Get To Know... Kwaku Asante

Conversations with artists in the moments I sat down with Kwaku Asante, are poignant. Yesterday the release of his

latest music video, Feel Something, and his EP Blue Solstice: Volume 1 in September, playing at Yam Carnival and a headline show at the Jazz Café on 11th November he is standing head-high on the next pillar of his journey.

We are intimately listening to an artist telling their story, becoming their own, and setting the stones toward their legacy. Kwaku, or Kwakz his friends call him, is an interesting person, to say the least, his thought processes of the world can be heard, seen, and absorbed through his love of music, sport, education, and most importantly this conversation. After our hour-long conversation on Zoom, we met as I was exiting the fastest Ferris wheel at Strawberries and Creem Festival (shout out to them!) Starting back in 2018, these past few years have been pivotal for the performer in transforming his beliefs, saying he now knows what is required of him, and is more rooted in what he stands for.

I’m a firm believer that who you are at your core is wired during your childhood. Back in school, Kwaku was the “good” kid, being really good at sport, music, playing violin and piano, and your standard classroom lessons, he was also a class joker – “energetic and very imaginative”, he says. During these times, surviving multiple lockdowns, and overall a global change, Kwaku’s well-rounded traits to dabble in a bit of everything has carried on in his adult life. As well as music, he is a regular gym-goer, yoga-lover, and art admirer – typically fine art, his favourite places being The Saatchi Gallery and Tate London.

This chapter of his journey is called, rooted. He is ready to explore a knee-jerking side to music in comparison to his past releases that Kwaku describes as ‘a bit dark’, he explains, “We all have multilayers, I could feel something one day and the complete opposite the next. I wanted to prove that I can be playful, and I can have fun, a bit of tongue and cheek with my lyrics, I wanted to show that other side of my artistry. I wanted to show I can exist in different worlds and it would still make sense.”

The EP is a short-three-track project that is more of a jazzy-afrobeat production than his previous catalogue. Displaying his want to show his versatility in his craft, amazingly the tracks Feel Something and Northern Lights were written in 24 hours, a strong assurance and raw emotion of what he can do – something that is felt through the soulful, deep vibrations of his music.

He is an artist that refuses to get pinned into a singular genre, and has influences from Rock, Indie, Blues, and Jazz, and creates something that is a bit of each realm. This also branches out to Kwaku’s drive to transform an outdated narrative surrounding black men and the idea of what masculinity should look like or a need for hypermasculinity. “I explored this idea during my dissertation, it was on the representation of gender and sexuality in Black popular music. And you find a lot of things about black culture and hyper-masculinity, particularly the reason why black men tend to be more hyper-masculine in spaces is because of slavery, we fought for the right to be seen as human for so long and so hard, that it is our natural instinct to quickly kick anything out that may be seen as soft.”

For Kwaku, from a young age, he enjoyed dance and football and sometimes struggled with the idea of having to pick one, which he felt was down to the idea of what masculinity is. “I've learned to embrace all sides to me, I want people to know that one is not exclusive to the other and they can all exist within another.”

Growing up in London’s North West, like myself, we were able to connect on our unique experience of living in one of London’s most diverse boroughs, Brent. “My childminder was south Asian, I went to church with people who were from Malaysia I feel like, what it has led me to do is to not be afraid to try new things and incorporate it into your lifestyle. It’s helped me be open to different ideas, ways of thinking, and living.” With a large migrant community from all over the globe, these communities are the backbone of keeping life going and helping each other, a trait Kwaku uses to operate in music. Working with people he loves and their loves, creating a new attachment to his craft within each person, painting the bigger picture.

One thing he is grateful for is the resources and commitment his secondary school gave him, thanking that structure for who he is today. From playing the piano to rugby, he wants young people to know that there is more to education than the institution tells us. Delving into just the creative industry, from the marketing behind a Nike advert or the cinematography of your favourite music video, there are so many roles that are fitting to those who rebel against traditional classrooms. Kwaku is determined to showcase all routes to success, providing opportunities inclusively.

The release of his recent EP is a steppingstone of the legacy Kwaku is looking to create, mentioning that Blue Solstice: Volume 1 is the first segment of a series of EP’s. Saying, “the first one that comes out next year is CRAZY. It’s an album before an album, but I just wanted to do it to ease myself into the album-making process. There’s a load of stuff coming.”

Stream his EP here and buy tickets for his show at Jazz Café London, using this link!