Kiesza: “It was just about mixing and matching our passions”

After the tremendous success of her debut single, Kiesza is now gearing up to release his first full-length. For those expecting her debut to be thirteen tracks repeating the magic recipe of ‘Hideaway’, they’re going to be in for a surprise.

Not only does Kiesza dwell in 90s club vibes, she’s unafraid to dip into groove-infused R’n’B and soulful beats. “I’m a songwriter and to just work within one category would just leave me without anywhere to go,” she says of the album’s diversity, “and it would give me nowhere to explore. After we [along with collaborator Rami Samir Afuni] wrote ‘Hideaway’ together, we realised that we both had a very strong vision of how we wanted the album to unravel.

“We really wanted to pay homage to that 90s era while coming from a modern place, and also just sort of exploring sounds which we’re both passionate about, that we both really love. That sort of urban production, R’n’B, the Chicago House sound. It was just about mixing and matching our passions into one project. We both have very much of a similar taste in music.

“We weren’t giving ourselves any solid direction though,” she goes further. “It was all inspired by ‘Hideaway’; that gave us an overall vision of what type of album we wanted to create. We both really liked the idea of Michael Jackson and Quincey Jones doing an album together, so we wanted to do this album together and really make it not just an album full of singles. To make an album that tells story. that has ups and has downs, has fast and has slow. It’s a real body of work.”