FEATURE: Spotlight: Willow Kayne — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Willow Kayne

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THIS Spotlight feature and the last…

have centred around young Pop artists combining something mainstream with some edge, colour and unique personality. Rather than follow the crowd or release music that is very much for streaming, there is depth and something original regarding Willow Kaye. One reason to follow Kayne is that she won the Rising Star gong at the Ivor Novello Awards just over a week ago. Like I do with artists in my Spotlight feature, there are a few interviews that I want to bring in. At the moment, she has released a couple of singles. One feels it will not be long until she delivers an album. Before carrying on, here is an overview of Willow Kayne:

“Willow Kayne has thrown her hat in the ring as one of the UK’s most vivid, genre-blurring pop provocateurs. A keen visual artist with influences as far-reaching as fashion design giant Nigo and production mastermind Pharrell, Willow pools together the most lucid touchpoints of all her inspirations to build a sound as diverse as her creative palette.

Willow can trace this eclecticism directly back to her childhood, being raised by a hip-hop and house-obsessed father and a mother who produced videos for the likes of Erasure and the Prodigy. James Brown, Nas and MF DOOM were all significant early influences, and soon she was making her own musical discoveries, falling hard for artists as diverse as Tyler, The Creator, the Sex Pistols, Gorillaz and Portishead.

With no real indication of where she’ll go next, one thing is for sure; in Willow’s hands, the future of pop will be anything but boring”.

WILLOW KAYNE · GIBBERISH

One can detect the fun, colour and energy of the 1990s in her music. It is strange that, as she was born in the early-‘00s, she wouldn’t have experienced the 1990s first-hand. There are artists liker her and beabadoobee (born in 2000) that channel ‘90s influences but, when you think of how old they are, they didn’t witness what went down! There is this wave of very young artists bonding with a classic decade. Of course, there is a lot more to her music than the 1990s. It is such a fantastic and varied sound that will keep even a casual listener coming back for more. The first of several interviews that I am eager to mention comes from i-D. It seems like Kayne’s love of music – and music of the 1990s – started at a young age:

“At the age of 10, Bristol-born Willow Kayne bonded with her primary school teacher over a shared love of The Prodigy. Around the same time, she fell in love with Toploader’s “Dancing In The Moonlight” after discovering that the song was playing while she came into this world. This affinity for conflicting genres would continue to define not just her young listening habits, but ultimately, her career. Now 19, having been snapped up by the team that manage Dua Lipa and with a major label record deal in the bag, Willow has crafted a brilliantly chaotic sound from influences spanning pop, hip-hop and punk. “I’m definitely very ballsy in my songs,” she tells us. “At first, I didn’t quite clock that you don’t have to follow the classic song structure or concepts. As I became more experimental, I fell into this confident, brutally honest version of myself.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Bedroom

In fact, Willow’s whole life has transformed over the past year. After signing her record deal, a whirlwind ensued: she moved to London and recorded for months on end as she watched her sound evolve in front of her. “Everything has changed — my confidence, my goals, my social circles,” she says. Just last week, the young artist released her hooky debut single “Two Seater” which jumps between attitude-drenched bars and warm pop vocals with impressive ease. Over an old school hip-hop beat, the opening line, “I don’t fuck with many”, gets straight to the point. “It’s basically about various situations which all lead me to believe that I’m only going to need a two seater car at this rate!” she says. “I wrote it at a time where I was realising that if I wanted to change, I had to change who I was hanging around with.” Something worth making a note of, we reckon.

Willow’s three major influences are…

“Pharrell Williams: THE MAN EVEN HAS A HOTEL NOW?? He was one of the pioneers in hip-hop fashion back in the early 00s, with his brands BBC/Ice Cream, all while being an artist. He created his own style to match his music, something which I aspire to do myself!

British rave culture: I used to be completely obsessed with old rave flyers and retro futurism… I still am if I’m honest. The whole futurism style started because that’s how the music sounded at the time, like it wasn’t even from this planet — you can see this in so much of the OG artwork. Even the names like Fantazia, Dreamscape, etc. The whole concept and style is a huge influence of mine.

Bristol: There wasn’t a lot to do other than find trouble or create things, but there’s such a creative vibe. With legacies such as Massive Attack, Portishead and the rave/dub scene in general, it all inspired me to be creative while giving me hope that I can do that too if I really want to.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Parri Thomas for The Line of Best Fit

You’ll be pleased to hear that there’s an EP on the horizon

“This first EP revolves around the idea of relationships changing — pretty much me saying ‘fuck you’ to people of my past who doubted my ability! Packed with bad bitch songs for everyone to relate to. I want to make songs that make other people feel confident, and this project does exactly that!”

If she woke up tomorrow to find herself in the mid-90s, Willow would spend the whole day creeping

“DAMN! I would end up people watching for most of the day. I feel like the world has changed a ridiculous amount since back then. I’d definitely have to have a peek at my parents to see if they were as cool as they say. Oh! And magazines, I’d be trying to find as many as I could as the style back then was immaculate.”

You can catch her performing live at ALT LDN in August

“Excited is a complete understatement! I’ve been in hiding for almost a year working on new stuff, it feels pretty surreal to have even put the first track out.”

