Michael Kiwanuka
A familiar sound from the U.K.
By Alexis Swerdloff
Photographed by Justin De Deney
As a young boy growing up in the North London suburb of Muswell Hill, Michael Kiwanuka would wake up early everyday before school. "I wanted to squeeze in as much music as possible, so before walking to school, I'd get up before I had to just so I could listen to albums that friends had lent me or I'd bought." While it was these eclectic early-morning sessions -- listening to artists as varied as Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Verve, Sly and the Family Stone, Jamiroquai and Curtis Mayfield -- that bred a passion for music in the rising soul-singer, it was a teacher in secondary school, Miss Ogilby, specifically, who encouraged him to seriously consider making a career of it. So after graduating from high school, he spent a few years studying jazz at the Royal Academy of Music and popular music at the University of Westminster. He soon realized he wanted to take the less academic approach to things, and dropped out to do his own thing.
His first show, at 22, was upstairs at a pub in Kentish Town. "It was just for my family and friends, and I was so nervous, I stood so far away from the microphone," he recalls. Kiwanuka has since tweaked his live show. His immaculate, smooth and almost sepia-tinged soul ballads earned him a spot opening for Adele last year. In January, he won the BBC's much-coveted Sound of 2012 poll (Adele, Ellie Goulding and Mika are past poll winners) and in March, released his first album, Home Again, which he'll be touring stateside this summer, with a stop in Prospect Park in June.
Though he's now making music of his own, it's his voracious appetite for listening to others ("I'll spend like whole days obsessing over music videos on YouTube; you'll find one song, and then that'll lead you to another song..."), and his virtuoso-like songwriting skills, that have allowed Kiwanuka to create songs that sound both familiar and timeless yet completely his own. "There are certain types of songs that always sound good. I think I set out to write songs that seem like you've heard them before -- the first time you hear them."
His first show, at 22, was upstairs at a pub in Kentish Town. "It was just for my family and friends, and I was so nervous, I stood so far away from the microphone," he recalls. Kiwanuka has since tweaked his live show. His immaculate, smooth and almost sepia-tinged soul ballads earned him a spot opening for Adele last year. In January, he won the BBC's much-coveted Sound of 2012 poll (Adele, Ellie Goulding and Mika are past poll winners) and in March, released his first album, Home Again, which he'll be touring stateside this summer, with a stop in Prospect Park in June.
Though he's now making music of his own, it's his voracious appetite for listening to others ("I'll spend like whole days obsessing over music videos on YouTube; you'll find one song, and then that'll lead you to another song..."), and his virtuoso-like songwriting skills, that have allowed Kiwanuka to create songs that sound both familiar and timeless yet completely his own. "There are certain types of songs that always sound good. I think I set out to write songs that seem like you've heard them before -- the first time you hear them."
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