A few years ago, Michael Kiwanuka was in crisis mode. His debut album, Home Again, had sold more than 70,000 copies, won the BBC’s Sound of 2012, and was nominated for the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize. The press was comparing him to Bill Withers and Otis Redding. He was invited to tour with Adele. Kanye West flew him out to studios in Hawaii and Paris for the Yeezus sessions. Despite all of this success, Kiwanuka was struggling creatively, and went home to London to do some soul-searching.
While he was there laboring over the follow-up to Home Again, Kiwanuka received a fortuitous phone call from Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, the famed producer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his collaborations with CeeLo Green (Gnarls Barkley), James Mercer (Broken Bells), the Black Keys, and Gorillaz.
“He reached out just to write some music and meet and hang out,” Kiwanuka says. “He asked what I was up to and how the album was going, and I said I was kind of stuck.”