An endless expanse of roads, alleyways, avenues and estates, south London is a sprawl of cultures, influences. To Kwabs, though, it’s home.
“I think you’re always inspired by surroundings, and London has a lot to offer in terms of how much variety there is, the people, different scenes and scenarios,” he explains. “You walk from one street to another and you can be dropped into an entirely different culture. It’s all food for inspiration, though, for me.”
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Kwabs, ‘Walk’, from the ‘Walk’ EP
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Flirting with electronic compositions, Kwabs’ opening salvo of two immaculately delivered EPs has seen the singer hook up with some very special producers. For such a private artist, though, each addition must be made with the utmost care.
“I think as an artist you’ve always got to branch out, just to see how other people take your music,” he says. “You need to have that experience of bringing people in to your world because that will keep happening throughout the rest of my career. It’s just getting people onboard, and that’s a really fun and interesting challenge, seeing if people connect.”
Connection is certainly a theme with Kwabs. An overtly ‘pop’ artist – those hooks are built for radio, each chorus plucked for arena use – he also wishes to truly reach out to his audience. It’s essentially soul music, that lineage of honesty and authenticity that stretches back to Curtis, to Marvin, to Aretha.
“Maybe I’m just lucky,” he says, bashfully. “People sort of connect with my voice and how I express myself, probably before anything else. Hopefully that’s given me scope to just try lots of different things out, because they identify with what’s at the heart of it; which is my conviction about what I’m singing about and ultimately, my performance.”
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Exploration and experimentation is key, so I can keep evolving as an artist and give my audience something new…
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Continuing, Kwabs emphasises that music remains, for him, a true passion. “I think it’s always about making music that you love, because you’ve got to love it first even before anyone else does. You have to stand by it.”
Entering 2014 on the crest of media hype, his as-yet-unfinished debut album has already been tipped by some bookmakers as a potential Mercury Prize winner in 2015. Remarkably, the young talent has been able to handle this with remarkable grace.
“I try to take it in my stride; it’s a lot of fun,” he admits. “My friends have been there for me and supported me all the way. I’m presenting myself as the artist, without anything to hide behind. It’s been really exciting for me to watch that process go on and see things build. I just want to keep building and working towards bigger and greater things.”
For now, though, he is happy to continue trying new things, attempting to map out a space to occupy. “I think there’s so much to where I come from as a musician and there’s so much I listen to, I think it would be a shame not to just explore,” he gushes. “Exploration and experimentation is key, so I can keep evolving as an artist and also give my audience something new and a different side of me to listen to.”
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Words: Robin Murray
Photos: Trinity Ellis
Fashion: Cobbie Yates
Full fashion credits and further photography available in issue 99 of Clash magazine.
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