Originally Published on February 3rd, 2026

~ About the Artist ~

Last year, I had the privilege of hearing a truly inspiring work by a UK artist called Skinny Sands with his second release, Big World. I truly loved the organic composition and the layer of vocals offered by this artist. At the time, I was very excited about the work he was promoting as he was teasing the release of an EP.

Now, half a year has passed and the moment has come to hear that work. After Big World, Skinny Sands released one more single, Pieces, in August.

~ About the EP ~

On January 30th, 2026, Skinny Sands released his debut EP, From Here. This 5- song EP has a run time of 11 minutes. It was released independently by Skinny Sands, who is the featured vocalist and guitar player on the record. From Here features 3 previously released singles: Sit With Me, Big World, and Pieces.

From Here opens with the subtle groove of Wait. Hearing rainfall, followed by an acoustic guitar and layered vocals. This song impresses with its heavy reverb, and layers of sound.

The second track, Sit With Me has a percussive acoustic guitar with a backing electric guitar part that provides layers of sound behind the foreground of the music. The accompaniment serves as a wonderful backdrop to a magnificent vocal performance by Skinny Sands. He blends his lead and backing vocals so well to tell an incredible story.

Big World is the third song on the album. Another smooth acoustic groove. Skinny Sands is stylistically deeply rooted in indie folk and alternative folk music. His rich, layered falsetto provides a degree of originality to the style of performance, however.

The fourth song, the previously unrealeased Tube, is a really cool instrumental break that showcases Skinny Sands’ impressive guitar playing skills.

From Here closes with the fifth and final song, Pieces. Originally released as a single in August of last year, Pieces is Skinny Sands most involved song instrumentally as it features acoustic and bass guitar, as well as a variety of percussion parts and either a saturated electric guitar or synth part that provides layering to the composition. As with his other songs, the vocal work is complex as it mixes lead and backing vocals through a series of layers.

The production quality of this record is as good as it can get on an independent level. It’s exactly what one would want to hear for this style of music. I was listening to a music producer talking about DIY production on a podcast recently and he wasted no time to criticize his distaste for producers who don’t catch certain details in their editing. Things like a vocalists’ breathing, or the scratch of guitar strings when a player is shifting their chord hand to a different position on the frets. Given the style of music that is being produced, there is a time and a place to clean that stuff up and there is a time and a place to leave it. When we are dealing with something that relies so heavily on organics and acoustics, I think it is doing a disservice to the artistic value of the music to remove those sounds.

With From Here, Skinny Sands takes the same approach I would have and he left those very real moments into the recording. It adds a small bit of natural percussion and makes the performance real. It’s also a tip of the hat to acknowledging that he is ACTUALLY PLAYING his instrument, which is an art that is being lost. As Prince feared many years ago, the digital technology behind the music industry is scary impressive. Removing AI from the conversation, people are able to compose full soundscapes of music with a laptop, an interface, and a microphone. The better they are with understanding the ins and outs of the apps they use, the plugins they use, and the ability to click a mouse, the art and dedication to actually learning how to play an instrument is slowly being forgotten. So, when I hear a small scratch of a shift on a fret board, or the twang of a copper string ringing out, it makes me smile.

~ Final Thoughts ~

Having now heard a multi-track release by Skinny Sands, I think he has definitely leveled up his credibility as an indie musician. I’m really eager to hear more from him. I want to hear him expand on his sound, give us some variety to really showcase his capability as a musician. I can definitely hear it is there. He is creative, he has an ear for the music. I want to hear which boundaries he is capable of pushing within the genre. I would also love to know more about him. What’s his story. What’s his background in music. He is a wonderful musician but he is a bit elusive by way of finding a biography or learning about who he is.

What would really be great is to see a video of a live performance or a music video, something that illustrates the type of performer he is in a live setting. Suffice it to say, my curiosity is peaked and I am eager to hear more music from this great talent.

From Here is the solid debut by London-based artist, Skinny Sands. It released on January 30th, and already chalked up nearly 20,000 streams on Spotify. I don’t think I have to tell you, but in case you need to hear it…

Go Press Play!