As he announces ‘understated’ fourth album Small Changes, the Mercury-winning musician explains how he went from ‘slight weirdo’ to wowing Glasto – and why more of us are turning to religion
At the start of the summer, Michael Kiwanuka played at Glastonbury. A warm-up show in Halifax aside, it was the first gig he had played in Britain for a couple of years, a chance to debut songs from his forthcoming fourth album, Small Changes. A malfunctioning vintage synthesiser notwithstanding, it all went perfectly, the sunshine and a cool breeze somehow potentiating the soft power of the music that floated from the stage: an idiosyncratic cocktail of soul, psychedelia, rock and singer-songwriter introspection that Kiwanuka has honed and reshaped over the 12 years since his debut album into something completely his own.
Kiwanuka and his band sounded as striking as anyone familiar with his back catalogue might expect. But they looked striking, too: Kiwanuka wore a Ugandan kanzu robe with the word “MEANING” emblazoned down the front. This came as more of a surprise. He may have been painted in regal style on the cover of his previous album, the Mercury prize-winning (in 2020) Kiwanuka, but the singer-songwriter is usually as understated as one of his musical heroes, Bill Withers – a man who appeared on the cover of his own debut album outside the factory where he installed aeroplane toilets for a living, holding his packed lunch.
