Sometimes even the briefest step on the brakes can supply very important time to arrange for the highway forward. Imogen and the Knife is aware of this all too nicely. After changing into disillusioned with the repetitive grind of the music business, the Newcastle-born, London-based artist determined at first of 2022 to pause issues for some time.
“It seems that wasn’t very lengthy,” Imogen Williams chuckles in a faint Geordie accent over a Zoom name with NME. “I’d misplaced a number of love for music as a profession, it wasn’t making me comfortable anymore,” she explains. “I took a break however it was so short-lived as a result of I rapidly realised I can’t exist with out music.” In the end, it was the facility of group that ended up sparking her very important new chapter.
“I started placing alone stay nights once more and attempting to reclaim what made me love performing within the first place. I began out simply gigging in each London and Newcastle and forging a pathway once more from there. It was a correct freedom of expression relatively than simply attempting to shoehorn my artwork into the business simply to satisfy sure tick-boxes.”
That sense of freedom imbues her new EP ‘Some Type Of Love’, which arrives this Friday (July 19). You solely want to listen to the breadth of its first few singles to know the way adventurous this new path is. ‘Mom Of God’ is a uneven, sultry bop drawing from the brooding grittiness of her icon PJ Harvey, whereas the tender piano-led ‘If It Gained’t Discuss Of Rain’ is an intimate, lovelorn ballad the place Williams ponders: “If he takes me for dinner / can he wave my payment / I assume music is love and my loving is free.”
Such candid themes haven’t come for Williams completely out of the blue. Having initially established herself as a solo artist again in 2018, releasing piano-driven pop below her first identify, she sees the period of ‘The Knife’ as extra of a refined reinvention. “It’s extra of a continuation and a development. I’ve at all times been writing like this, it’s simply developed and brought on new types.”
NME: So how did the idea of ‘The Knife’ come about and why change it up now?
“I’ve been taking part in my very own music from the age of 15 so there’s positively been a lot of reinventions as I’ve gone by life. Everybody modifications as they become old and it’s felt apt to do this with my music. After my temporary break, I began placing on stay nights again in 2022. I did a sequence known as ‘Imogen And Pals’ in London and Newcastle which restored my religion in the truth that music isn’t going to go away me. On the similar time I had all of those songs mendacity about, so it actually spurred me on to set about making the file of my desires.”
You may hear that artistic liberation within the ensuing EP. Did taking a break and coming again contemporary take away sure exterior pressures?
“Yeah, the method was so freed from any strain, which was simply good. I believe you’ll be able to hear that within the file as nicely. There’s a number of care and love put into it. It was about pulling out all the stops and having a superb time. I had a little bit of an ego demise as nicely the place I let a number of stuff go. I’m ready to work for it, however it’s received to be on my phrases and I don’t wish to minimize corners or make compromises to have that profession. Perhaps that’s what was getting me down earlier than: I used to be taking recommendation from a number of locations within the business and I felt like a deer within the headlights.”
“Love infiltrates completely every thing I do”
Your music has at all times been deeply private. What does ‘The Knife’ itself imply?
“‘The Knife’ is about reclaiming. I used to be born with hip dysplasia which meant that I had a great deal of corrective surgical procedures from a younger age. That’s positively one of many the explanation why I make music and have at all times discovered solace in it. I’ve been residing with power ache my entire life and being below the knife was an enormous a part of rising up. So it’s the reclaiming of that surgical knife, however I additionally wished to allude to the truth that I’ve a band and it takes a village: it’s my producer, it’s the piano, it’s a lot greater than me.”
You’re massively pleased with your Newcastle roots as an artist as nicely. How does that come by within the new path?
“That a part of me will get stronger the extra I’m away from the north and Newcastle, however I really feel actually fortunate to have that connection. Very similar to the Irish and Welsh, so many northerners are born right into a tradition of tune. I believe that’s so stunning and it’s actually essential to me and it’s underpinned all of my writing. I perceive that I’m a storyteller and that’s been handed down by my household. For me, it comes again to this tradition of tune and of group and of affection, actually. That’s the principle factor for me and possibly that isn’t talked about sufficient. I spend a lot of my time being so nurtured by my group up there.”
Love is after all an enormous overarching theme of the EP. Did that current itself fairly early on on this interval of self-discovery?
“I confer with the EP as a patchwork of songs as a result of they’re from fairly a couple of totally different instances in my life. I simply cherry-picked the tracks that I really like from throughout the final couple of years. After I put them collectively I discovered that they’re all exploring love not directly or one other. It explores what love could be in all totally different capacities and I believe that was a pleasant method to tie all of them collectively. All of my songs are fuelled by love in some capability. Love infiltrates completely every thing I do.”
It’s extra about your personal journey, however your music does supply romance and escapism…
“I hope individuals can lose themselves in my music but additionally really feel held by it. An enormous factor for me is inviting all people in. I by no means wish to really feel too prescriptive at any level, I wish to sing about experiences which are distinctive to me that folks can put their very own tales towards. I’d love for my music to be a private file for the listener and I believe that’s actually essential in these instances that individuals are seen and understood and held by the artwork that they’re consuming.”
You’ve cited everybody from PJ Harvey to CMAT to Lana Del Rey as inspirations. I assume the widespread thread is these highly effective ladies who’ve at all times achieved it on their very own phrases?
“They’re all massively essential to me. PJ Harvey has been an enormous one, I channel her musically however extra importantly the best way she navigates her artwork and life. She managed to stay suave and mysterious and elusive whereas being actually cool and brash. I really like CMAT, her efficiency on the Massive Weekend truly lowered me to tears. it made me realise I’d been so devoid of girls simply going for it. She sounded so stunning whereas screaming like a siren and speaking about essentially the most devastating stuff ever by a lens of drag and comedy. It was the proper present.”
Now you’re releasing music by yourself phrases and have had such a wholesome response, does this EP really feel like a game-changing second for you?
“It positively does. I really feel deeply enthusiastic about prospects and issues to come back, it looks like new doorways have been opened in methods I hadn’t ever envisaged. I’m much more hopeful and it’s pretty to really feel like that as a result of that’s possibly what I’d misplaced beforehand. I didn’t acquire it again in the best way that I believed I used to be going to, it’s taken on a unique type which is admittedly cool. I’ve been blown away by the peer recognition as nicely which is admittedly essential to me. I’ve had the possibility to hang around with a few of my favorite artists and producers simply because they just like the music.”
Imogen and the Knife’s ‘Some Type Of Love’ is out July 19 through Vertex Music.
