“This is sounding flat,” Kwn says, barely 30 seconds after urgent play on the primary observe of her extremely anticipated second EP, ‘With All Due Respect’. We’ve joined her in her Shoreditch studio – a sophisticated sanctuary she’s by no means let outsiders into earlier than, the place daylight floods by glass doorways onto pale wooden flooring. After twiddling with the knobs and dials, she sinks into her seat, hunching over and letting the brim of her pearl-bedazzled cap shadow her face as freaky R&B tunes flood into our ears.
“There’s no enjoyable tales within the studio as a result of I just about made each tune in my bed room,” the East London singer tells NME just a few days earlier, laughing. The bed room is the right setting for ‘With All Due Respect’ – the EP throbs with a uncooked, sapphic pulse, intercourse colouring each observe. “I like writing horny, feeling-myself type of music as a result of it’s enjoyable to make,” she says. “I feel that’s why I discover it exhausting to be susceptible with my music, like, ‘Right here we go: one other unhappy tune, one other factor to make me really feel unhappy once more.’ I simply need to really feel good.”
Kwn’s capability to make not simply herself however her listeners really feel good is plain. It’s why she’s scored team-ups with the likes of Kehlani and Jordan Adetunji, and landed a spot on the NME 100 for 2025, through which she was heralded for her “assured, free-roaming interpretation of contemporary R&B”. Each transfer Kwn has made to date has signalled an artist with indeniable potential.
The trail to Kwn’s seductive sound, although, has been lengthy and winding. The Walthamstow native fell in love with music aged 5, when her step-grandad would gently wake her by enjoying piano every morning through the holidays, and went on to show herself the instrument when she was older. Percussion has all the time had a grip on her too, ignited by journeys to see Stomp along with her dad. “They’d make music out of simply random issues – brooms, newspapers, pots and pans,” she says. Timbaland making beats with nothing however his voice was one other revelation: “That made me fall in love with the method, with all of the little intricacies of manufacturing.”
“I like writing horny, feeling-myself music as a result of it’s enjoyable to make. I simply need to really feel good”
Earlier than she unlocked her now-trademark AutoTuned-vocal type, Kwn (pronounced ‘kay-wuhn’) first dabbled in rap. Early demos oozed with the identical swagger that’s remained even after she ditched the bars. Ultimately, she landed a cope with Black Butter, the label that launched the careers of J Hus, MNEK and Bakar, the place she was in a position to construct her personal foundations and make music her day job. She poured herself into her 2022 debut EP ‘Episode Wun’, a genre-blurring introduction full of shadowy synths, woozy vocals and a pointy lyrical chunk, making her the latest alt-R&B drive to look at.
However quickly, the dream soured: regardless of being signed, she was creatively pissed off whereas struggling to make ends meet, and needed to tackle a second job. “That was humbling,” she admits. “I didn’t really feel like anyone was listening to me. I wasn’t making the music that I wished to make. I used to be virtually there, however I knew I may push it lots additional.” Ultimately, she parted methods with the label – a breakup that gave her a brand new sense of freedom the place she was in a position to “simply be [her] true self”.
Whereas engaged on new concepts, Kwn skilled two eureka moments. ‘Eyes Huge Open’ – her breakthrough ethereal ballad about that blurred line between lust and love – was the second she “cracked” her sound, unlocking her love for choral textures (a nod to her school choirmaster), and incomes her her first viral second. The introspective, gospel-inspired ‘Lord I’ve Tried’, in the meantime, supplied a much-needed lesson in vulnerability. On the day she wrote it, the artist had been “feeling actually down” and hoped to carry herself up by writing “a little bit horny one thing”. However author’s block hit, and the AutoTune that often blankets her songs was on the fritz, pulling away the smoke and mirrors she often hides behind. Kwn’s despair was on full show as she purged her feelings on the piano.
“It was an enormous weight off my shoulders,” she remembers now. “I struggled to be susceptible and talk about my feelings, so to get that out in a tune, I cried the entire approach residence listening to that. Lastly, anyone’s heard me and that anyone is me.” Solely a “very, very, very choose few” get entry to that susceptible model of her, not to mention the entire world.
Whereas the top of her report deal was a liberating time, it additionally introduced its difficulties. She now not had the assets of a label at her disposal, leaving Kwn and her supervisor to navigate the uneven seas of the music business alone. At instances, they wanted to get artistic to make issues work – together with when it got here to the observe that might give her her launch into the mainstream.
While on Instagram Dwell in the future, Kwn made ‘Worst Behaviour’, a contemporary but nostalgic “old skool, Timbaland-y feeling” observe. However with out funding, she couldn’t afford to get it combined or mastered. So she took a leaf out of Nipsey Hussle’s guide, impressed by his 2013 Proud2Pay marketing campaign the place he offered 1,000 copies of his ‘Crenshaw’ mixtape at $100 apiece to show that followers will again what they imagine in.
