recent listening party<\/a>\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tThe listening party was meant to be a very intimate playback. I\u2019ve done it before, and I wanted to do it again for this project. I haven\u2019t released it for two years, and I wanted people to hear it early. We did this sign-up sheet and there were 4,000 entries, and it was kind of overwhelming\u2026 but I was just like, why don\u2019t we just do this 500-capacity venue and invite everybody? It was kind of the chaos that I wanted. It wasn\u2019t crazy, like harmful. It was the right chaos.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat sounds like an iconic night\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt wasn\u2019t meant to be! It was just meant to be a playback, just talking intimately. But I thought, \u201cwhy don\u2019t we just play the first couple songs off the project live and let people hear it?\u201d I\u2019ve never really played with a band before. It would normally be a piano, but there was trumpet, saxophone, or the whole, you know, brass section. So it was kind of mad.<\/p>\n
\n\tSo tell us about the new project, what\u2019s this rollout going to be like?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI\u2019ve been working on this music for about a year-and-a-half. I\u2019ve mentioned before that I really struggled with finding myself, and I think as an artist, you have a lot of pressure to really know who you are really quickly when industry people get excited. I think I just lost myself, so I needed to figure out who I was.<\/p>\n
\n\tI worked with two guys called Tiron and Jeff Kitty. They\u2019re incredible songwriters and\u00a0producers. I just wanted to do something that I\u2019ve been saying from day one. I love to dance, I love uptempo music, and I just love something that makes my voice feel big and all this new music is very that. And there\u2019s a real artist in it. I used to hide behind the piano quite a lot, and I feel like that\u2019s not really what it is anymore.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou\u2019ve worked on projects by Central Cee and Justin Bieber recently \u2013 how do you land these spots?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt kind of all happened at the same time. But honestly, all of them were through Instagram. I love DMing people all the time because I always like to have my eyes on everything, that can be a good thing and a bad thing.\u00a0The Justin stuff just happened by Instagram\u2026 but it was friendship first. I didn\u2019t go into it thinking, \u201cI want to write with him.\u201d I\u2019d obviously love to, but we built a friendship first, and then music started to come around. And I was working in that household for like, a month, and it was just scratching ideas on everything, really.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat\u2019s your opening line when you speak to these artists?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI think that they\u2019re never going to reply! It\u2019s a little bit of \u201cDelulu,\u201d you know? I think I said, \u201cI\u2019ve been a fan since 14. You\u2019re such a legend, you\u2019re my king\u201d and stuff, obviously. I sent that DM the end of 2023, so the DM had been sitting there. I woke up one morning and he replied, but I literally thought it was a scam. When you speak to someone that\u2019s that successful and that famous, it feels like you\u2019re talking to a robot from an online perspective. But no, it was very much real.<\/p>\n
\n\tTell us about \u201cTOO LONG,\u201d the song you worked on for <\/strong>SWAG<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tWe did loads of stuff, and that was the first song that I put my vocal on. I didn\u2019t go crazy on that song, I just sang and did the backing vocals on the chorus. We did loads of things, and I think there\u2019s more that will come out, not to say too much, but, yeah it\u2019s really exciting.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd how did you connect with Central Cee?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHis friend DMed me and passed on the message. I went to the studio that they work at, and their whole team was there \u2013 that was a really quick and easy process. A lot of artists work in so many different ways. Sometimes you get artists who are like \u201cI\u2019m a fan. Would you do this?\u201d You give it to them, you don\u2019t hear anything. And then you\u2019ve got an artist like Justin who\u2019s there every step of the way and gives you advice and notes.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou also toured with Rene\u00e9 Rapp. What did you get from that tour?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tBeing on that tour was so fun. She\u2019s such a nice and caring person. I really like it when an artist really stands on what they mean. It\u2019s not just for social media or just to be respected, actually what she says online and in her music, she really believes, and I think that\u2019s really cool.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was a very LGBTQ crowd \u2013 which I\u2019m part of \u2013 and it was really nice to perform in front of our audience, because I think they are the most diehard fans. That\u2019s the most important thing any artist could ever ask for. It was so fun that she, again, was so caring and really let me have my space. There were fans after the show waiting to see me as well as her.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnother huge show with SZA and Snoh Alegra at BST Hyde Park. That\u2019s literally a dream lineup\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tThat show was incredible. I\u2019ve met a couple big artists who are really tapped into really underground, smaller artists, and SZA is really tapped in. I think she also has had a similar journey to a lot of these artists, and faced a lot of rejection early in her career, and, you know, took a while to have a moment. Everyone on that show was incredible: Snoh, SZA, Elmiene, all of them.<\/p>\n
\n\tHow did you and Fred Again \u2013 who you were spotted with in the studio with lately<\/a> \u2013 mesh creatively?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI always gravitate towards people who really care about the art, and I think Fred & Skrillex, they really care about the creation and the process of art. Working with Fred was such a dramatic moment, because I didn\u2019t really know what to expect. And you think you know going into a room, a singer in my world, I know exactly what I\u2019m going to go in there and come out with. Someone like Fred can come out with 500 things and they will be very different. I think that\u2019s just the fun part. When I was working with them, everyone was like, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on? Like, this doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d but really down to the music it does.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n