Navos
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George Gwinnell
Roy Quinn
“I’d made the track but was going to just leave it sitting on my hard drive,” says Ross Harrington, AKA Navos. “ But then my housemate came into my room and was like ‘What’s this tune, you need to put it out!”
The track in question is Navos’ debut single ‘Believe Me’ and when it was released on Soundcloud in November 2020 (following some very sound advice from a housemate), it racked up 10,000 plays overnight. Buoyed by the success, Ross decided to upload the track to Tik Tok too, where it became a viral sensation and caught the attention of Island Records who quickly snapped it up.
By March 2021 - four months after Ross had initially produced the track - ‘Believe Me’ is on over eight million plays on Spotify, reached number three on the Apple Music dance chart and is quickly climbing up the UK Top 40. But while going from juggling a job at a furniture shop with university and making music in your spare time, to creating a dance anthem that’s racking up millions of plays in less than half a year might seem like the definition of an overnight success, for the 21-year-old from Ormskirk near Liverpool, it’s been in the making since infant school.
“I started playing guitar around the age of five,” he tells us. “And since then I’ve been able to turn my hand to whatever instrument I pick up.” Putting his musical attributes down to an uncle who shared similar talents and passed on some of his knowledge, by his teens Ross could play everything from the guitar to the drums, to piano, trumpet and saxophone. But it was going to an Avicii concert in Manchester, aged 15, that inspired Ross to turn his hands to production. “Seeing everyone move to his music and singing it back to him, I just thought it was amazing,” says Ross. “He looked like he was having a good time and I just thought ‘I want to do that.”
Picking up a free copy of Fruity Loops, Ross combined teaching himself how to use music production software through YouTube videos with going to college to study music, and performing as part of an orchestra with his class.
“I learnt so much theory there which really helped me make music,” he tells us.
Referring to some of his early productions as ‘terrible’, Ross almost followed a family tradition and joined the navy (“that’s where the name comes from,” he says. “It’s a combination of Navy and Ross.”) but decided to go to university to study Sports Therapy instead, as it would allow him more time to pursue music too. And it’s a decision that paid off, with the success of ‘Believe Me’ forcing him to defer his final year to focus on his career.
“It’s amazing having people like Joel Corry playing it on Kiss and Tom Zanetti texting me to say how much he loves it,” he says, of the track that is quickly becoming the dance anthem of 2021. So far, Believe Me has been playlisted on Radio 1, Capital and Kiss, is currently to be found in some of Spotify and Apple Music’s biggest and most influential playlists and has already received over 200k Shazams, proving the songs impact is enormous.
Citing 90s house as his one true love, thanks to his mum and uncle having the likes of David Morales, Roger Sanchez and MK on constant rotation during his youth, Navos is now basking in the glow of creating a dance anthem to sit alongside some of the best.
“This came about as during lockdown, I could focus on music fully for six or seven hours a day so I’m thankful for that in many ways,” he says. “But now, I can’t wait to get back out there and DJ, and see people react to my music right in front of my eyes.”
Words: Sean Griffiths
