Okay I’m just gonna start this out by calling it: FKA twigs is the new Queen of Weird. Sorry Gaga, but someone’s coming to upstage your meat dress.
The 27-year-old was born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, but picked up the moniker “twigs” from the way her joints would crack. After receiving complaints from another artist who already laid claim to the name, the multi-hyphenate added the “FKA”, or “Formerly Known As”, and a goddess was born.
Now I don’t use the term “multi-hyphenate” loosely; not when celebrities like Paris Hilton can drop auto-tuned singles and then claim a “successful foray” into the music industry. Before she became a recording artist under the XL Recordings umbrella (hello, Adele!), Twigs paid her dues as a backup dancer, most notably in Jessie J‘s video for “Price Tag“. That’s her on the right.
Twigs has had (and still does have) a very active role in the production of her tracks – and what a production it is! The instrumentals are jarring yet mesmerising – with scintillating synths and hollow hip-hop beats weaving in and out of her songs. She’s also recently tried her hand at assuming full control over her music videos as director, translating her shockingly unique style into the visual medium.
“Pendulum” from her debut LP “LP1” (yup, get used to the minimalist names) gained considerable traction in 2014, but she oddly waited till January to release its (bondage-themed)Â music video.
But anyway onward to the more exciting news: here’s everything we know about her eagerly-anticipated “EP3“; coming very, very soon.
1) BOOTS Has A Hand In Production
You might remember him from “BEYONCÉ“, where Queen B plucked him out from relative obscurity to produce 9 out of 14 tracks from the album. BOOTS’ style seems understated but punchy, definitely none of those deafening synths characteristic of a popular subgenre I’ll just label “ah beng EDM”.
Most of what we know so far came about from his verifying of annotations on a Genius.com page of “Glass & Patron”.
2) We Already Know Three Four Titles
“Figure 8” was revealed in a live performance in Melbourne in January 2015. The video for “Glass & Patron” was uploaded just last week on 23rd March, and opens with an excerpt from another song, titled “Mothercreep“.
A new track, “I’m Your Doll“, was performed live at The Roundhouse in London on 19th February, but has not been officially confirmed by any party.
3) The Video For “Glass & Patron” Is Just Stunning
I think we can all agree.
4) She’s Engaged To Robert Pattinson!
Okay so it’s totally unrelated to the EP but it’s still big news! Apparently T-Pain accidentally spilled the beans in an interview with Vulture, claiming that Twigs won’t be featuring on his upcoming album because “she’s engaged now”. He then added “I don’t know if she wanted anybody to know that” and we’re guessing she didn’t, because he later tried backpedalling by tweeting that it was all an April Fools’ joke.
Well, too late for that then because PEOPLE confirmed the news on the very same day!
Congrats, Twigs and R-Patz!
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