When Vogue speaks to Kenya Grace, she has just been told she has the number one in the country, and no one else knows yet. “Nothing’s sunk in,” the Southhampton-raised musician says excitedly over Zoom. “I’ve had no sleep, but I’m going to have a great day.”
Produced in her London bedroom, Grace, at first, thought nothing of posting an Instagram video tinkering with a new song idea on a drum machine. But, it exploded. Since its hotly demanded release a couple of weeks later, “Strangers”, a liquid drum ’n’ bass song about disposable dating, has soundtracked over 1.4 million reels. On Spotify, it has 167 million streams. It went straight to the top 20 on the charts, before climbing to number three. Now it has ended Doja Cat’s five-week reign at number one, and sits above all of Drake’s latest releases.
With that feat, the 25-year-old has also made history: she is the second female solo artist to claim that spot with a song she wrote, produced, and performed entirely by herself. The only other woman to do so? Kate Bush. “It has been a very crazy few weeks. At the start, it was a lot and I was struggling. But,” she says, her smile growing, “it’s just been amazing.”
While she only started to release music last year, “I’ve made music since I was a kid. I feel like I’m meditating when I do it… I can truly express myself.” A Boomtown regular, the music she makes now is shaped by a youth spent partying. From the age of 16, “we would go to a bunch of, like, questionable drum ’n’ bass raves.” A sound resonating with a new generation of Brits, along with peers like PinkPantheress, Nia Archives, and Piri & Tommy, she brings the genre to a global audience with their Gen-Z twist. “It’s more like songwriter-y vibes now, I love it.”
Although she has an invested online audience, over 600,000 of whom like and comment under all her music snippets, hungrily demanding each release, she has just one performance under her belt so far. Grace is about to jump from practicing for family and friends to touring Europe, headlining venues like Berghain, and America, in her first time on the continent. “It’s come around really fast,” she grins. “I don’t have some crazy dream. Hopefully I can just keep connecting with people.” Below, Grace discusses musical theatre, tattoos, and Tinder.
What was the inspiration behind “Strangers”?
Sonically, I wanted to make something that was more ethereal sounding, so I layered synths, high-backing vocals and lots of reverb to try and create this euphoric sound. Lyrically, it’s just something that I’ve been noticing a lot recently through my own past relationships and other people’s too: how you can speak to someone for so long and then randomly one night, you just never speak to them ever again. That complete polar opposite change is so common now – I think it’s through Hinge and Tinder and dating apps. I feel like it’s so easy just to dispose of people. Sad but true!
It’s interesting you wanted to give that subject a euphoric sound. Why the contrast?
I always love that juxtaposition. It’s one of my favourite things when you have a really fat reese base, fast drums and low frequencies, and then the opposite of that would be light airy vocals, and soft, delicate, pretty-sounding harmonies. I’ve loved that ever since I first heard it with Banks: really deep bass and then her vocals were really soft.
What were your formative music experiences?
My mum always used to play Norah Jones and Katie Melua. That’s such a big memory actually, this song called “Sunrise” by Norah Jones. And a really important part of my musical journey: I got into musical theatre in primary school really, really young, and then I was like, “I love singing!” When I went to secondary school I got into it even more and that’s helped me to sing properly and perform. It’s really crazy thinking back, musical theatre to now – mad difference but yeah!
What were your favourite musical theatre shows?
My favourite was Les Mis. I used to sing “I Dreamed A Dream” all the time. And Cats, the song “Memory”; those are my songs.
Would you ever go back into that world?
Maybe… I feel like I have gone to the other side of the spectrum! [Laughs] Sometimes, because I just love the songs, I get a karaoke up on YouTube and sing “I Dreamed A Dream” randomly in my room, but I don’t know if I’d perform it to be honest. But I will always practice because I love them so much.
How did raving shape your sound?
That time in your life, you’re like a sponge. You take in so much when you’re a teenager. It made me really fall in love with the party scene – the good and the bad. It’s almost the imagery of going into the club is imprinted in my brain: getting there; going out to the smoking area; all of it is such good imagery. That is imprinted in my soul.
How did you find your own personal style?
I’ve always loved it ever since I was in school, and I used to get piercings – or pierce myself. Two years ago, I worked at a piercing shop in London and that has definitely influenced me. I love the alternative space: piercings and tattoos. I want to be completely covered in tattoos soon. I love vintage clothes. My favourite place to get vintage jackets is a secondhand leather shop in Camden… and I love New Rock shoes.
Your comments are begging you to release the other songs you’ve teased; when do you plan to?
I don’t know, to be honest… I love posting those videos so much and I’m really happy I did, but that’s all that exists of those songs. Some of them are such works in progress. Some artists tease songs and there’s a full song but it’s not like that for me. I don’t know what I’ll do with them. Eventually, maybe I’ll just do an album of mini songs.
People keep saying there’s a difference in the “Strangers” release; what is it?
Basically, I posted the video at the very beginning and on my phone I slowed the video down by one BPM. To be honest, I don’t know why I did it, because it doesn’t even matter. I wanted to release the version that was my actual voice, not the slowed down version, but the real tone. I know people got upset about that, but it felt truer to me. But maybe I’ll release that version, so they’ll be happy.
I can’t believe they noticed one BPM.
It is literally one BPM. They’re really good at noticing things, it’s actually mad! When I read it, I was like, “Damn, I really didn’t think anyone would notice that.”
“Strangers” resonated with a car ride-loving community; what is your favourite music to play in the car?
If I need hyping up then maybe like some really heavy drum ’n’ bass. Or, I really love neo-soul and pop music. But probably Flumes’s album: I always go back to Flume. Or Disclosures’s new album, that is really good.