Next stop: LA!

“It’s crazy to me that I’m putting out an EP because I was so unorganised with my releases back in the soundcloud days — I would just post as soon as I’d finished the songs out of pure excitement. The build up is good though, and I know my listeners will love what’s to come! I’ll be going to LA as soon as things cool down to work over there and branch out! There’s a lot to come!”

WILLOW KAYNE · CTRL ALT DLT

I know that we are about to get a lot more music from Willow Kayne. It is a great period where she is putting out her first tracks and showing the world what she can do. The fact that she has an Ivor at this early stage proves she is an exceptional producer and writer! There is something refreshing and very honest about Kayne. She is down to earth and accessible. However, she does inhabit this special world and creates music that few others are. The Line of Best Fit spotlighted her recently and, among other things, highlighted her relationship with social media:

“It really is Willow Kayne’s world, and we’re simply here for the ride - and the music, of course. We meet in the way Gen Z always meet, these days: over roughly 1080 pixels, full HD, high-resolution. As with everything over the past year, our conversation exists in an almost-reality that is alarmingly comfortable. Yet even with the Internet’s worth of distance between us, Kayne is bright, loud and brilliant without video lag: she laughs generously, and her whip-smart sense of humour is the kind that fits perfectly into 180 characters. Looming behind her is a stuffed, entirely limbless flamingo stuck to her bedroom wall. “It’s kid-friendly taxidermy,” she shrugs.

The Bristol-born artist – though she doesn’t carry the West Country twang you’d envision (“Oh my god, why does everyone think that I’d be like, ‘Alreyt my darlen?’” Kayne despairs) – is cutting her teeth as an artist, with a capital A, through the release of two singles under Columbia, which already capture the polarity of her sound which so easily eludes definition. “Two Seater” is a two-and-a-half minute flex that proves Kayne is a law unto herself: not only does she make the rules – she created the game. She wields self-confidence with the same instinct with which she brings her talents as a lyricist, singer and producer to the table.

PHOTO CREDIT: Parri Thomas for The Line of Best Fit

Her relationship with social media is surprisingly not as tortured as a typical 19-year-old, who, through choice or design, has to broadcast their personalities on TikTok to stand a chance of success as a creative. “It’s pretty gut-wrenching when you think about it,” she shrugs. “You’ve got to sell your image. I’m pretty shit at it, myself, but in some ways, I like the fact that people can connect with my personality online. I’m alright with it, actually.” Being deeply online has offered Kayne a time machine into the “OG subcultures, like rave culture, punks, teddy boys…” that have influenced her sound and artistic approach. She favours them over the recent Gen Z concoctions such as ‘Cottagecore’ and ‘Goblincore’, which are symptomatic of a fickle, disposable approach to trends which never truly cement themselves as ‘scenes’.

“We consume so much and trends change so quickly. It’s so bad, it’s actually so bad! It’s a bit scary, actually. We’re a very greedy generation,” Kayne says. “That’s what I’d say about Gen Z: we’re very greedy. Even now, with the whole ‘y2k’ thing, it’s just a more peng version of what they were actually doing before. Like I can’t see myself wearing leggings under a skirt anytime soon… what a look.”

Music, for Willow Kayne, was born from a place of boredom. While her parents had lived in the likes of Hong Kong and Brazil, she’d been brought up, instead, in the quaint, largely uninspiring town of Melksham. “This was the kind of place where, if you walked into a pub, people would rinse you for looking even a little bit different,” explains Kayne. “It was character-building”, she grins sarcastically. When I ask if this was the kind of place those wearing beige chinos, boat shoes, Ralph Lauren polos and Jack Wills hoodies would frequent, Kayne shrieks with laughter. “No, no, no! It wasn’t that kind of countryside. It was scatty, if you will. Scatty.”

Having since been signed to Columbia, where she’s now side-by-side with the likes of Tyler The Creator, The Internet and Dominic Fike, her slow peel away from the underground music scene wasn’t met with congratulations. “I mean, I have my people, for sure, but something I found interesting when I signed was there was quite a few sour grapes, which I never even thought about or considered would be a thing. It was interesting to see who was pushing for the downfall,” Kayne says, “but here we are. I’m just really thankful, to be honest, because I was just a little kid in my bedroom in the countryside, so to be welcomed into something like that changed a lot of things for me.”

But really, Willow Kayne’s success was pretty much inevitable. “Everyone loves this in interviews,” she laughs. “Oh my god, my mum used to produce music videos. She worked with The Prodigy, Nick Cave, she was in that whole '90s world. She’s cool.” (Her dad, however, doesn’t get quite the same praise: “My dad has literally the worst music taste, ever. It’s so bad. He sends me just dead TikTok tunes.”) She says, “It’s weird, now, that I’m in that same world. Someone came up to me in the studio the other day and said, ‘I know your mum!’” Weird little connections.”

