Born in Uganda, raised in Newcastle and now residing in London, 24-year-old Victor Ray got his start as a musician the hard way: busking. An often thankless task that can be the making (or breaking) of an artist’s resilience and character—in Victor’s case, it was the former. A baptism of fire, so to speak, singing his heart out on the cold streets of the North East forced him to learn patience and showmanship, how to win even the frostiest crowd over and make them care.

Musically, Victor has absorbed the singer-songwriter tradition that has always been ingrained in Newcastle’s live music scene, alongside the two leading and most apparent influences of R&B and pop (with an edge of hip-hop in his delivery). Beyond that, his tastes are eclectic to say the least (Abba’s “Dancing Queen” is a “big riddim” he says). He also cites a lot of music from Kenya and Uganda as influential, but also Donnie Hathaway, J. Cole, and Usher. In fact, it was Usher, whose last name is Raymond, that partly inspired Victor’s stage name. All of those strands ultimately come together perfectly and rather than describe it as a take on R&B or something hip-hop-influenced, he would rather see it as simply ‘pop music’.