Flashmag January 2019 www.flashmag.net
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He started writing his own songs quietly at home, just for fun. These were not meant to be heard by other people, at least not at first. "No one would give me an opportunity to play the kind of music I loved, so I had to write mine, it was more to keep alive my passion for music, just something to keep my lukewarm soul, you know, I did not get into what was in the charts at the time! "he says
Finally, Michael recorded demos for some songs, hoping to give them to other artists to interpret. But he was surprised to find that people liked his voice, and encouraged him to play small shows. And finally, he found his place in the world. "I love singing live, the feeling that you have when you actually get in touch with an audience, when suddenly there is silence and you can feel it in the air.This does not happen all the time but when that happens, it's really special. "
His first EP was produced by Paul Butler of "The Bees" at Isle of Wight, the band's studio. "I always played my songs with an acoustic guitar, and this will always be the core, the thing I come back to often. But Paul also encouraged me to mix in the kind of music I played when I was hanging out at Hackney, so I started playing a little more electric, with a little bass, and that turned out to be quite a Soul recording. There are folk sounds, but also influences from artists like Shuggie Otis and Curtis Mayfield. I really enjoyed doing it. "
Tell Me A Tale, I Need Your Company, and Worry Walks beside Me, are timeless songs that could only come from Great Britain in 2011. Real, and raw with poignant beauty, these songs were just a taste of what will come later in his Home Again album released on March 12, 2012. Produced by Paul Butler in The Steam Rooms, a studio located in the basement of his Ventnor home on the Isle of Wight. The album received a positive reception from critics.
Home Again culminated at number 4 in the UK and spawned four singles: "Home Again", "I'll be ready", "I'll Get Along" and "Bones". It was sold to more than 70,000 in the UK. Alexis Petredis of The Guardian praised Butler's production for capturing soul music from the early '70s, as well as Kiwanuka's voice and lyrics that authenticated him. He started ticking a lot of boxes. "
Kiwanuka supported Adele on her Adele Live tour in 2011, including during her concert at the iTunes Festival in 2011. He played during the Hard Rock Calling 2011, the same year, he signed a contract with Polydor Records. He was included in the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll and was declared the winner on January 6, 2012. Home Again, was nominated for the 2012 Mercury Prize.
Love & Hate is Michael Kiwanuka's second studio album. The album was released on July 15, 2016 under the label Polydor Records (UK) and Interscope Records (USA). The album as the previous one was produced by Danger Mouse, Inflo and Paul Butler. Love & Hate also released three singles. The first single, "Black Man in a White World", was released on March 28, 2016 and was accompanied by a video directed by Hiro Murai. The second single, "Love & Hate", was released on April 7, 2016.
Upon release, Love & Hate received praise from music critics. At Metacritic, which awards a standard score of 100 to artists, the album scored an average of 86, based on 23 reviews, indicating "universal success". The Telegraph said: "This is an album that sounds like a musical world in itself", while The Guardian called it "the work of an artist.