Keaton is a 23 year-old songwriter from the suburbs of London. He spends his days alone – at first by chance, and now by choice – writing, recording and drawing from his bedroom. At least that was the plan. Henson’s music was never originally intended to be heard by anyone, for reasons that will become clear. But when he self-released his album, it sold over 4000 copies, at a time when Keaton had no manager, plugger, PR or radio play.

Then radio DJ, Zane Lowe heard 'You Don't Know How Lucky You Are' and loved it so much he threatened to play it twice in one show, sparking a frenzy of Twitter investigations into Keaton’s identity. Responses mixed between the obsessive – setting up Facebook and Tumblr sites, claiming to be him – and the concerned: Keaton’s disarmingly honest lyrics have led to many inquiring as to his wellbeing and some trying to convert him to Christianity.

At the centre of it all was an increasingly mystified Keaton, who only learned that he had been played on the radio dozens of missed-calls later. He wrote the songs of ‘Dear…’ in reaction – his lyrics would suggest – to a particularly traumatic relationship breakdown. ‘You Don't Know How Lucky You Are’, for instance, addresses a former love directly (“Does he know not to talk about your dad? / Does he know when you're sad, you don't like to be touched?”).

All songs were written and recorded by Keaton at home, utilising a cupboard for percussion, thunder-storms for sound effects, and Heathrow’s flight timetable (living under a flight path, he was forced to record in the short gaps between planes flying overhead).

From these confined beginnings, ‘Dear...’ constructs an intense, honest and emotional space: even the open-ended title suggests a degree of intimacy. Check out Keaton Henson right here on NEW!