Sometimes it takes a little longer for a track to grow on me, and I always have a fear that I’ll miss out on something special by not listening to a song enough times. Kid 2 has such a personal and gentle approach to her songwriting that she’s definitely an artist worth spending that extra few minutes of your time to get to know her music.
She’s based in Brighton in the UK now, a pretty good creative hub for aspiring artists, but she originates from Norway – very possibly the beautiful Gjøvik if my notoriously unreliable internet research is to be believed.
Influenced by artists as diverse as Aurora, Nina Simone and Radiohead, you can certainly hear a subtle jazz infusion in her vocals, but there’s also a mix of ambient, minimalist and folk in the songwriting too, as her latest song ‘August Morning’ demonstrates.
It’s her 2nd single, as she released a song entitled ‘Leave Me Out’ last year, but I think ‘August Morning’ has made the biggest impact on me, not just because of the beautiful understated guitar and vocals, but also because of the lovely story behind the title of the track, which I just thought was something that little bit different.
Kid 2 explains further: “It comes from my hometown in Norway, where August is my absolute favourite month of the year. It has clear and warm, yet crisp air in the morning and daytime and local thunderstorms in the evenings. Trying to become somebody’s August morning is therefore the ultimate love letter or declaration of admiration coming from me.” Then she also goes on to say: “I wrote this song about the fear of falling in love or of caring about someone deeply when you are also tackling your own mental illnesses”.
And the lyrics and vocals have a clarity to them that sets that all out so clearly and intimately. I like the musical arrangements too, with ambient textures and drifting distant harmonies that together with those vocals will just draw you in to her little musical world and the vision of her hometown, all in a gently captivating way.
Anyway she's working with producer Tom Bellis to produce an EP later this year, which we really look forward to hearing.