In Conversation with Kilu: Freedom makes music.

Emerging just a few years ago with stripped-back, guitar tracks, London-based artist Kilu has been finding his voice through unfiltered songwriting and understated melodies. With early influences rooted in the alt-rock of the early 2000s, Kilu’s songs often feel less like statements and more like questions – conversations with the self and with the world. Now stepping into a fuller sound with a new, band-driven energy, we spoke about growth, nostalgia and why music is more about chasing freedom than perfection.

One of your earliest singles ‘who gave you the right?’ and your latest ‘how did they know’ are both framed as questions. Is this something you do consciously, or do you think asking questions is just part of how you process emotions in your music? And looking at those two titles side by side – what do they say about where you were then, and where you are now?

So interesting you noticed that – I hadn’t! The way I come up with a title is basically just choosing a line from the lyrics after completely writing the song, it just so happens those two lyrics summed up their respective songs. I love that they are questions, most of my songs are just about asking myself questions about the things I go through or see through others’ experiences. I think that’s what I love about music by others and I’m understanding more and more what the core of music is to me: it’s relatability and connection. I like hearing other people’s answers to questions but I also like giving my own and hoping it helps clarify some things in certain ways.

‘who gave you the right?’ is such a throwback, I can’t believe it’s been so long since then. All I can say about then to now is how much the sound of the music has progressed but the writing still feels like me, which is cool.

You’ve done a lot of stripped-back live versions of your songs that really change how they feel. You recently mentioned that the new stuff you’re making feels like the music you’ve always wanted to perform live. How has playing live influenced how you write or produce now? Do you see live shows more as a chance to reimagine your songs, or to finally bring them to life in the way you always pictured?

Yeah I would say playing live has definitely influenced what type of music I want to make. I was just hesitant to make the music I make now because I always thought I needed a band to make band music. I think that and time has played a big part in the direction I’m going with music, I’ve been playing/making music for 4 years now, I started playing guitar end of 2021 and singing a few weeks after and then releasing about 6 months later. But my major influences growing up have always been 90s/2000s alt-rock British and American bands – I always knew I’d end up making this style because it’s what I love most musically. With ‘how did they know’ it really felt like a leap into a new chapter that I was so scared of committing to, I was thinking too much of how it would be perceived and received, but it was the best thing ever when it came out and had it’s moment – I feel free with the way I write and approach making instrumentals now. It really feels like I’m starting over again like 4 years ago for some reason and I couldn’t be happier to start learning how to make band records!

Which childhood album or artist did you secretly (or not so secretly) worship; the one that made you feel like, ‘this is what I want to do?’

‘In Rainbows’ by Radiohead and ‘Parachutes’ by Coldplay. I just see it so clearcut, the middle-ground of these two albums, that is my aim: to find my sound and what Kilu is in the songwriter/alt-rock world. There’s something so universal about Coldplay’s album and then something so left, edgy, hypnotic and haunting about Radiohead’s. I also think that Thom Yorke’s and Chris Martin’s voices really resonate with the way I sing – it’s just emotion that carries the singing, there’s no real technical side to it, it becomes something doable for me – I will never sound like them, and I love that, but I will take on how they portray what they sing, the goal is to sound like it’s effortless.

Your discography has always had such a strong visual side through your music videos. What role do visuals play in your songwriting process? Do those ideas come to you while you're writing, or do they take shape after the song is finished?

I love music in films – I think that’s where they shine the most. A visual just elevates the experience, it fills the gaps in the feelings, it has the power to make a fond memory. I feel like yeah, when I’m making a song I get the visual idea that I just want to shoot straight away. I have a list of shot ideas that I add to all the time, just gotta do them.

You’ve mentioned early Coldplay as a big influence on your work. Would you say the early 2000s is the period that has influenced you the most? What is it about that era that really speaks to you and comes through in your music?

I was born in 2000 so I was growing up around the things between the late 90s and 2000s. My parents love music, they always had it playing in the house. I guess nostalgia plays a big part in emotion, it’s that who you were is still who you are, it’s something we can ground ourselves to. I had a positive upbringing so I got lucky for sure, some may not see nostalgia in that way, I guess it’s just a time where nothing really mattered cause everything was just happening and you were just living it. Being little is kind of being like a dog in a way – their only thing is to live and have a good time and be loved. I think being little makes us all the same, right up until things go wrong in our lives and cracks begin to develop, life experiences come into play and everything just seems to get a bit harder day by day. Music helped me feel little again and feel like there is no care in the world, to just care for people around you and to live.

Your lyrics always feel so real and vulnerable. Is there a lyric you've written that holds special meaning to you, or that you’re particularly proud of?

I love lyrics so much, it’s why I do music, I get to write what I’m feeling and I have NO idea how these words come out and form these sentences. I fully go into some trance when I write and after it’s done I read it and I’m like holy shit how tffff – that’s when I realise this is some messenger type of situation that I’m just tapping into the universe’s library because I was so bad at writing at school. Some of my favourites are:

“if hearing you hurts me, I still hear your echo” – it came from my song out of the picture, just had loads of those cool metaphorical lyrics pretty much throughout the whole song, I couldn’t believe when I wrote it.

“a part of me/is no longer a part of me/apart from you/I realise you weren’t the part for me” – it’s a unreleased demo but I always loved how simple it was.

“I’m my own army/at war with myself […]/searching for nemo/with no one to save” – the second verse from how did they know is actually my favourite part of the song, it’s so nonchalant and cool hahahaha.

“what have I done/I’m no hero/just like Malcolm/I’m stuck in the middle” – It’s from a new song that I’m putting out in the project, I can definitely feel the freedom I have now with lyrics and the fun I’m having writing them.

If you had to sum up your upcoming music in just three words, what would they be?

Freedom makes music

I’m using my three words as sentence because that’s how it feels. I’m in such a good mental space that I can focus on why I make music and just enjoy the process. I think pressure beats you up but self-belief makes you feel like you’re floating. I believe that music has the power to save people the same way it saved my life when I was a teenager. Music is freedom from all the heaviness, it embraces it.

Finally, for anyone hearing your music for the first time, what’s the one thing you’d want them to know about you as an artist?

I had someone in the industry say behind my back that, they don’t ‘get’ my music or me as an artist, and to that I say you don’t have to get it, but someone will and maybe you will too someday.