FKA Twigs is known for her love of many disciplines. An accomplished dancer, acrobat, actor and musician, it’s no surprise that she didn’t spend lockdown bingeing Sopranos like the rest of us. But it’s news, though, that she managed to write and record a whole new album during quarantine.
Speaking to Scott Goldman as part of the GRAMMY Museums Programs at Home series, Twigs reveals that she has almost finished work on a new record that she made remotely with collaborators throughout lockdown. “I’m a Capricorn, I love working”, she says before elaborating on the new record.
“I ended up making a whole album. I just decided one day. It was 1/3 of the way through and I just went and did it. It was really amazing because I worked predominantly with an amazing artist and producer called El Guincho, and I did the whole thing with pretty much all of the collaborators over Facetime.
“I was working with people I’d never met and we did the whole thing over Facetime and it was great because I couldn’t go in the studio at the beginning so I was getting beats and writing melodies in the day with El Guincho. Then in the night I would call some of my friends in America who made music and I would have a glass of wine and chill and write lyrics and talk about what the songs mean.
“So I was able to do everything from my phone and I had a really brilliant time. I think in some ways my physicality suffered a bit as I wasn’t able to train as much as I usually do. But I started learning the piano and I can read music now, which is good.”
Twigs also reveals more detail about some of her collaborators: “I was able to work with some amazing songwriters like Ali Tamposi [Kelly Clarkson, Beyoncé] and Billy Walsh [Post Malone].”
This new record will be the follow up to 2019’s critically-acclaimed, ‘MAGDALENE’, which is not yet a year old. There was a five year gap between ‘LP1′, Twigs’ first full-length project and ‘MAGDALENE’ so fans will be delighted that there is more new music coming so soon.
In recent months, Twigs has released a stunning short film to accompany the ‘MAGDALENE’ track ‘Sad Day.’ The mini-marshal arts epic is directed by Hiro Murai – who worked on Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’ video – and sees Twigs mastering the Chinese art of sword dancing or Wushu.
We are yet to hear more about when the new FKA Twigs record might be released but Twigs did say she’s “just finishing it now”. Watch this space.