When I ask her about her hopes for future side hustles, Kayne trips over her words as her mind rushes a million miles an hour. “I’m getting excited. Oh my gosh, so I’ve got to do clothes, got to do clothes… I’d be a mug if I didn’t… like, I don’t know, I care about graphics… the thing is, oh my god, I’m such a copycat of my mum, but I’d love to direct music videos. I know I’d thrive in it just as much as music, even more. I don’t intend to stick to one thing whatsoever.” She had a book since she was 16, where she’d jot down her creative vision for artists, drawing out detailed plans for their merch designs or inventive vinyl aesthetics. “I literally get to do it for myself now!”, she grins. Make no mistake: Willow Kayne is a name you’re not about to forget. “I’m ready,” she promises. “I’m here”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lily Craigen for NOTION

I am going to round up in a minute. Keep your ears and eyes open for her upcoming E.P. Follow her on social media and experience what Willow Kayne is all about. NOTION interviewed Kayne earlier this year. They asked about her incredible single, Two Seater, in addition to a terrible accident that left her blind in one eye:

She may only be 19 years old, but as her two genre-traversing singles show so far, Willow is unafraid to delve beyond the realms of conventionality. Her debut “Two Seater” carried a cool, Q-Tip-esque swagger with its “Bonita Applebum” references and smooth lyrical flow. Its follow up, “I Don’t Wanna Know”, upped the tempo with jungle infused beats and wildly creative visuals of teleporting through computer screens to kill off internet trolls.

Calling carpe diem on behalf of Gen Z, Willow’s upcoming EP is set to offer a “taster package” of Willow Kayne as an artist. She’s only been making music for less than half a decade. But who needs time when you have talent, potential and a provocateur-like spirit to showcase to the rest of the world?

Can you tell us about the accident you had that left you partially blinded in one eye and your journey to recovering from that? Has it changed your perspective on your career in any way?

I was 15 at the time, so I’d just started year 11. I didn’t make music or anything at this time. I was well into doing graphics and wanted to do it for the rest of my life. Then a week into starting, my eye was really red. It turned out that I had a cyst on my eye, like an ulcer on my cornea, which happened to be very rare. Your cornea has four layers, and three out of four of them were just disgraceful. So, I was in darkness for a couple of months and it enhanced a lot of other senses, you know? I would listen to my favourite songs and notice things I’d never heard before. Things would smell and taste different. It was really weird. I’d say the whole experience has definitely influenced my ideas now. It’s not just about the music; I want my project to involve multisensory things. I think if I can portray that to other people at shows then that’ll be nice.

‘Two Seater’ was a confident debut single. What messages and attitudes does your upcoming EP channel? Anything unexpected?

I’ve really enjoyed making different styles of music. I don’t really feel like I’m in a specific genre. My main goal for this first project is for it to be a taster. It’s obviously all still very Willow, but it’s like a taster pack of what I can do. Without me even realising it, the project has all ended up revolving around similar things. There’s been so many social changes – even in the last year with Covid, I’ve signed a record deal, I’ve moved away, lots of things have happened. And I just noticed that socially, there’s been a lot of differences like people treating you differently or switching up on you. I talk about that a lot in this project.

I heard your latest track ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’ was inspired by internet trolls too?

Basically, ‘Two Seater’ had come out and it was my first song. I wasn’t 100% on it because I’d written it a year before it came out. But I think because of that, I wasn’t actually upset about the comments. But there was this advert running with Two Seater in it, which I didn’t know about. They’d just taken one of my random TikToks and it ended up reaching a fair amount of people. I was getting messages every day from strangers being like, ‘I can’t believe someone’s commented saying you’re ugly and talentless’, and I was like what? So then, I was in a studio session and got on the phone to my friend Herbie and asked if they knew what all these messages were about. He sent me the link to this advert that had like over 1,000 comments just slamming me. I didn’t really know what to do. But the more I read them, I thought about how I could get this emotion out. So, I wrote ‘IDWK’ and it’s literally about the hate comments on ‘Two Seater’. I’m pretty lucky with that to be honest, because I feel like that could have gone in a completely different direction. It was motivating for me, because I know I’m not shit.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lily Craigen for NOTION

How important an asset is it for you as an artist – especially a female artist – to be able to produce your own music?

I saw a thing the other day about producers being only 2% female which is mad. You’ve just got to work with you’ve got to be honest. I’ve been really lucky with people listening to me and my ideas. But I’ve also worked with others who have been like, ‘I know the best way, I’m not going to listen to you’ and I’m like, ‘okay well, fair enough, not gonna work with you again’ you know? I’ve had it pretty easy so far but I think it just depends on the person.

What does the future hold for Willow Kayne? I’ve heard LA is on the cards?

I have no idea but I’m just gonna keep doing me. If it works out and people like it, that’s brilliant. I don’t really wanna sugar coat it to be honest. I’m just having fun. But yeah, I’m going to LA in the next couple months and I’ll see what happens. There’s a lot over there for me, I feel. If I can, I would move over there for a bit, for sure”.

I know that Willow Kayne will go a long way! She is a superb rising talent who is going to produce and release music for years to come. Even now, one can tell she is a cut above the rest. After a huge nod from the Ivors and an E.P. on the way, it is a perfect time to connect with Willow Kayne. If you have missed out on her music to this point, go and make sure that you…