TONIGHT George Ezra, the 21-year-old singer-songwriter whose deep bluesy voice belies his years, is nominated for four gongs at the Brits. What most people don’t know is that the man who discovered him was brought up in Darwen and went to QEGS.

Ryan Lofthouse, 32, can scarcely believe the reality of the last two years since Ezra went from playing to a handful of punters at local venues in Bristol to international stardom. His debut album Wanted on Voyage was UK No 1, sold a million copies and has global platinum status. His single Budapest was No 1 in 17 countries.

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Tonight he has been nominated for British male solo artist, British breakthrough act, British single and Mastercard British album of the year.

Speaking from the London offices of Closer Artists, the management and publishing company he co-owns, it’s clear that Ryan is somewhat excited about tonight and the whole Ezra phenomenon.

“Yes, it definitely is a dream come true,” he says. “The minute I realised that I was nowhere near talented enough to be an artist, this is all I wanted to be. I’m going to the Brit awards with five nominations for my artists and that’s mental. I’m a kid from Darwen. It’s unreal and amazing to be acknowledged by my peers that I’m alright at this business.”

The fifth nomination is the Critics’ Choice for another of Ryan’s artists, the equally talented James Bay, a favourite of Radio One’s Zane Lowe. Like Ezra, he started gigging at small, empty venues, but is already selling out gigs all over the world. “We are selling 2,000 tickets a night and we’ve not even put out a record yet.”

Other artists on Closer’s books include James Morrison and John Newman. “We love big voices,” says Ryan. His band Port Isla, who were recently signed to Parlophone, is one to watch.

Ryan was given the heads up about Ezra from a music school lecturer, he had made contact with as part of his A&R work.

“I spent about six months going around all the music colleges in the UK making friends with the lecturers on the off chance that if they heard a new student who was really talented they’d give me a ring.

“A lecturer at BIMM in Bristol called me and said this kid who was 18 and starting in September was really good. He sent me a Youtube clip and I just thought ‘that’s insane’. I genuinely couldn’t believe that voice came out of an 18-year-old. So it was 10am and I said ‘I’m on my way.

"Get him in the pub I’ll be there for 2pm!’. I locked it down from there and we got a record deal five or six months later. It was quite unusual but they heard what I heard. George was really charismatic and ambitious and they bought into it and said they were going to help us develop him. ‘Here’s some money let’s get on with it’ they said.”

Ryan says Ezra doesn’t take life too seriously and when he delivered the news that he’d been nominated for four Brits his answer was pretty chilled.

“He’s the funniest guy I’ve ever met,” says Ryan.

“Really hard working and he takes his music very seriously but everything else in life he takes with a pinch of salt. He doesn’t take himself seriously at all. He sees the world differently from the rest of us. He doesn’t let anything upset him. By the same token he doesn’t get excited about anything either. When we were nominated for the Brits I phoned him up and went, ‘God this amazing thing has happened’ and he went, ‘oh nice once, cool’.

"He makes me laugh every single day. He’s an absolute sweetheart. You don’t sell a million albums without being hardworking and he’s up every single morning doing breakfast TV or radio around the world.”

Ezra’s fans are all ages from teens to those old enough to appreciate his influences – Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie.

“What he’s doing is not part of a fashion trend,” says Ryan. “He’s out there and doing his own thing and you only get longevity if you’re a great songwriter. He will stand the test of time for that reason.

“He wrote the album when he was 19. We’ve only just scratched the surface with him and it’s all over the world. It’s going bananas in America.

“I’m very proud that I recognised that talent. We started from nothing at his first gig in Bristol there were about 30 people there and sometimes no one turned up. We have taken it all the way through to a million albums and four Brit nominations. It’s not luck we made some really big decisions along the way. We haven’t had to change who he is either. We haven’t had to play the game, give him a haircut or dress him a certain way or pretend that he is something he’s not. We’ve done it all on our terms.”

Ryan’s family still live in Darwen. His dad Keith is a fireman and his mum Diane works for the NHS. After QEGS he went to Newcastle University.

“I used to put on gigs when I was a student. There were a lot of major bands coming out of Newcastle at the time, Future Heads and Maximo Park. A lot of the industry used to come up to have a look. They’d phone me up and I’d give them tips.”

He started working as a scout for Virgin Records and eventually went to work for the Independiente label who had Travis and Paul Weller on their books.

Ryan is of the belief that talent rises to the top in the music industry, but staying true to the artist is paramount. Both James Morrison and John Newman are testament to that philosophy.

“If you try and fudge it or make it into something it’s not then the public spot it. Right at the beginning we ask our artists ‘what do you want to do and what do you want to be’ and they tell us and we say ‘right we’re going to make it happen for you’.

“John Newman was a barman. The song Cheating, which is on his album was on his demo tape. We went to see John play in a pub. We were the only people in there and his voice was insane. We knew we’d got something very special.”

Fame clearly beckons, but does the fortune follow? “You’d be surprised,” he laughs. “It takes about 18 months to two years to see money. But it’s a bi product. I would do this on £20,000 a year. I get to work in music every day. Not many people get that chance. I get up for work every morning and I never know what’s going to happen, but I know it’s going to be good.”

And no doubt tomorrow morning will be even better...