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Flashmag January 2019 www.flashmag.net
black that he realized he could play guitar rock too.
In his teens, two other icons will help him find his way. A friend offered him a box set of Bob Dylan's songs, and Michael was shocked by the power of the well-crafted songs, delivered with simple vocals and an acoustic guitar. Later, playing a free CD that came with a music magazine, he listened to an off-the-record version of "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay", in which Otis Redding was talking to the studio engineer. It seemed to make the Soul music icon more humane, more accessible, and even if he later experienced other influences like Bill Withers and Terry Callier, John Martyn and Laura Marling, it's Dylan and Redding who laid the groundwork for Michael's own style, a music rooted in folk, and soul with a modern inflection.
Kiwanuka played in rock bands during his school career, and when he was 16, he moved east to Hackney looking for other musicians to work with. After playing as a session musician for Bill Withers' former drummer, James Gadson, and Tinie Tempah producer Labrinth, he played on the capital's live circuit, where he was discovered by Paul Butler of The Bees, who invited him to record material in his Isle of Wight studio. Kiwanuka played contemporary R & B, soul and jazz-funk music in small jam sessions. He did a little session guitar for artists such as Tottenham's rapper, Chipmunk. "It was fun and I learned a lot, but I always felt that I was not on my plate ... I could not express the side of me, who had played in rock bands, and listened Dylan or Nirvana. "