Jodie Abacus is a British musician from Lewisham in South East London. His musical styles include R&B, soul, electronic and funk. 　　Jodie wrote "I’ll Be That Friend" in 2013 and uploaded it to his Soundcloud channel where it topped the Hyped Machine charts and amassed over 100,000 plays. He was subsequently signed to Household Records in early 2015. It was written while Jodie was in a self-proclaimed dark point in his life, having caught life-threatening pneumonia and breaking up with his long-term girlfriend at the same time. 　　First single "Good Feeling" was premiered by Mista Jam on BBC Radio 1xtra on 28 July and released on the same day. It was made Best of British Record of the Week on the BBC Radio 1xtra Breakfast Show. It also received plays from Clara Amfo and DJ Target on BBC Radio 1, Tom Ravenscroft on BBC 6 Music and Trevor Nelson BBC Radio 2. 　　The "For Real Life And Not Pretend" EP was released on 26 February 2016. 　　Third single "She’s In Love With The Weekend" was released on 11 April 2016 and made it to the A-List on BBC Radio 2 　　Abacus supported Jamie Woon on his European tour in April 2016 and Laura Mvula on three dates of her UK tour in May 2016. 　　He performed at a run of UK summer festivals in 2016 including The Great Escape, Y Not, Parklife, Lovebox, Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party and V Festival. His performance at The Great Escape was filmed by Vevo for their Vevo dscvr series. He also performed at Roots Picnic in Philadelphia alongside The Roots, Anderson Paak and Usher. 　　The video for I’ll Be That Friend was released 6 July 2016. It was shot in LA and was inspired by the video "People React To Being Called Beautiful" by Shea Glover Films. 　　On 4 September, Jodie Abacus appeared as the musical guest on the Channel 4 show Sunday Brunch. He supported Corinne Bailey Rae on her UK tour in October/November 2016. He recorded a live session for YouTube Music Foundry, where he performed "Keep Your Head Down", inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis. The song was released as a single on 9 December 2016.