Michael Kiwanuka interview: It’s good to be different

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Michael Kiwanuka is a twice Mercury-nominated musician, the winner of the 2012 BBC Sound Of Poll and his current album, Love & Hate, went straight to No 1. It is set to become one the albums of the year and yet he still gets nervous around other musicians he admires.

"If it’s an artist I love, sometimes I say ‘I’m a huge fan’ but I usually end up saying something cheesy or embarrassing", he says, laughing. "I did it at a festival called Sasquatch in Washington to Kevin Parker from Tame Impala and I said ‘I love you, you’re amazing’ and then I ran away. I saw them again at Jools Holland and did the same thing. We’re not friends yet."

It’s hard not to like a man who is so unabashedly honest about his oddness, but what makes Love & Hate so brilliant (aside from the throbbing retro guitars and Kikuwana’s strong, soothing voice) is the emotional honesty.

"I wanted to be more transparent and more vulnerable as a well... I felt writing deeply was a way to get things off my chest."

The album kicks off with "Cold Little Heart", a nine-minute 58 seconds long epic that’s a statement of intent. It’s not what you expect number one albums to be made of, and he agrees, saying he thought it might scrape a number 10 slot. "When it came out people were saying, you know, it’s people like Adele and Drake who sell mega albums. I thought ‘I can't compete with that’."

His last album Home Again, which is rich and simple like a lullaby, got to No 5, and he was beaten to the Mercury Prize in 2012 by Alt-J. Some would say that’s a respectable innings, but there’s a part of him that wasn’t entirely satisfied with that at the time; he wanted the mainstream pop success of Adele or Kanye, and yet, Kiwanuka’s acceptance of being a bit different and not totally mainstream is, ironically, what has powered the new album up the charts. We’ve yet to see if he’ll win the Mercury this time round, but he says he’s just happy to be nominated. "This year is nice because there are some good albums, the Skepta album and Laura Mvula’s The Dreaming Room is great. I hope I can make it to the ceremony, because I’ve never been to an awards ceremony before. I haven’t really been nominated for another thing before, like, I’ve never been nominated for a Brit."

Talk about glass half full; the Mercury is the more arty, creative prize of the two, awarded to musicians who are trailblazers, while the Brit Awards are more of a numbers game – who sold the most. It seems Kiwanuka craves the popularity that the Brits endorses, yet his creativity and individuality won’t really allow it.

"Black Man in a White World" from the new album, which is thematically evocative of Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly", confronts this difference head-on and embraces it with a hand-clapping, uptempo tune.

He might be surrounded by white studio execs in his career, but, he says, that’s not really what he was thinking about when he wrote it. It was more influenced by being the only black guy who was into Bob Dylan where he grew up in Muswell Hill, north London.

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"I wasn’t thinking about the music industry when I wrote it – but afterwards it did occur to me – it was more about the circles I was brought up in. That made me think of my identity a bit more and my culture and where my family originally came from and I was seeing things outside of both worlds really. I am Ugandan by blood but I don't speak the same language. I have a British accent and I am often reminded of my African roots."

But rather than reading it as a protest song, he intended it to be a celebration of those layers of identity that make him unique, "That is not a negative thing, that’s positive and it makes me think about how you relate to each other. When I was young I didn’t want to stand out and it’s certainly now I realise what a privilege it is to have a unique identity."

Kiwanuka’s influences range from Nina Simone to John Lennon and Tame Impala to Alabama Shakes. His eclecticism is reflected in his music: it’s folky, but with retro-soul bits and it’s popular enough to come under the broad umbrella of ‘pop’, but seems too clever and soulful to be given a label that could also describe Aqua or Steps.

Read our review of Michael Kiwanuka at Cadogan Hall, London

It was around the time of the last album when Kikuwana was 22, (he’s now 29) that he says he really started to be comfortable with his identity. "I started embracing my differences and I let go a bit and then you realise there are loads of oddballs in music. And around that time I started reading more about my favourite musicians and realised they were all unique characters and so I've been enjoying it more as time goes on."

Others seem to be drawn to that. His music is now featuring on the soundtrack for the new Baz Lurhmann Netflix series The Get Down, about the beginnings of hip-hop in the Bronx.

"I am not sure how it happened but somehow Baz Lurhmann received a copy of the album before it was released and I got an email from him saying he was using some of it for The Get Down. Then he said, 'do you mind if we do some remixes?' and he sent them to me and I said, ‘yes this is great’. What made it even more exciting was Nas was on it.The thing about Baz Lurhmann is he makes classic things seem fresh; he makes Shakespeare appeal to 13-year-olds."

He's seen clips of the new series and says he loves the look: set in 1977, in New York, at the height of disco, when afros, flares and colourful lapels were all the rage. "I love that look," says Kiwanuka. I suggest he wears some flares for his next gig.

"I like wearing jeans that are not too baggy, not too skinny, just in between. But maybe I should push the boundaries a bit more. I might wear them if I feel brave."

Michael Kiwanuka comes to Shepherd's Bush Empire on 11 October, his new album Love & Hate, is out now.