Interview / In conversation with KAWALA

By Ellen Kinsey, Fourth year, Film and French

Ellen Kinsey sits down for a conversation with KAWALA before their Bristol show.

The indie-pop band KAWALA made up of Daniel McCarthy and Jim Higson were the perfect tease to the spring season. The Kentish Town duo played at Bristol 02 Academy supporting dodie. Despite the bitter British winter, KAWALA managed to bring the venue a false sense of sunshine thanks to their bright, melodic style that can be compared to Saint Raymond, Glass Animals and Bombay Bicycle Club.

The boys met in Leeds College of Music together before returning to North London to start their band. Their music is upbeat, fun and it is evident that the dynamics between the duo create a lively performance with Daniel as the guitarist and frontman cracking jokes and Jim bringing his quirky dance moves and vocals.

I sat down with KAWALA before their show to quiz them about their music and get to know the dynamics between the duo.

Let’s start with the basics; why are you called KAWALA?

Jim: This is quite an embarrassing question. It has such an embarrassing origin.

Dan: Basically, it is entirely based on Jim being 100%, critically, dyslexic and that is how he thought you spell koala.

Jim: K-A-W-A-L-A, that’s how the Australians say it anyway. We are trying to appeal to Australians.

Dan: Break Australia!

In three words how would you describe your music?

Jim: Um, I would say Juicy.

Dan: Yeah I would go for juicy, juicy is a good way to describe it and I hope interesting.

Jim: That sounds like a really boring one.

Dan: I ‘hope’ interesting. Does that count as two? I’ll add a hyphen.

Jim: and ‘not racist’… Inclusive!

How is it to work as a duo? What does each of you bring to the table?

Dan: Jim brings height…and I wear silly clothes.

Jim: yeah, you know it’s quite nice having a business partner.

Dan: Do you know what, it makes life a lot easier. Having the two of us, being able to bounce off each other. To write and everything, we are there to help each other in case someone says something crazy, then the other can be like whaaat?

Jim: Also you wear the clothes so I don’t have to.

Dan: The silly clothes, yeah.

Yeah someone has to do it! Okay, so what is your favourite track of your album, D.I.L.Y.D (Do It Like You Do)?

Dan: That’s tough, I’d say “Runaway” or “Moonlight”, they are both quite special. With “Runaway” it is has a balance of fun and gets different elements of our music.

What was the hardest track for you to produce?

Dan: That we’ve done so far?

Jim: Maybe Small Death.

Dan: Yeah Small Death was tough. It’s a bit sadder than the other ones. It was a little bit more difficult as it was probably the furthest out of our comfort zone. In terms of everything else where it feels either quite fun and happy or quite strict and upbeat. This one had a bit of a different style. It was definitely the hardest to get over the line.

If you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive who would you choose?

Jim: You know; I would pick Jesus, just to see if he was real.

Dan: For me, it would have to be music though. I mean, I am a big West Ham fan, so maybe a West Ham player. Though when I was younger I wanted to be David Bowie, so I would probably go with Bowie.

Jim: Share the table with Jesus and David Bowie.

Dan: What’s the difference!? Although, you would need some conversation starters to be fair because otherwise, it would be weird.

What’s your worst gig story? Any bad experiences you’ve had?

Dan: We once supported this guy, whose name we will keep nameless for his sake. We were in this venue in Manchester, it was as Sunday night and a proper banging venue. We were there being like, this is going to be so cool. It was pretty big! The venue is called Deaf Institute, its basically a big floor space and with layered seating in the back, and also a balcony. It’s all of that in a small space.

Jim: There was like twenty people who came to the show.

Dan: Not even, like fifteen and six of those were our friends.

Jim: Everyone was sat in the back of the room and six of our mates were at the bar.

Dan: We were like, oh god what are we going to do here. We made a bit of a thing of it.

Jim: So what he did was stage dive!

Dan: I said I was going to stage dive as a joke. I was like, ‘you guys are getting too rowdy, man’. Then at the end they got all got there in a line and I staged dived and they all carried me around in silence and no one was clapping anymore.

Jim: I was just staring at him awkwardly stage like, ‘what is going on?’

What was your favourite gig in contrast to that?

Jim: Rise festival was pretty fun. There were two-and-half thousand, three thousand people there.

Dan: It was pretty nuts. We had pretty low expectations and we walked out to three thousand people and we were like, ‘this is not normal!’

Which song would you pick that best defines your music?

Jim: 'Runaway'. It’s upbeat, and it’s got a bit of an intro.

Dan: There is a song coming up next. I don’t really know if I am allowed to talk about it though, but I think that it would be right up there. There is two coming out at the same time and they both have a balance of chill, upbeat and fun; then slow and emotional stuff.

KAWALA are definitely live performers you should keep an eye out for. Be sure to listen out for their latest EPs; perfect for your “juicy”, “interesting” and “inclusive” spring playlists.

Featured Image: KAWALA/ Facebook

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