BAFTA Award-winning neo-soul duo Tendai + Glen have just released their new single ‘If I’d Been Honest’ – and it’s a belter.
What happens when you cross a Zimbabwean-born singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and West End star with a BAFTA Award-winning composer/producer? Safe to say, you get some damn good music.
Paying homage to Tendai Humphrey Sitima and Glen Andrew Brown’s deep-rooted influences in Soul and Jazz, ‘If I’d Been Honest’ is a neo-pop anthem that was made with stadiums in mind. The song’s gentle introduction will leave you floating through your room before getting smashed in the face with a hook that demands nothing but your full attention. Shaking like a wild animal that whips and snarls at the eardrum, the song pleads to be louder, begging for enough space to stretch in the music it’s bound to.
Tamed only through the talent of Tendai + Glen, ‘If I’d Been Honest’ is nothing short of a masterpiece.
We’d tell you that the ‘If I’d Been Honest’ is a song about knowing your own self-worth and denying change for the sake of others – but why would we, when Tendai + Glen could do so themselves?
‘‘If I’d Been Honest’ is about knowing your own value and refusing to change, especially when being asked to do so by people who try to extract your value for selfish reasons – and who, in doing so, take away bits of who you are and what you are’, explains Sitima. ‘It’s about being able to recognise that [you’ve] got your own weight in gold, and know your worth, and that you aren’t going to change for anyone. It’s a series of images that show how it feels when you’re being offered what people tell you is the world, but you respond with a ‘no’, because you know that the world you’re being promised isn’t the one you want.’
.
Now, we know what you’re thinking: ‘but One on One, how could I possibly not have heard of these guys before?’ Well, old friends, whilst you may be unfamiliar with Tendai + Glen, they’re not exactly fresh faces.
Glen Andrew Brown is a BAFTA Award-winning composer, sound designer, and audio post-production engineer. Having contributed music to numerous PlayStation titles, including ‘Returnal’ and ‘God of War’, he is also known for his work in theatre, having written the score for the critically acclaimed West End adaptations of The Great Gatsby (alongside Tendai).
Tendai Humphrey Sitima is a RADA-trained actor; a jazz and soul singer; a composer; and a talented multi-instrumentalist. Currently starring in The Play That Goes Wrong on London’s West End, he previously starred in The Great Gatsby (for which, alongside Glen, he also composed the score. What a talented git, eh?).
