KINWU + KOAN THE ALIAS INTERVIEW: South London artists Kinwu and Koan the alias sit somewhere between UK rap, ambient grime, and speculative storytelling. Think Daidō Moriyama meets underground London. Get familiar…
What five words define your sound?
Kinwu: Movement, experimentation, Intrigue, emotion, evolution.
Koan the alias: Carnivorous, deadpan, intriguing, disorientating, pastoral.
Tell me something unique about your creative process
Kinwu: Imagery plays a big part in what inspires the sound & rhythm choices.
Koan the alias: Even I don’t know what I’m gonna say next.
Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?
Kinwu: ‘LIVE FROM THE METROPOLIS’
Koan the alias: ‘NO RESERVATIONS’
What inspired you to make that song?
Kinwu: London, leaning into the feeling of gliding through the city. It was a chance to experiment with creating a larger than life sound, collaborating with someone who could still hold it down in the rapids. The type of track that you would play with Burial or Actress.
Koan the alias: Re-reading NW by Zadie Smith and coming across hysterical realism which blurs the fictional and factual enough to make the results feel absurd. Hyperreal. The first two words are ‘abstract expressionist’, so I compelled myself to embody that structurally and thematically. Kinwu made the canvas and I splashed the paint. It’s like a mosaic, a loose compilation of scenes; from leaving a canvas with the concierge to motivational speeches on the road to Damascus.
I was inspired by the mundanity of Aki Kaurasmaki films. They usually use a romantic relationship to thrust the story without succumbing to the romance genre, they are way more bleak. I feel I channeled that. People know the song deals with carnal relations but can’t pin it down as romantic. I tried to match the production, of being uplifting and moody at the same time. Dissociative GRWM doomscroll Waking Life bars… who knows what he’ll say next type beat.
What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?
Kinwu: I often draw from personal experiences and lessons from living.
Koan the alias: I always feel a bit vulnerable. I use a mask in visuals to reduce that vulnerable feeling and channel my Sasha Fierce but when making music I don’t wear a mask and always feel it a bit more. I’m recording and thinking, did they just hear what I said? Am I Freudian slipping? Did my joke land? All I can hope for is the confidence of a prom DJ – to feel present without any self expectations, happy to be taking part, the confidence of knowing you came with the heat and no one can tell me otherwise.
What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?
Kinwu: Best – Scoring a two hour show with 10 other artists at the Albany last year for ‘soft soft’, in memory of Gboyega Odubanjo. Working with so many artists to carefully pull everything together to create a tender space.
Koan the alias: The best experience I had performing was in a village in Nairobi. They didn’t understand a word I was saying but they were feeling it. Seems the pockets are universal.
What is your favourite song to perform?
Kinwu: Looking forward to finding this out!
Koan the alias: ‘LIVE FROM THE METROPOLIS’, back to back with Kinwu. Undeniably different, undeniably British.
Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?
Kinwu: I can’t say any one song or artist did, but plenty of artists have influenced me through their work.
Koan the alias: I remember sitting in a flat in winter in Southwark and a friend put on ‘The Ride Home’ by Jesse James Solomon and I thought (silently), damn, that could be me. I listened to it on repeat for the whole ride home.
What’s the meaning behind your name?
Kinwu: It’s a shortening of one of my names!
Koan the alias: The alias portion is self explanatory – it’s not me, it’s not him, but a mysterious third other thing. A koan is a riddle-like prompt used in Zen Buddhism to provoke a meditative state. A string of words that tiptoe within the lines of logic, which is kinda how I talk naturally. I always assumed people knew what I was saying until I got asked to stop speaking in riddles. So here we are: Koan the alias.
If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?
Kinwu: I’d probably spend more time DJing.
Koan the alias: Silently fighting demons.
What’s success to you?
Kinwu: Freedom – being able to move on your own terms.
Koan the alias: Creating a world for Koan the alias. For someone to see or hear something and know I’m involved in it before seeing or hearing ‘Koan’.
What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?
Kinwu: I knew I had to learn production, I was thoroughly obsessed with sound.
Koan the alias: Covid. Big NBA pivot that. Without Covid there’d be no Koan the alias.
Where can people keep in touch with you?
Kinwu: @JoeKinwu on insta & Soundcloud.
Koan the alias: Koanthealias on whatever you’re using.
Photos by Moreiya
