Virtually famous: Leon Bridges

I was lucky to get a tour of Mickie Most’s RAK Studios in St John’s Wood this week and indulge in what can only be described as gear porn.

The mixing desks, the keyboards – I’ve rarely seen such beautiful buttons. Leon Bridges sounds like those things look: soul music so dusty that you could sneeze while listening to it.

The Texan singer-guitarist caused a fuss on Soundcloud four months ago with his song Coming Home – now on over a million plays – which knowingly nods to legends such as Sam Cooke and Al Green, and does nothing at all to bring them up to date. The song went on sale this month and next week he plays his first London gig, at a sold-out-in-an-hour pub in The Lexington at King’s Cross.

As with other recent time-travelling singers such as Aloe Blacc and Michael Kiwanuka, it’s tempting to ask why they bother – who needs to hear about swimming the Mississippi river now that it’s 2015 and we all have hoverboards? But the power of a great song is undeniable no matter when it arrives, and this 25-year-old has several already.