Aisha Kigs, a rising pop/r’n’b experimenter based in Cardiff, describes to Emma Way the circumstances leading to her writing debut EP Fire Hazard – out this month, and launched with a gig in the Wales Millennium Centre.
Working on Fire Hazard, were there any topics you wanted to write about- or any you wanted to specifically avoid?
I would say the main topics of the EP are coming of age and navigating adulthood. Fire Hazard is a really old project – most of the songs were written when I was 20, 21. A lot of the songs are quite eclectic, and they touch on similar themes, but they cross over. If the EP was a movie, I would say it’s a coming-of-age chick flick – it’s five songs, and they explore the different dimensions of me.
The title track is an Afropop song celebrating being confident with who you are, being comfortable in your skin. Don’t Wanna Be Friends is about situationships, knowing that you deserve better, and how to break away from that. The Way It Be touches on aspects of bereavement, summarising my early 20s, and me growing into myself.
I don’t think there were any topics that I thought of avoiding. At the time I wrote the songs, it was kind of like a journal. So each of the songs were all influenced by something that was happening in my life at the time.
You’re playing with a 10-piece band for your launch gig this month. How did you come to arrange that?
Basically, I was really delusional. Life is really short and if you don’t ask you’ll never know. At first it was gonna be a standard live band, but then I got introduced to the Cabaret space at the Wales Millennium Centre. When I saw it, I was like, this is perfect! This is meant to be: the pink, the purple, the staging. There’s very few stages in Cardiff where you can do a music gig and incorporate live production, or choreography, because usually the stages are quite small. Cabaret was a perfect opportunity to really go for it.
With my first band I formed a lot of relationships in the Welsh music community. My goal for the EP launch really is to show what we can do to our fullest capacity if we’re given our wildest dreams. I’m truly blessed because the musicians I’ve been working with are phenomenal – I’m really proud of them, and really grateful that they were willing to help me. We’ve been working on this since November.
The styling in the video for Don’t Wanna Be Friends is stunning – did the Cabaret space influence that?
Yeah, with branding. My first single Dime A Dozen [from 2022] was pink, and this is purple – those are my colours right now! I just thought the space really suited the kind of thing I wanted to do; I grew up watching performers like Beyoncé, and I’m really loving artists like Victoria Monét – I’ve grown up with r’n’b showgirls, so that’s something I’ve always wanted to do.
How do you think you approach your style, relative to other acts in the genre?
I would say my music lends more to pop-r’n’b: in terms of the r’n’b aspect, I would just say what makes me different is the pop elements. A lot of times during this project, I was exploring. Minas worked with me on Don’t Wanna Be Friends, andwe played a lot with funk-pop. When it came to other stuff on the EP, we played a lot more with Afropop, which was a wildcard. It’s not originally what I intended for the project, but we ended up leaning towards that.
Is there a specific Afropop song on the ep?
I would say Fire Hazard, in terms of the production – it’s very similar to Beyoncé’s Heated from her album Renaissance. Another song, Stupid, is very similar to Major Lazer but more turned down. It’s like a pop project, but they also touch on elements of funk, r’n’b, hip-hop and Afropop. It’s very eclectic – especially Unattainable, another song on my ep. Calum Conaghan from Source Connect, the music collective, produced the song. It’s the least pop and most traditional r’n’b song of them all.
Have you worked with any of these producers previously?
I worked with a few different producers on this project – Calum, Makafui [who’s] part of Solomons Garden, Minas and Kingkhan. I got an eclectic selection of artists, as I used funding from the Sub-Sahara advisory panel, which was the Madaraja project.
Did you originally intend to use more than one producer?
Originally, I wanted to work with one specific producer, but then I realised I’m so new to the studio and I had confidence issues in the studio. So I gave myself the opportunity to not restrict myself to having one certain sound throughout the whole project. I didn’t want to obsess over a specific theme, I wanted to explore what’s out there in the Welsh community and collaborate with people.
I learned a lot from each and every producer, so I think it was really good to do that. I don’t think you should always stick to what you know, I think change is good. I feel like this EP is very experimental, and I tried not to restrict it and collaborate with people, making relationships and connections. I think that’s the greatest part of the experience.
Aisha Kigs, Cabaret, Wales Millennium Centre, Fri 19 Apr.
Tickets: £10. Info: wmc.org.uk
Fire Hazard is released on Fri 19 Apr.
Info: linktr.ee/aishakigs
words EMMA WAY