Konyikeh

Konyikeh is an artist doing things on her own terms. A beguiling singer-songwriter, she makes soulful, cinematic music with striking lyrics, sung with a truly astonishing voice. As a kid, Konyikeh was listening to musical theatre, Jennifer Hudson’s Pocketbook, her mum’s Destiny’s Child CDs, opera, the Kenyan Boys’ Choir. Throughout her childhood she would play violin,piano, perform in the orchestra and chamber choir, alongside learning music theory. In these spaces, she was told to play with emotion, and to draw out her most intense feelings when performing: it’s something which Konyikeh has channelled into her own work one decade later. Cinere is about capturing the moment she’s in now – the things she’s been thinking about lately, still beholden to her love of classical music but also intrigued by genres like amapiano and Afrobeats. This is elevated by her interest in live instrumentation – in fact, all the strings (bar cello) were played and arranged by Konyikehherself, and she was heavily involved in production, with producer credits across the EP. “I just went back to basics in a way,” she says of the new project, “I just wanted to go back to what I know and love, which is live music and instruments and raw emotion.”