Before FKA Twigs could discuss her upcoming album, \u201cAfterglow,\u201d she needed a matcha.<\/p>\n
The British singer-songwriter had first answered a Zoom call from the backseat of a dimly lit car in New York, where she confessed to running on \u201c2% personality.\u201d She explained that she had flown in that morning from London and had spent the day promoting her upcoming movie, \u201cThe Carpenter\u2019s Son,\u201d a biblical horror co-starring Nicolas Cage.<\/p>\n
Luckily, only a few minutes into the interview, the singer born Tahliah Debrett Barnett spotted a familiar matcha spot coming up on her route. In a split-second decision, she runs into the cafe, eager for a caffeine boost, and orders everything matcha she could get her hands on \u2014 a hot lavender matcha latte, a matcha soft serve and matcha-flavored pudding.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, we’re gonna be buzzing,\u201d said Twigs, who laughs a bit about how she hasn\u2019t eaten much that day and decided to exclusively consume matcha desserts. After making it back to the car and indulging in a few sips, she declares, \u201cIt feels like I have my personality back. That was quite an authentic experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a revived glint in her eyes, she was ready to debrief \u201cAfterglow,\u201d the unexpected continuation of her third studio album, \u201cEusexua.\u201d The 37-year-old singer released \u201cEusexua\u201d in January as both the namesake of her record and a term she coined to describe a transcendent state of being.<\/p>\n
Now, less than a year later and set to be released the same day as \u201cThe Carpenter\u2019s Son,\u201d her latest album is meant to \u201cbeautifully unravel\u201d the questions of humanity she presents on \u201cEusexua.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the start, she says, she knew that \u201cEusexua\u201d was something bigger than a singular album \u2014 equating it to an era. Inspired by Prague\u2019s underground rave culture, the record itself is centered around life’s purest experiences. Over tattered drum and bass patterns, retro-futuristic crescendos and ephemeral melodies, Twigs attempts to bottle the way dance music makes her feel. Lyrically, she embraces a childlike wonder, shares her vulnerabilities and indulges in sweet nothings \u2014 all with the intention of capturing what it means to be a person.<\/p>\n
Where \u201cEusexua\u201d is \u201cthe bird\u2019s eye view of the human experience,\u201d Twigs says, \u201cAfterglow\u201d is meant to capture humanity through a more direct lens, where feelings are unfiltered and instantaneous. Changing this viewpoint was something that came to her with ease.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes when you’re creating something, it feels like you’re rubbing against something or you\u2019re pushing something uphill. But with this project, it didn’t feel like that. It was flowing naturally,\u201d said Twigs.<\/p>\n
Most of \u201cAfterglow\u201d was made post-\u201cEusexua\u201d from the comfort of her home studio in Hackney, London. Despite \u201cEusexua’s\u201d successful release, she couldn’t shake the feeling of still having more to give.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/b> Destin Conrad didn\u2019t overthink his first jazz project \u2014 that\u2019s exactly why it works<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI can’t explain it. Sometimes you put out an album, and then it feels like you need to stop for a while,\u201d said Twigs. \u201cBut with \u2018Eusexua,\u2019 it felt like it was still growing. The message was still spreading, and people still wanted a deeper understanding of what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n For over a decade, Twigs has been known to cushion her albums with a few years between each release. Her debut, \u201cLP1,\u201d released in 2014, was followed by \u201cMagdalene\u201d in 2019 and \u201cEusexua\u201d in 2025. She also released a mixtape, called \u201cCaprisongs,\u201d in 2022. On each project, she bears a new side to herself, often diving headfirst into the depths of her identity, love life and womanhood. Uncovering raw emotions, like loss, lust and jealousy, she\u2019s able to capture their complexities through erratic rhythms, unorthodox mechanics and a trance-like ambiance.<\/p>\n FKA Twigs performs at Camp Flog Gnaw in November 2019. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/span><\/p>\n Before becoming a musician, she found success at an early age as a professional dancer. In her late teens and early 20s, she appeared as a dancer in music videos for artists like Ed Sheeran, Jessie J and Kylie Minogue. To this day, she relies on dancing and bodily movement as an essential part of how she understands music.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you dance, it’s really good to know the rules and the fundamentals, like with ballet. But once you know ballet, then you can mess it up and let go. You can dance with more freedom,\u201d said Twigs, in between bites of her matcha pudding. \u201cThat’s kind of what \u2018Afterglow\u2019 is. It’s ‘Eusexua,’ but it’s wild, sensual and irresistible. It\u2019s meant to quench a thirst.\u201d<\/p>\n Since she\u2019d laid out the groundwork with her previous release, she approached its follow-up with a carefree sense of freedom. The 11-track album is meant to be a concept album of sorts, detailing the aftermath of a night out. From the feeling of fresh air after leaving a sweaty dance floor to the drunken temptations of texting an ex-lover and the inevitable rush of not wanting the night to end, Twigs proves she has the \u201cafters\u201d down to a formula.<\/p>\n Leaning into a slightly less alien soundscape than the one heard on \u201cEusexua,\u201d the singer indulges in a masterful form of electronic edging \u2014 never going the predictable route. On songs like \u201cSlushy\u201d and “Predictable Girl,\u201d she intertwines a menagerie of robotic, spacey sirens with tinges of Jersey club beats and \u201990s-influenced R&B chords. While on equally hypnotic tracks like \u201cCheap Hotel\u201d and \u201cSushi,\u201d she commands the heavily-layered soundscape with an intoxicating sense of recklessness.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I go out to reset my brain a little bit. Obviously, I love what I do so much. I love being an artist. But sometimes, it just gets unnecessarily stressful,\u201d explains Twigs, who touches on the complications of fame with the track \u201cWild and Alone,\u201d alongside fellow British pop music innovator PinkPantheress.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when I go out, it makes me put everything into perspective and realize what’s really important in my life, who I want to be and who I want to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n Powered by these realizations, she’ll continue to lose herself in foggy nightclub dance floors, masses of sweaty bodies and blinding strobe lights. But she says, when it comes to making art, there’s one thing she’ll never lose sight of.<\/p>\n The only thing that can affect her creative output, she says, is \u201cwhether you’re telling the truth or not, and how honest you\u2019re being.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n