“At first, I used to be like, ‘Oof, I don’t find out about this. This would possibly make us look a little bit bit determined.’” However Kwn ultimately determined to promote ‘Worst Behaviour’ direct to followers as a way to become profitable for distribution. Her supervisor stayed up till 3am for weeks, constructing an internet site and securing licenses, ensuring she was legally coated. When the undertaking launched, she offered over 12,000 copies, used the funds to get the observe mastered and uploaded the completed model on-line. Then, “it simply went bow. All that arduous work paid off.”
“If the queer neighborhood [feel like they have] somebody to say, ‘Simply be your self’, then wonderful. However I’m not like, ‘I’m president of the gays’”
The tune set the R&B world ablaze, the flames stoked even additional when Kehlani jumped on the remix. The US star had beforehand taken Kwn on tour with them earlier than collaborating on the steamy ‘Garments Off’ – a tune that might set the tone for his or her partnership to observe. The pair lock lips within the ‘Worst Behaviour’ video, beginning a frenzy amongst followers who now ship the duo collectively. “Perhaps we shouldn’t have put it out on Valentine’s Day,” Kwn jokes. “We be sending the memes and feedback to one another forwards and backwards. It’s very humorous to us.”
The thirsty response alerts a starvation for genuine queer illustration and whereas Kwn doesn’t need to ignore that, she additionally doesn’t need to be boxed in by it. “I’m only a girl that likes girls,” she says. “If the queer neighborhood [feel like they have] somebody like me to be that push and say, ‘Nah, simply be your self’, then wonderful. However I’m not gonna be the individual to be like, ‘I’m president of the gays’.”
‘With All Due Respect’ is the right reflection of the 25-year-old simply being herself. There’s a softness to her voice on the report, including an ethereal ingredient to her spacey-yet-racy type of ‘Fxck!n’ and featherlight harmonies to her glitched-out, honeyed croon on the FLO-assisted ‘Discuss You By means of It’. Even on ‘Again Of The Membership’, she hopes to “convey bridges again”, reliving shimmery after-hours heat influenced by the likes of Angie Stone, Joe, D’Angelo and extra.
That softness, although, isn’t all the time anticipated of masculine-presenting girls like Kwn. The world typically sees masculinity as hard-edged and assertive, and whereas the musician does have that facet to her, she’s not right here to carry out a toughness she doesn’t really feel.
“I already know what I’m able to, and it’s greater than this”
“Lots of masculine-presenting girls placed on this entrance like they’re the hardest beings on the planet,” she explains. “However behind closed doorways? You’re only a teddy bear. I’m the identical – I’m nonetheless emotional, I’m nonetheless delicate, I’m nonetheless gentle.” Whereas others really feel pressured to choose a facet – masculine or female; exhausting or gentle – Kwn doesn’t iron herself out for anybody. Her feelings keep tangled, like her bedsheets: messy, trustworthy, and all hers.
It’s an authenticity that has set Kwn up for a brilliant future – a worthwhile pay-off for restarting from the bottom up, fuelled by self-belief and grit. “I manifested all of this, and I knew every little thing was going to be OK,” she says in a second of quiet reflection. “I simply needed to preserve telling myself that each single day, irrespective of how exhausting it received, irrespective of what number of days I sat there and cried in my bed room, I needed to preserve going. As a result of I knew one thing nice was on the best way.”
With ‘With All Due Respect’, she’s glad she’s reached these heights. “If you happen to didn’t take me in then, you’re going to take me in now,” she remarks confidently. “Within the least big-headed and most big-headed approach doable”. Recognition of her greatness is barely rising, too. Earlier this month, she was nominated for BET’s Greatest New Worldwide Act award – one thing she describes as “unimaginable” and “insane”. It’s unlikely to finish there, both, as Kwn refuses to decelerate. “I don’t need to take my foot off the fuel,” she says. “There’s no ceiling on this factor, and I simply wanna preserve breaking by.”
Again in her Shoreditch studio, she turns her consideration to what may be subsequent. “I actually wished to name this EP ‘This Is Not My Album’ as a result of I already know what I’m able to,” she declares, eyes burning with conviction as she stares down the small viewers in entrance of her. “And it’s greater than this.”
Kwn’s ‘With All Due Respect’ is out on June 20 through RCA US.
Hearken to Kwn’s unique playlist to accompany The Cowl under on Spotify or on Apple Music right here.
Phrases: Kyann-Sian Williams
Pictures: Hannah Cosgrove
Make-up: Alice Lawson
Styling: Jojo Vandalkidd
Label: RCA US