Artist Advent Day 3: Kiwi
Written by: Freya Zaidi
For day 3 of Next Wave’s Artist Advent, Tom, the frontman of Kiwi, shared a glimpse into their musical journey with Next Wave. Music serves as Tom's creative outlet, especially given his experience with ADHD. Alongside his bandmates, Kiwi's performances thrive on the exchange of electrifying energy with their audience, making each stage moment vibrant and memorable.
Their stance on technology defies trends; Kiwi prioritises authenticity over chasing virality. As their fan base grows, their aspirations expand, but their core desire remains unchanged: to make music their full-time career. Tom fondly recalls their standout performances, particularly at Kendal Calling, and invites listeners to delve into their latest single, "Lost & Found," a track that beautifully encapsulates Kiwi's evolution, blending indie guitar sounds with experimental synths, a testament to their musical growth and genuine connection with their audience.
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Next Wave: What inspired you to pursue music?
Tom: I think as individuals music has played a big part in all of our lives, whether that’s performing, listening or writing. For me personally (Tom, frontman), music is a great way to get my creative energy out there. I have ADHD, and as anyone who’s ever met me will testify, I can be a LOT to deal with energy wise! Music has always been a great way for me to recentre myself, and also output that energy into something that is meaningful and exciting. Being able to do this process with your 3 best mates alongside you also makes me feel incredibly lucky, and we are very good at bringing the best out of each other. The live side of music is what we do it for, being up on stage performing, giving the energy back to our fans and the people who run up to watch us, there is nothing that beats that 45 minutes on stage!
Next Wave: How has technology and the internet impacted your music career?
Tom: Technology, especially social media, is such a huge part of being in a band these days. In any creative professional actually, now I think about it. I think it’s something that we don’t really have a great grasp of, and there are so many fads now about how to go viral, post ‘x’ amounts of reels a day, stuff like that. We decided early on that, if we are going to ‘make it’, then we are going to get there by just being ourselves. Anything you see that we put out is unapologetically ‘us’, whether you like it or not. I thinks that’s a good way to be, we are very genuine and down to earth lads, and we aren’t going to pretend to be a different way for the sake of getting some views or streams. The music comes first for us, which is something that’s changed maybe more recently? Bands are getting bigger as ‘influencers’, rather than as musicians, and for us we’d like to keep our focus on just making music that we love!
Next Wave: What are your long-term goals and aspirations?
Tom: Our aspirations are constantly evolving, and that’s because of the insane support and fans that we seem to be collecting at the moment! A year ago, we’d have loved to play a headline in Manchester. Now, we’ve recently sold out a Manchester headline, have played a BBC Intro stage at a major festival, and have supported 2 of our favourite bands in VISTAS & The Royston Club!
I guess really, we want to be able to get to a point where music is the only thing we need in terms of a career. We are lucky because our day jobs are very understanding of what we do at the weekends, and they also are very rewarding in and of themselves, but to be able to answer the ‘what do you do?’ question with ‘I’m in a band.’, and no other job title? That would be awesome!
But really, truthfully, as long as we can continue to make music and perform that music in front of people, and they continue to enjoy it, it already feels like we’ve won!
Next Wave: Can you share a memorable moment from your musical journey so far?
Tom: Our favourite memory as a band would probably have to be Kendal Calling, where we played on the BBC Introducing stage. We also managed to get a little feature on BBC1 news too, which is mental! We had no idea who was going to turn up, how many people were going to watch us, and to be honest, we’d had a skinful l the night before too! But yeah, the tent was rammed, we got so much energy off the crowd who were just electric, and that’s what we do it for. We love that buzz off the crowd and hopefully that gets transmitted back when people watch us! Special shoutout to being able to go on a mini tour of the UK too, from Newcastle all the way down to London across 6/7 dates was a very surreal but incredible experience.
Next Wave: Can you share a little about your creative process and how you come up with new ideas for songs?
Tom: I think we are a band that primarily writes about feelings and emotions. We do have a couple of more narrative style songs though.. ‘Manchester’ is one that we wrote about Tom B (bassist) and his rather eventful night out after one of our shows… but yeah I find it easier to focus on feelings that I have felt personally, or ones that my friends have expressed to me.
I find people and emotions and situations very interesting, and that makes it easier for me to sit down and write about. A typical writing session for me involves me sitting down with my acoustic, writing some chords, humming a melody, and then putting basic words to that melody. I tend to write chorus’ or hooks first as the basis of the song though. Maybe its partly because of my ADHD, but I really tend to write songs in about 20/30 minutes… anything longer than that in one session and I tend to get very self-critical and I also lose concentration completely. People often say how great it is to be able to write songs quickly and just on demand… trust me I wish I was able to take longer and then we might write something that is a little more complex from time to time!
We then take the song into the rehearsal space and the boys add their magic to it. Honestly, Tom Scott and Toby (Bass, Lead & Drums) transform my crappy little noodles into the most amazing pieces of music. We all have different influences, and if you were to isolate all our parts I think people would be surprised with what they heard! I feel very lucky to be in a band with 3 amazing musicians with such incredible talent, that co-operative and interactive writing experience is one that is so difficult to describe, but its incredibly fulfilling as an artist to collaborate with 3 of your best mates and com up with some (hopefully!) half decent tunes!
Next Wave: What song, ep or album of yours would you recommend to someone who is listening to your music for the first time?
Tom: How could I leave without promoting our new single, Lost & Found. It came out on the 10th of Nov, on the night that we sold out our headline show in Manchester, and is one of the fan favourites at our live shows. It sums up our journey as a band really nicely, with all the guitar based indie sounds, but also a tasteful use of synths and effects that we haven’t really experimented with before. We hope people love it as much as we do!