If you’ve heard – and, like millions of others, fallen in love with – Frankie Stew and Harvey Gunn’s “Half of Mine” you will be thrilled to know that the UK duo’s collaborator on the single, Tarian, is finally releasing the original version of this startlingly beautiful song.
Also titled “Half of Mine”, the song marks the Welsh artist’s first official solo release, and gives notice of the emergence of a naturally gifted pop singer-songwriter, with true global appeal, into the mainstream.
It was back in 2021, deep in the global lockdown, that Tarian – real name Will John – wrote “Half of Mine” in his bedroom in South Wales. Even though he felt, deep in his bones, that the song had emerged with real heart and beauty, he wondered if anyone would ever listen to it. That’s because, until then, this alumni of the junior conservatoire at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and BIMM University graduate had mostly kept his musical output to himself, bar being in a metal band as a teenager and exploring producing and performing his own music, moving in an electronic folk direction, while living in Bristol.
“Half of Mine” found its first sonic home when Tarian sent it to Frankie Stew and Harvey Gunn after they issued a call out for music for a new album they were working on. Tarian had listened to Frankie Stew and Harvey Gunn for years (“they had been my Spotify Top Artist for years in a row”) and been to a bunch of their shows.
You can stream Tarian – Half of Mine (Alizé) on all platforms now.
Tarian Social Profiles: Instagram, Spotify,TikTok
“They are from this school of UK Hop Hop that is introspective, melancholy and melodic. It’s also quite emotional and I was always drawn to that. I thought ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ and I emailed them two or three demos, one of them being ‘Half of Mine’. A few days later they mailed back saying they loved the demo and they wanted to work on it during their next writing camp. That email validated that the demo was good and it was a real spark of hope for me. And then, within a few weeks, they sent me their demo and told me that they wanted it to be their next single.”
The Welsh songwriter’s original has a melody that’s distinct enough to draw you in while effortlessly carrying Stew’s introspective and emotionally affecting rapping and lacing in Tarian’s warm, tender vocal hook, all encased in the duo’s delicate production. More than two years later, “Half of Mine” – which appears on the duo’s September 2023 album, The South’s Got Something To Say – has reached more than one million streams.
“It’s amazing,” says Tarian. “I had been waiting for someone to come along and elevate my demos and, in some ways, that is what happened because Frankie and Harvey took ‘Half of Mine’ from me and elevated it, although in a totally unexpected way, but in a way that feels like I can now be a musician.”
For Tarian, it’s actually no real surprise that he is now going to be getting his music out, starting with the release of “Half of Mine” with more singles to follow.
“Ever since I was a kid, even when I was low and in a horrible space, I felt deep down that I was going to be a musician and that it would have meant something; that it will connect with people in a way that makes them feel that they are not alone in what they might be going through.”
