Best Male Vocalist
Will Blackburn
With Stop Light Observations turning 10 this year, frontman Will Blackburn considers the band’s output of off-kilter pop rock to be a solid accomplishment and integral to informing his own musical sensibility. As a vocalist, Blackburn has embodied characters and emotions informed through Stop Light’s collective songwriting.
With the solo material he’s focused on heavily for the last year, it’s been completely different. He doesn’t step into a persona.
“Stop Light, to me, is like rock opera — it’s so theatrical when you see the live show,” he said. “Whereas when you come to see me solo, I want you to feel like we are just sitting in the room together.”
The recent release of the piano ballad “Adeline” under his own moniker marks his debut as a solo artist and his evolution as a vocalist.
“Age definitely has something to do with it, but in my instance, I’m noticing that it’s not really slowing me down, it’s only making me more honest with myself,” he said. “Isn’t that such a beautiful thing? You aim for that for so long and then you just wake up one day and you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s kind of been happening.’”
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