FKA twigs

Despite being one of the most successful artists to emerge in the last few years, FKA twigs (real name Tahliah Barnett) can also be the most enigmatic – and the most fascinating. “Choreographed” is word that seems to apply to FKA twigs, as her art reaches far beyond simply songwriting and singing, her dancing and performance, her style, her production and direction. Even her ethereal vocals, everything about FKA twigs is a sublime, thought-out, choreographed performance.

Talking to Apple Music’s Ebro Darden, the British singer drew back the curtains to shed a little light on the reality of FKA twigs. As softly spoken as her music would suggest, her voice is articulate and almost shy sounding, but the fragility of her tone distracts from what is actually an incredibly assured personality.

Speaking about her upbringing in Gloucestershire, she describes a time before music streaming and mass cultural interest in music and performance; a sylvan back drop that didn’t exactly lend itself to her aspirations, and a less than multicultural surrounding. But, brought up on Funkadelic and acid jazz, fed artists like Jill Scott and Ella Fitzgerald from a young age by her parents, she describes her early diet of “heartfelt” music.

An encounter with Nat King Cole’s Dream A Little Dream Of Me “changed [her] life forever”. Though perhaps not exactly a logical transition, it sparked a desire in a nine year old FKA twigs to learn opera. Slightly at odds with her other interest; break dancing, but possibly the beginning of the cross-genre artist that we know today – a beginning that didn’t fully arrive until years later.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFtMl-uipA8]

Years living in London, dropping out of dance schools and flitting between ambitions, these are the same hallmarks that characterise any number of teenagers as the exact form of creativity remains elusive. She describes her teenage self working at a youth centre, at that time convinced that her future was as an art therapist. But in working with young people to write their own music, her own style began to emerge.

If Darden pitches her childhood as idyllic like The Sound Of Music, the formation of FKA twigs sounds something more like Fame. The effects of London living creeping into her Cheltenham accent, Darden labels her “hip-hop” – street, but not thug.

The interview isn’t all past histories, one of the most interesting commentaries from the FKA twigs talks about her inspiration. Her efforts to capture moods and atmosphere, especially in recent performances where she has stripped back her props and costumes. Attempting to create a feeling with just the performance; “for me it’s not about being a muso, or name dropping, or this, or that, or this. It’s about the feeling when I was sixteen and I did this, or twelve… I’m really into atmosphere, I’m really into mood. I don’t think I’m the best producer, I don’t think I’m the best singer, I don’t think I’m the best director. But I know that one of my talents is just like capturing a feeling somehow.”

You can listen to the full interview here via Apple Music. FKA twigs’ new single Good To Love is out now.

Image: FBI Radio.

After last week’s premiere of FKA twigs‘ first new material for 2016, the gorgeous Good To Love, there’s only one thing that can top the first hearing. And that would be twigs’ inimitable live performance of her music. Appearing on this week’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the multi-talented singer gave her debut performance of the track.

Shattering the illusion of a studio audience in one fell swoop, the show was morphed into an ethereal setting with spotlights and smoke conjuring up a halo around twigs and her band. You can even catch the starbursts from her bejewelled accessories. Dressed all in white, the performance drew out an even slower pace than the recorded song. Singing from within her beam of white light, twigs brought a visual level to the almost church-like feel inherent in Good To Love. 

More than equal to Fallon’s glowing introduction, twigs gave her voice and the song itself centre stage for the most part. Only breaking out her signature dance moves for the instrumental arrangement towards the end. Not that we imagine anyone is complaining – after three minutes to relish her rendition of the beautiful new song, the audience were free to appreciate the next part of her performance. Twigs’ sinuous, almost acrobatic movements have always been something unique to the British artist. But set against this slower, dreamier track, they appear even more mesmerising.

After her debut EP, M3LL155X, last August, 2016 looks set to be another strong year for FKA twigs. Earlier in the week, she performed as part of the Tibet House Benefit Concert, and has announced further live dates later in the year.

Image via Consequence Of Sound

FKA Twigs is a contemporary auteur, the likes of which we may not have seen emerge on the scene since the Bjork of the 1990’s. There will always be the Lady Gagas and Rihannas who test the boundaries, but Twigs shifts the lens through which we view solo female artists in a sometimes confronting but wholly refreshing way. She recently released the sixteen-minute epic video to her surprise EP compilation M3LL155X that takes a journey to some strange and wonderful places.

As we get started, ageing fashion muse Michele Lamy writhes before the camera in glitchy, animalistic movements against a black screen, while industrial glitch track Figure 8 plays. The woman’s mouth is a treasure chest of gold teeth, and her fingers are blackened with sharpened nails. If you close your eyes and conjure a gypsy, this is she in all her eccentricity. A light hanging from her headdress is submerged into her mouth before the orb drifts across screen and takes us to second track I’m Your Doll.

In this scene, a blow-up doll with Twigs’ face slowly inflates in front of a salivating man who has his way with the plastic form. It’s a heaving, sweaty scene, until she is deflated on a mattress on the floor. Next, the mattress is transported to a very Alejandro Jodorowski-esque geometric setting, where a pregnant Twigs awakens for track In Time. Musically, this is the most interesting chapter with a soulful and hypnotic beat that will no doubt inspire more than a few club remixes. As the swollen Twigs moves across the floor, her waters break in technicolour with rainbow shades streaming down her legs.

The closing sequence for Glass & Patron was released as a stand alone clip earlier this year, and depicts an again pregnant Twigs pulling reams of colourful sashes from her body. These morph into a chorus of dancers that take to the runway, in a macabre show of fashion and contortion. Twigs’ vocals echo out with the line, “hold that pose for me.” It takes a moment to recover from the Lynchian visual spectacular that we have just encountered. At times haunting, at times beautiful, at times both; it’s a stellar follow up to 2014’s LP1.

You can check out our review of her live show here.

Once you have devoured the clip the corresponding EP can be streamed or purchased via iTunes.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYU3j-22360]

If we can assume any about FKA Twigs latest project, it’s that it’s going to be a bit out of the ordinary. Just look at her video for Glass & Patron, her first single from the upcoming EP, where she is shown giving birth to her back-up dancers.

No, seriously.

This video was released at the YouTube music video awards, where she was named one of the 50 greatest artists and YouTube performances. Following this, Boots, who produced the EP, dropped some more hints about what we can expect via an annotation on Genius.

This is her third EP, following EP1 and EP2. Boots confirmed that this pattern will not be broken with the release of EP3. He also gave us some information about another track. The opening lines from the video were taken from another song called Mothercreep. The power of these lyrics makes me excited to hear the rest.

Anyone else keen to hear more of the EP after this snippet? Unfortunately, a release date hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Watch FKA Twigs’ Glass & Patron video below.