Ones to Watch: Kizzy Crawford

Earlier this month, we covered Addictive TV’s Orchestra of Samples show in Bethnal Green. Needless to say, we were pretty impressed, but that extended beyond just the headline AV veterans, the supporting act caught our attention too. Kizzy Crawford has been writing and performing for most of her life and in the past couple of years (or since she was 16) she has risen to startling acclaim. Her music is an inviting, intriguing blend of English and Welsh vocals, guitar, violin, jazz, soul and traditional folk. It’s that enticing, inventive mixture of styles and influences that has already earned her airplay on BBC 6Music, Radio 1, Radio 4 and numerous others, to say nothing of her TV appearances (her work featured in the 2014 6 Nations ad campaign).

Her latest single, Shout Out currently features on the Visit Wales ad campaign. Her live performances are fascinating to behold, as she fluidly interplays vocals and riffs using a set up loop pedals in order to build her tracks from the ground up before your eyes and ears. She’s played at Glastonbury, London Jazz Festival, Festival No 6 and numerous others. In this day and age not many artists can legitimately stand up and say ‘there’s nobody else like me’, but even at this early stage I’d say Kizzy can make that claim and she was good enough to stop by for a chat.

Hi Kizzy, thanks for speaking with us. When you were starting out, what drew you more towards singing in Welsh?
I went to Welsh medium school from the age of three, when my family moved to Aberaeron from Oxford, where I was born. Because me and my sister were the only mixed race girls in the area, I felt as if I didn’t fit in at first. Speaking Welsh, just like everyone else at school, made me feel like I was the same, equal. And when we sang together I felt safe and happy. I loved the school Eisteddfod, and competing in the National Urdd, where my sister and I sang together. The language and music is a really strong and defining part of my identity as a black Welsh woman. This is how I know and define myself. It is who I am.

Your style of singing kind of has a soulful, bluesy vibe that isn’t normally associated with the language, did that happen consciously or just develop by itself over time?
I was always surrounded by different sorts of music as I grew up – very diverse stuff which as I’ve got older, I realise might have been an unusual mix  – lots of Jazz, folk, soul, funk and quite heavy stuff as well as classical. I loved Meic Stephens and the traditional music we sang at school too, and I think all those influences have blended together in my writing and composing. When I was growing up, I would have loved to have seen and heard a black woman singing in Welsh, with a soulful sound and lyrics I could relate to. I didn’t find anyone like that, so I started writing for myself.

I couldn’t help but notice that you tend to perform with bare feet, any particular reason for that?
Haha, performing with bare feet makes it a lot easier for me to control the loop pedals I use. I need to press a lot of buttons and see what I’m doing clearly. Also, I feel very comfortable and ‘at home’ barefoot.

Are there any other instruments besides the ones you normally use that you’d like to incorporate into future live shows?
I’ve always wanted to play piano and drums. They’re instruments I’d love to experiment in future live shows.

Are there any other artists out there that you would particularly want to collaborate with?
Donald Fagen would be ideal. He’s an amazing producer and someone I’ve been a huge fan of since I was very young.

If you could play a set anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
Womex!

You have a new track and video out, is there anything else you’re working on that we should know about?
I’m busy recording new tracks that I hope to release as singles throughout the year!

Kizzy is touring the UK and Europe until the end of March. You can grab her EP Temporary Zone here