In music today there is a need for anti-heroes like Michael Kiwanuka

Someone will remember his “Home Again“: It was 2012 when that Ballatona Soul in which the then 24 -year -old British singer -songwriter, who grew up in northern London by Ugandan parents who escaped from the clutches of the Idi Amin Dada regime, sang the search for the roots. It was an international hit, which allowed the musician’s debut album of the same name, published by Polydor, to climb the rankings of half of Europe, conquering enthusiastic reviews e Win four gold discs and a silver album in the United Kingdom of 200 thousand copies sold. But Michael Kiwanuka, who before arriving a contract with the multinational had made the guitarist for artists such as Chipmunk and Bashy, published a pair of EP for the small independent label Communion Records and collected performances on performances on the stages of the small London clubs, had clear ideas on what his identity as an artist should be.

AND .The race at the top of the rankings, the covers of the magazines and the gala events did not return exactly in his plans. Since then Kiwanuka has carried out an extraordinary artistic path, with consistency And couragecut out over the years A prominent place in the panorama of the new World Music Music: the latest album, “Small Changes”, released last autumn, was uncertain by critics, who promoted that fascinating mixture of guitars, bass and atmospheres soul and R&B developed together with the producers Danger Mouse and Inflo, which makes him theNatural heir of the myth Bill Withers. Tonight he will present it to Italian fans with the only Italian date of the European tour, hosted by theAlcatraz of Milan.

The struggles with records

It was not easy to resist, for Kiwanuka. Quite the opposite. It was he himself, in an interview granted to standard Aventing a few years ago that revealed that even before publishing the Polydor recordings “Home Again”, who discovered him after Adele made him open his concerts, They suggested that they change surname to “be more attractive to commercial level”because they feared that Kiwanuka could lead the public to assume that it was “An African artist of traditional music». The musician wrote us a piece on that story, “Hero“, contained in 2019 simply entitled Kiwanuka:«I felt a little out of the way. I was thinking of giving up». Mercury Prize won, one of the most coveted musical prizes in the United Kingdom. Not only that: he also got a Grammy Awards nomination as “Best Rock Album”.

The abbreviation TV that has become more cross than delight

The struggles with the records ended in one way or another also in “Small Changes”. In “Lowdown”, One of the songs contained on the disc, Kiwanuka sings: “Gotta Wonder How I survived”, “I wonder how it managed to survive”. Thirteen years after “Home Again” still affects Polydor, but with records such as “Love & Hate” and “Kiwanuka” He has earned his own artistic independence. “Small Changes” is the third album to which he works together with Danger Mouse (Real name Brian Joseph Burton, born in 1977, guru of contemporary rock loved by U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Black Keys) and

Inflo (Dean Josiah Cover, born in ’88, champion of the new soul scene). Speaking of the collaboration with the two musicians, Kiwanuka says: “I don’t know what we combine exactly in the studio, but I know it works. The advantage of not being the center of attention? You can bring out the best things: you are free». Little curiosity: in the scaletta of the European tour concerts there is also that “Cold Little Heart“That in 2016 the HBO chose as the acronym of the very popular TV series” Big Little Lies “and that for Kiwanuka it became more cross than delight. “I wouldn’t like to seem alleged, but I also wrote more music,” he brought off. But on the stages it plays it in a cut version, in the encore, as if to give a contentment to the public.

A rebel

The attitude, you will have understood, is that of a rebel: «I think I have been lucky not to sell millions of copies: nobody thinks he can earn thanks to my music and that’s okay. I am not one who grows 5% the GDP of a country where he stops with his tour». In music today there is a need for anti-heroes like Michael Kiwanuka.