26 for 2026: Far Out’s ones to watch
In 2025, the music industry got harder; it gets more challenging year on year, and it has been throughout the 2000s as the birth of streaming signalled a shift to a business with less money, with more people and a more brutal fight for up-and-comers to face.
However, what has also been proven year on year is the fact that the core of an artist lies in resilience; when things get tougher, creatives only get better, and the rising stars of new music prove that.
Sure, it was proven by the best of the year, but really, it was proven best by the new kids. The biggest stars around aren’t the ones scrapping right now, but in the grassroots, right where new names emerge, and that’s where the battle is. As music venues closed, streams became worth less and less, and the general cost of simply trying to start a band and make music gets more difficult; it’s the realm of the risers that becomes tougher, yes, but also all the more vital.
The list of classic ones to watch can end up feeling like a token throwaway piece that publications pump out as part of what they’re supposed to do. They can also end up feeling like a strange ego trip where magazines declare someone very much already established as a rising star, as if to guarantee a success they can brag about 365 days later, looking at the shiny top of the pile rather than actually getting down to the roots.
But Far Out has always been in the roots, at the gigs, at the festivals, at the front, listening when other bands recommend other bands, talking to other audience members about who we should really be paying attention to, digging to the depths of playlists to find recommendations beyond the algorithms, looking far beyond our email inboxes to the new names that might not be able to afford PR yet but glow so bright already.
When it came to crafting our 26 for 2026 list, there was only one simple qualifying question: do they have something special?
You know it when you see it or hear it, such that you leave the venue feeling sparky, or your finger itches towards the replay button. It’s not about stats or blueprints for plans already set to build next year, it’s simply about that glimmer that we know in our guts is sure to glow, and so was born a list that spans genres, styles and continents.
Over in the US, Camille Schmidt grabbed attention back in January 2025 with her debut album, and when someone holds onto it for that long, you know there’s something there. The same goes for Nourished By Time, whose hypnotising live act turned into a hypnotic album this year, but the kind of album that feels like it will only grow and gain attention in the months to come, like a time bomb already ticking for a blow up. Sofia Isella is much the same as her vision seems to get clearer with each release and looks tunnelled, gothic and gripping for the year to come. As for Sydney Ross Michell, the poignancy of her lyricism alone seems sure to write her into history books.
Attention must also be drawn to RIP Magic, a mysterious act that almost feels too fresh to shout about yet, given that there are only two songs to be heard, but when you’re specially selected to support LCD Soundsystem off the back of those two songs, and especially when you’re building a cult simply through some electrifying live sets, that’s exactly the type of diamond to be backed.
From Canada, PISS have been travelling around unleashing a live show that comes with a warning; affecting us so deeply over the summer, any band who can have that kind of impact deserve to be paid attention to, and while they have no music on streaming, go to YouTube, find a live set and just watch it.
In the UK, the country’s vast and varied musical landscape looks bright for the future. In the world of folk, there is arguably no up-and-coming voice as staggeringly beautiful as Pem’s and Imogen and the Knife as well, with one of those staggering voices so stunning bathed in a Northern accent twanging through.
In the land of lyricism, Sophie May has been building for a while and has recently penned a track for Rosalia. With her own debut finally landing in 2026, we’re already excited to hear the wit and sharpness it will inevitably hold, and the same can be said for Ellur, too, as the new year brings about fresh poetry from some truly exciting new pens.
If vision is the thing that makes an artist special, Pixie McCann and Aimee Fatale are bright beams on that radar as 2025 saw them launch with clarity so impressive that it helped them immediately lock in a cult of which we include ourselves.
For the future of guitar music, look towards DellaXOZ for interesting indie-pop, Hutch for some 1960s style twang, Westside Cowboy for Glastonbury-approved folk-tinges, Man/Woman/Chainsaw for art-infusions or focus in on ELLiS-D or Y if what you’re after is complete carnage.
Punk, in our eyes, lies in the hands of Jeanie and the White Boys, where Jeanie Crystals’ no bullshit attitude seems like it could carry the genre alone, bringing 2026 back to Poly Styrene’s 1976. Or the clubs could throw out all their songs and spin just The Itch and Sex Mask next year, and we’d bet our money on everyone still dancing.
Ireland’s grip will hold strong, that’s our prediction, with Cliffords, Cardinals and Dove Ellis all showing that magic quality this year, keeping our ears locked on them into the next. Meanwhile, in Scotland, The Joy Hotel and Brogeal both experiment in interesting ways, unlike any other acts we’ve ever heard.
We’re backing them, we’re pinning our badge to them, but mostly, we’re rooting for these vibrant and exciting artists who deserve greatness in 2026 because they already harness it.
Far Out’s 26 for 2026:
- Pem
- Camille Schmidt
- Imogen and the Knife
- ELLiS-D
- Jeanie and the White Boys
- Hutch
- Pixie McCann
- Aimee Fatale
- The Itch
- Westside Cowboy
- Dove Ellis
- Sophie May
- Cardinals
- Cliffords
- Ellur
- Sydney Ross Mitchell
- RIP magic
- PISS
- Brogeal
- DellaXOZ
- Man/Woman/Chainsaw
- Y
- Sofia Isella
- Nourished By Time
- Sex Mask
- The Joy Hotel
