Get To Know: Akemi Fox

Photography by Kwame Dapaa

Manchester alternative R&B rising star Akemi Fox joins New Wave for a sit down via Zoom on a Monday afternoon to talk about her new single ‘see you soon’ produced by swindle, the emerging R&B scene brewing in her city and what inspires her to create music.

She has effortlessly been carving her own lane within the UK music landscape and fast-becoming one of the country’s most fearless and gifted new artists, Akemi Fox is revered for her irresistible voice, emotive lyrics, nostalgic sound, and unorthodox R&B vibe.

Artistically she has been inspired by the likes of Frank Ocean’s ‘Channel Orange’ and Beyonce’s ‘Dangerously In Love’ massively and can still be found listening to the projects in her down time. The indie band Dorta are another one of the singers go to listens.

The 23-year-old is in a good space after just performing at the newly reopened Band on The Wall an iconic music venue in her hometown Manchester the other way in celebration of International Women’s Day

Speaking about last year we had dived into a deep discussi

on about her experiences of juggling both her budding career as an artist and university where the singer studied fashion at Leeds. Akemi started her music career by uploading songs to SoundCloud for fun during her first year at university.

“In my first year at uni I didn’t make that much music at all. I remember going to the studio a couple times, but it was in the summer that I started making stuff again and released ‘Weightless’ summer 2018 on Spotify. It was the first time I’d ever released something on Spotify.”

Akemi was in disbelief at the popularity of the song she made for fun with friend Mathew Baines and producer Teo, and the track acted as the catalyst to

make more music. Feeling inspired due to her surprised success with ‘Weightless’ when she was at university would transform her bedroom into a makeshift studio to create music and then in the summer, she would go studio whilst her friends were thinking about gaining work experience or looking grad jobs.

When talking about her popularity she exclaims “I cannot believe that people outside me and my friends listen to my music, so if someone messages me from a different country it’s such a nice feeling to connect with people from different parts of the world.”

Akemi’s new single ‘See You Soon’ dropped March 31, questioning the artists about the hidden meaning of the title she responded “it’s just a cute song I guess, it wasn’t intentional and when I heard the beat I found it quite playful.”

It reminded her of her favourite season summer she admits, and the song summed up is about her want for summer to come soon bringing warm air and blue skies.

“I daydream a lot like a lot of people”, laughing she continues “and I was thinking about your loved ones or specifically your partner or even a crush and you’re just thinking about them a lot because you haven’t seen them in a while and you want to hold onto this nice memory and relive it.”

The singer worked with “the very talented” Swindle who produced the track, talking about the experience she said that “I met him at the Kojey Radical album launch party and we spoke about getting into the studio together.” Stepping out of her comfort zone it was a new experience for the singer as she only really works with her producer Tao but it allowed new ideas to flow by working with different people.

There has been an emergence of R&B/ Soul influenced artists to come out Manchester in recent years alongside Akemi there has been Pip Millet, Children of Zeus, KSR and July7.

Later next month she’s “looking forward” to supporting Children of Zeus at their Bristol show explaining how the opportunity came about she says, “as fellow Manchester musicians we all know each other because it’s very small if we compare it to London”.

We are also anticipating that a project might potentially drop sometime later this year, but the date and tittle remain undecided. However, Akemi let slip that “the whole idea is goes with the theme of ‘See You Soon’ it’s quite happy, carefree and boo’d up”.

The track is best described as a stripped back summertime love song that’s underpinned by acoustic guitar arrangements, and held together beautifully by Akemi’s captivating voice, glorious vocal harmonies, and yearning lyrics about wanting to reconnect with a lover.

" It’s a song about confessing your love to someone and wanting to see them soon to reconnect to relive all the special moments you feel when with them. The song is described as though being in the sun during summer, and makes anyone listening want to bathe in that warm feeling of being in love. It’s a light-hearted song with a catchy rhythm with the message being that you want to see your loved one soon”.

Akemi took inspiration from your younger self after exploring her old diaries to recapture the feeling of loving love, “I didn’t realise I was going back, but going back made me realise why I made certain decisions or sing about some of the topics. Reading back to when I was twelve and seeing my fascination with music, love stories and that kind of feeling it makes sense why I put it into a lot of my songs.”

The singer is in a partnership with Northern powerhouse NQ Records and Virgin Music. NQ are a Manchester based label that aims to bring the music industry to the North-West.

Everyone at New Wave cannot wait to hear it.

SPRING/SUMMER 2022 LIVE DATES

April 6 – Manchester Albert Hall, Manchester (supporting Kojey Radical)

April 17 – Bristol Beacon, Bristol (supporting Children Of Zeus)

April 28 – The Blues Kitchen, Manchester (supporting KSR)

May 1 – Sounds From The Other City Festival

June 4 – Sonic Wave Festival