18 year old London artist KiLLOWEN is starting off 2018 with a bang, releasing the brilliant Tenacious, featuring additional vocals from Louis Culture.

Tenacious is a track of self-assessment, perhaps taken to a point of unnecessary self-judgement, something we all naturally do. When chatting to KiLLO, he described the song as a feeling of “thinking it's all going wrong because of you, and not others”, this was an important issue to raise, as we are our own harshest critics which can work in both a positive and negative way. This can be applied particularly to the creative industries and to those who operate within them, as when creating something from inside your mind you come across one of the biggest obstacles: ‘Am I any good?’ 

However ‘Tenacious’ simultaneously raises and debunks this problem, proving at least to KiLLOWEN that he has nothing to worry about, the track bangs. 

Tenacious is a wonderful mixture of Indie, Soul and Hip-Hop, with raw guitar tones and a simple beat infused with KiLLO’s effortless switching between rap and singing. You can sense the emotions of the track within the instrumental alone, with feelings of despair and anger being conveyed through the harsh guitar and bass sounds. Louis Culture emerges halfway through the song, bringing his instantly recognisable flow to the fore and adding an alternative perspective. Overall, Tenacious covers a lot of ground, musically and emotionally. It also summarises KiLLO’s obvious talents, whilst allowing the listener to relate to the important and relevant topic of self-belief.

We were lucky enough to have a quick chat with KiLLOWEN earlier in the week, and asked some questions to find out a little bit more about the young emerging artist.

The Pit: Tell us a bit about yourself?

KiLLOWEN: I go by KiLLOWEN, some dudes call me KiLLO. I’m an 18 year old singer/rapper, producer, engineer & guitarist. Originally from the outskirts of West but I’m living just outside of the city right now.

The Pit: Where did your love of music originate? 

KiLLOWEN: I couldn’t tell you specifically to be honest, I think I kinda just grew up on it. I remember one of the first CDs I ever had was ‘The Eminem Show’ album. My oldest brother’s a DJ so he really got me into DJing at around 13, then I started to produce at 14, been making music ever since.

The Pit: When making a track, what’s your creative process? 

KiLLOWEN: Again I’ve never really had a specific formula for making music, It’s all down to the mood I’m in. I’d say the most common way I create usually starts with chords or drums, then I’m coming up with the melodies and rhythms after, which soon turn into lyrics. However, there has been times where I’ve had a certain phrase I want for a hook and just written a whole song on my guitar.

The Pit: Do you prefer the production side of music-making, or the creating the lyrical and vocal aspects of your tracks? 

KiLLOWEN: This is a really difficult question, and I honestly couldn’t pick a side. It all just turns into one big ball of excitement when I’m creating. I could get just as gassed at how some chords are moving as much as I would hearing a cold melody or bar that I’ve just laid down in the booth.

The Pit: Which other artists would you say have contributed most to your journey so far?

KiLLOWEN: I have a lot of people to thank up to this point, so I couldn’t list them all, but I gotta give a big shoutout to P-rallel & Louis Culture because every session I’ve had with those guys has really opened my creative mind to some mad levels. Gotta give a shoutout to Luke Gomm too, he’s really done a lot for me behind the scenes.  

The Pit: What can we expect from KiLLOWEN in 2018? 

KiLLOWEN: I’m not gonna say too much because I really gotta let the music speak for itself, but something big coming from myself, Finn Foxell & P-rallel later this year. Expect to see me a lot in 2018…

You can listen to 'Tenacious' ft. Louis Culture now, premiered via Dummy Mag below.

Words by Oscar Ralf

Follow KiLLOWEN: 
www.soundcloud.com/killowen
www.twitter.com/KiLLOWEN_
www.instagram.com/killowen_/