Michael Kiwanuka Interview

You may have seen Michael Kiwanuka’s name before, it has been on practically all the ‘ones to watch’ for this year, just missing out the Brit’s Critics Choice Award. With a sound that draws comparisons to Bill Withers and Otis Redding, a tour with Adele under his belt and an album due out, 2012 is set to turn this captivating performer into a big star. We caught up with Michael to see what he makes of the attention he has got so far and the pressure it brings.

Originally you lacked the confidence to sing your own songs, why was that?

I didn’t really think that I could pull it off. I sang a bit at home and stuff but I wasn’t that confident to sing out properly. I thought if I am struggling to sing out and be at the front of the stage, it’s better to give songs to other people. It wasn’t natural at first, but I definitely enjoy it now and have the confidence to do that, but at the beginning it was quite hard, I didn’t intend to do it at first.

You aren’t a natural showman?

Not really, I didn’t necessarily want to be at the front of the stage. What I do love, I love music so much and you can experience emotion through music when you write your own music and sing your own music. Because I love playing and singing those songs, believe in them, I guess its easier to watch as I am not uncomfortable, I am lost in the music. If I was to get up there and do stand up or just show off, I would run away and hide, the music helps me through it.

Album and gig of 2011 for YEP

Bright Eyes @ Leeds O2 Academy – 13^th July 2011

The pulsating lights give fleeting images of the stage just as the lyrics give you fragmented glimpses of front man, Coner Oberst, psyche. He has been compared to Neil Young for his poetic style, they are both storytellers, letting the lyrics paint the picture and using the instrumentation as decoration. Anger often fuelled by hypocrisy, is counterbalanced with a child like love for the beauty in life. Oberst celebrates the differences in people not the similarities in songs that urge you to be yourself.

Miles Kane, Colour of the Trap – released May 2011 on Columbia Records

Miles Kane debut album Colour of the Trap filled the void that the Arctic Monkeys fourth album should have occupied. Co-written by Alex Turner, the Trap contains the same effervescent, raw and passionate songwriting that got the Arctic Monkeys where they are today. A hedonistic attitude seeps out of every track and draws the listener in with drums that pound like an excited heartbeat. It’s finished off with introspective and sometimes suggestive lyrics that elevate the album from a riotous compilation into an evocative, excellently executed musical offering. 

Published in Yorkshire Evening Post