Six artists Annie Mac says to watch in 2016

Annie: "This girl is something special. I put her AK Paul collab ‘So Good’ on my AMP 2014 compilation and have been watching her ever since. She’s found a real sound – groove-laden, slinky pop music – but it’s her voice that shines through. Flawless r’n’b/soul. She’s gonna have an incredible year"

NAO – pronounced ‘nay-oh’ – puts her musicality down to her family background. Raised in Hackney by a social worker mother who encouraged her to take singing and piano lessons, she’s the youngest of five siblings.

“Music’s massive in my family,” she giggles in her sweetly high-pitched voice. “We listen to it more than we watch TV or play PlayStation. I have four brothers and sisters and there was music coming out of every room every day, morning to night. They’d all be going out, bringing it home, the pirate radio stations of their generation – Rinse FM, Kool FM. You don’t realise how much it has an impact, except with hindsight.”

NAO used to gig around her local area, then went to Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied jazz, but when she left she says “I came full circle to where I started.” She initially cut some songs with a student friend, the producer John Calvert. The result was ‘Back Porch’ which ended up on her debut ‘So Good’ EP (whose title cut was produced by AK Paul, brother of Jai). It immediately won props for its chewy amalgam of Jill Scott-style nu-soul lyricism with the electronic heft of Aluna George or SBTRKT. Disclosure were among those listening and asked NAO to sing on ‘Superego’ from their second album, ’Caracal’.

“I was just a bedroom artist, a no-one,” NAO laughs self-deprecatingly, “and one of the biggest bands tweeted that I’d been on their radar. When they were writing their album they called me up. I never thought I could be a singer and get paid. I was bumbling along, making a living. When I started my own music I never thought anyone would listen. The first time I realised things were going to change was when I did my first headline show at Electrowerkz 18 months ago. It sold out.”

NAO had put the time in as a backing singer with Kwabs, Jarvis Cocker and others, and by supporting Imagine Dragons on tour, but with the releases that followed during 2015, the ‘February 15’ EP and ‘Bad Blood’ single, her profile grew (the latter aided by a striking, somewhat disturbing video featuring nudity and plants growing out of people’s eyes).

After a successful UK tour at the end of last year she’s now working on her debut album with producers including Kaytranada, and will embark on a bigger European tour in April. She’s clearly thrilled that her music has found an audience, but when Mixmag asks if she’d ever want to be as big as Beyoncé she’s not so sure.

“I don’t think I’d like that,” she says. “Beyoncé is amazing, but I see my life being a bit more than music. I want to be in control, not part of massive machine.”

But it must be good to earn a living as a singer-songwriter?

“Yes,” she agrees, “I used to do a little bit of teaching, singing and piano, but now I’m full-time NAO.”

By the end of 2016, full-time NAO may well be the state of many people’s playlists.