The year 2016 was full of interesting new acts in the world of pop music and one of the most promising for the years to come is the Canadian singer Alessia Cara. Here – the first single of her debut album Know-It-All – was one of the most aired songs during the winter reaching the top position in Billboard’s Hip Hop and R&B charts, getting a double-platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and taking Alessia to tour the whole world.

Behind Alessia Cara’s success there’s a relatively hidden figure, an amazing songwriter from Alabama that helped her shape the record and recently released his first album: Soup. We’re talking about Sebastian Kole.

Sebastian was born in Birmingham. His first approach to music came through church where he started to sing, and he also learned to play the piano and write original songs as early as five years old. When he was a teenage he started rapping and while being in college he started putting up his first shows with covers and originals. After getting his degree, he went back to Birmingham where he continued writing songs. His first great shot as a songwriter came in 2012 when a song he had co-written with a friend ended up being Goin’ In by Jennifer Lopez. At the end of that year he was signed by EP Entertainment/Motown and that’s when he started working with Alessia Cara. This year, four songs of Sebastian’s debut album were used on an equal number of chapters in Grey’s Anatomy which helped him foster his popularity.

In november 2015 Sebastian Kole visited Miami Art House for a songwriting session and he told us a little bit about his experience as an artist and his spiritual relationship with music: