With afrobeat and rhythmic percussion at the heart of all their music, KAWALA band are not trying to be anything you have heard before, instead, reflecting on the music that they want to make for themselves.
The complexity of their inspirations and origins can be credited to guitarist and backing vocalist, Daniel McCarthy, whose intricate playing style had to embody a wide range of instrumentation.
“When we started as a two-piece, we had to fill in the gaps of all the different parts, and I had to play the bass, the melody, the rhythm, and the lead guitar. When I was learning these guitar techniques, I would always listen to such a wide variety of world music, and I wanted to replicate that on acoustic without any other instruments.”
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The vocals in themselves are another recognisable quality of the band’s music, with consistent and fluid harmonies throughout most of their releases. While both McCarthy and lead singer Jim Higson have mused on their own surprise that harmony-based music is not more commonly seen, this should be to their own creative credit, as they have allowed something that seems so simple, to sound so thought out and delicately written.
These signature trademarks heard at the core of the band, have enabled KAWALA to stand out from the crowd and establish a place for themselves in a music scene that is tough to break through. Despite this, Higson has presented that there are difficulties to sitting on the fence between so many genres and that the lack of definition has made things quite challenging on a festival circuit.
“We always say that we are the most indie band at a pop festival or the most pop band at an indie festival. It is always the way, and we never feel as if we fit the mould.”
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But KAWALA have proved that not fitting the mould does not have to be a bad thing, as finding solidarity and togetherness through creative independence is an ethos that the band holds close to their heart. This sense of community is often seen through their lyrics, with listeners and fans alike finding peace through the fusion of genres and styles that are so emblematic to the band.
“The songs that we write are always uplifting and helpful, and I don’t know if that is because we are trying to help ourselves, but by doing that, a lot of people have found solace and meaning and the emotion of the songs as well. We want our music to be that friend that you can rely on – it’s a safe space.”
The mosaic-like quality that represents the band and its followers extend into their own team, as both McCarthy and Higson have emphasised how much this project was birthed out of this sense of community, often leading with their hearts when it comes to creative decisions. Growing up in Kentish Town, the pair were raised in a tight-knit group surrounded by other creative people and have incorporated their friends and family every step of the way of their musical journey whether that be to create artwork or to work on music videos.
“So often with artists, you only see that one person, or the band, but you don’t see the hundreds of people that go into making that possible. That was a massive thing that we wanted to celebrate with our first album.”
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Giving back to the community is clearly a sentiment that runs deep throughout the band, with KAWALA becoming patrons of the Music Venue Trust, an organisation that acts to protect and improve UK grassroots venues for the benefit of the local and musical community. With McCarthy’s own connections to charities such as these, as he regularly attended Wac Arts in London as a child, offering £1.50 lessons in the performing arts, it is no surprise that the duo wants to continue this legacy, and ensure that communities young or old can experience music and the vast culture that comes along with it.
The trust also resembles the band’s adoration for local venues and supporting the gigging industry, and with the growth of their success in recent years, the band has been fortunate to achieve the lifelong goal of playing their local venue, O2 Kentish Town.
“We grew up equidistance from Kentish Town, and when we were younger, we would always pass it and see it as the pinnacle of success. Now we have played it we know it’s not true, but it felt very surreal and hard to fathom that we could do something like that. It was too big to scale to understand. As an artist, you are always thinking, at what point are you considered successful, and maybe it was the first time that I felt that.”
With the release of their debut album ‘Better With You’ out now, the band will also be playing at record stores around the country and setting their sights on the rest of Europe in the coming months.
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KAWALA's new album 'Better With You' is out now.
Words: Tamzin Kraftman
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