Mozez

Osmond Wright, better known by his stage name Mozez, is a Jamaican born London-based soul singer and songwriter. He is perhaps best known as a singer for British downtempo group Zero 7, although he has been working solo since 2005 when his debut album was released.

Mozez began singing at an early age for his local church choir. His first major break came in 1996 as part of the duo Spirits, who gave fans the songs "Don't Bring Me Down" and "Spirit Inside" (15th and 18th in the national charts respectively).

From there, he was recruited to join downtempo group Zero 7, and worked on their first two albums, Simple Things and When It Falls. After seeing success with Zero 7, Mozez decided to go solo before their 3rd album, and began work on his debut album.

His debut solo album So Still came out in October 2005, a soulful album that featured a lot of the downtempo elements he had become familiar with when working with Zero 7. Two tracks on his solo album were produced by Guy Sigsworth, and he did collaborations with Nightmares On Wax and Henry Binns of Zero 7.

The follow-up album The Absolute was slated for release in early 2010. The first single "Signs of Happiness" was released in the summer of 2009 in the UK and was to be released in the US in early 2010.

Time Out, an album of remixed tracks from So Still as well as some previously unreleased songs, was released on January 8, 2011. Mozez has mentioned in e-mails to subscribers that his next album will be released on the 18th of July, 2012.

<ref>Wright, Osmond. Mozez Official Website. Mozez Official Website - All Rights Reserved ||, n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014./ref>== References == {{reflist}Mozez, born Osmond Wright, is a London-based singer, song writer and producer.

He has an enduring international fan base, which has grown from 2000 onwards from when he was a member of Zero7, the highly successful British trip hop ambient band.

After contributing to the first two Zero7 albums (Simple Things and When It Falls) Mozez launched his solo career and now records in his own studio and on his own label, London-based Numen Records.

As a solo artist, he has already released two albums (So Still and Time Out), and aims to put out a third during the summer of 2014. It will be supported by a US tour.

During 2013, Mozez released several singles including Wings, a song from the forthcoming album, which has had more than 1.5m hits on YouTube alone.

He then released the single Be Like Water as the soundtrack to No Way As Way, a documentary film about martial arts icon Bruce Lee produced in the US and distributed by Warner Brothers. 2013 also saw him busy with live performances, including an international tour with Nightmares On Wax (DJ George Evelyn) as guest vocalist in Europe and the US.

Mozez earliest musical roots were based on gospel, soul and reggae, but he grew to embrace a wide range of other musical genres and styles. Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles became as big an influence on his musical taste as Curtis Mayfield, The Commodores, and Marvin Gaye.

“I was an avid listener, and all those guys became a part of my musical assimilation,” Mozez says. Mozez learned to sing in gospel choirs in Jamaica. After moving to London, his first major break as a professional artist came in 1996 when, as part of British vocal house duo Spirits, he had hits with Don't Bring Me Down and Spirit Inside. He then became established worldwide soon afterwards as lead male singer for Zero7.

He wrote songs for the band’s highly successful first two albums, platinum-selling Simple Things and When It Falls, which quickly drove Zero7 from being merely an experimental trip hop act, to become the huge mainstream success story of the alternative ambient genre.

His debut solo album So Still was released in October 2005 to great acclaim, a more mature and soulful work featuring many of the down-tempo elements he has become known for. Collaborators on the album included Madonna producer Guy Sigsworth, Nightmares On Wax and Henry Binns of Zero7.

The album launched his solo career, and he followed it up with Time Out.

His works have been used for soundtracks for film and TV such as Running For Time, CSI Miami and, more recently, for the Bruce Lee documentary, released in July 2013.

External links

• Mozez at AllMusic
• http://www.myspace.com/mozezofficial
• Official Website
• Whitelight Production
• Q & A interview with Mozez on Blogcritics [1]