something to others too.”