Catalyst

Hailing from St Albans, a city famed for the Abbey cathedral, 26 year old Sam Wren creates a mix of hip-hop & electronic music as Catalyst. Having amassed over 65,000+ streams on Spotify, 19,000 plays on SoundCloud and releasing 6 projects since 2017, he's performed 3 headline shows at The Horn, East London's Paper Dress Vintage in 2024, as well as Canterbury where he graduated from the University of Kent with a 2:1 in Media Studies - A performance at Keynestock 2019 was described as "fun, engaging, & entertaining" by the Kent Inquire, the uni's student publication.

His brother&#39;s girlfriend recently described Sam&#39;s sound as &#34;a mix between <a href="spotify:artist:4GvOygVQquMaPm8oAc0vXi" data-name="The Streets">The Streets</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5K4W6rqBFWDnAN6FQUkS6x" data-name="Kanye West">Kanye West</a>&#34;. Encouraging stuff, especially since the latter alongside <a href="spotify:artist:7A0awCXkE1FtSU8B0qwOJQ" data-name="Jamie xx">Jamie xx</a> are his biggest musical inspirations.

Born on November 23rd 1998, Sam grew up in a family of 3 older brothers and was surrounded by what they would listen to growing up, varying from <a href="spotify:artist:3MM8mtgFzaEJsqbjZBSsHJ" data-name="Bloc Party">Bloc Party</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2CIMQHirSU0MQqyYHq0eOx" data-name="deadmau5">deadmau5</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1G9G7WwrXka3Z1r7aIDjI7" data-name="Outkast">Outkast</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6UE7nl9mha6s8z0wFQFIZ2" data-name="Robyn">Robyn</a>, etc. As an 8 year old he set up his first YouTube channel in 2007 in a time of 240p videos and no Mr Beast, and from 2014 to &#39;18 he made gaming videos as &#34;Sam The English Gamer&#34;... Those videos are still up, go check them out!!

A musical epiphany came when Kanye West performed <a href="spotify:album:6PMuXABPVPf11EgTxrjroO" data-name="All Day">All Day</a> at the 2015 BRIT Awards in London, which left an inspired Sam to take an interest in making his own music. Eight years later, and with 6 projects under his belt, the young Wren Boy is only getting started... Watch this space. #WrenBoys #WrenGirls