English musician
Musical artist
Willow Katherine Kayne is a British singer. She won an Ivor Novello Rising Star Award in 2021. She is a member of Loud LDN.
Early life
Willow Katherine Kayne[1] was born to Toploader's Dancing in the Moonlight.[2] Her sister makes classical music,[3] and her mother, Emma, was a teaching assistant at St Patrick's Catholic Primary School in Corsham,[4] who had previously produced music videos by The Prodigy, Nick Cave,[5] and Erasure.[6] In 2011, the Wiltshire Times noted that a "ten-year-old" Willow and a classmate had addressed Wiltshire Council, following threats to withdraw the subsidised bus she was travelling to St. Patrick's from; the same article noted that she travelled there "from Melksham".[4] She also attended Wiltshire College & University Centre.[7]
When she was fifteen, she temporarily lost the sight in her left eye, and permanently in her right;[8] she had contracted acanthamoeba, which ate three out of four layers of her cornea.[7] At the time, she was interested in a career in graphics, but changed course after listening to her favourite songs while blind and hearing things she had not heard before.[8] She started making music in 2018, after receiving a new computer bundled with GarageBand; she would later make music with a torrented version of Logic Pro. Early tracks were released on SoundCloud.[3]
Career
2019–2022: Playground Antics
In 2019, she and Kenya Grace made the Top 21 in ISawItFirst,[9] a nationwide search in collaboration with Capital Xtra intended to find new women musicians, winning a music video for "Ctrl Alt Dlt".[10] On 28 April 2021, she released her début single, "Two Seater";[11] the song had been written a year earlier. After being used in a TikTok advert, the song received over 1,000 abusive comments,[8] which Kayne responded to by writing her second single, "I Don't Wanna Know",[12] which she released on 22 July 2021.[13] In September,[3] she won an Ivor Novello Rising Star Award in 2021, along with mentorship from Nile Rodgers,[14] and later that month "Two Seater" turned up on the FIFA 22 soundtrack.[3] On 2 November 2021, she released a third single, "Opinion",[15] which had been written the year before, and about abusive comments she had received.[16] On 1 February 2022, she released the EP Playground Antics, which featured "Two Seater", "I Don't Wanna Know", and "Opinion".[17]
2022–present: Mr Universe, Loud LDN and "Cola Head"
On 5 May 2022, Kayne released the single "Final Notice",[17] a commentary on her experience as a woman in the music industry, which was released alongside a Human Traffic-inspired music video.[6] On 1 July that year, she released another single, "White City",[17] an ode to inequality in White City, London,[18] which featured "Final Notice". On 22 August, she released "Rat Race",[17] which was also about her experiences of living in London,[19] and which featured "White City" and "Final Notice". On 23 September that year, she released the four-track Mr Universe EP,[17] the title track for which featured General Levy and was produced by Toddla T,[20] and which featured "Rat Race", "White City", and "Final Notice".[17]
In November 2022, Venbee used a November 2022 NME article to point out that she, Piri, Kayne, Charlotte Plank, A Little Sound, and Charlotte Haining were members of Loud LDN.[21] On 19 May 2023, she released "Cola Head",[17] a song about infidelity,[22] as an independent artist,[23] and then the following April she released "Robot Lovers", about the effects of technology on love.[24]
Artistry
Kayne's primary influences are Pharrell Williams, British rave culture, and Bristol,[2] although when "Mr Universe" came out, she cited M-Beat and E-Z Rollers as inspirations,[20] and when "Cola Head" came out, she cited the Neptunes.[22]
References