FKA twigs has revealed that she recently found out that she and Jorja Smith are cousins.
Speaking in a new interview, the ‘Tears In The Club’ singer said she only discovered Smith was her relative after the pair teamed up on twigs’ recent single ‘Darjeeling’, taken from her January mixtape ‘CAPRISONGS’.
“I’d never met her before, and I jumped in her car with her,” twigs told GQ, “and I remember thinking to myself, ‘Gosh, that’s really strange. We’ve got exactly the same kind of skin.'”
She continued: “A few months later, I was on the road to go to LA and [Smith] left me a voice note saying, ‘You’re never going to believe this, but I’ve just spoken to my dad and he’s spoken to his sister and we’re related.'”
Elsewhere in the interview, twigs (real name Tahliah Barnett) talked about the creative process for ‘CAPRISONGS’, admitting that she felt a lot of freedom creating the 17-track project.
“I didn’t feel trapped, I felt like I was just being myself,” she said. “But I guess I just unlocked a new door, like a video game. It’s not even like I broke out. I think I just unlocked another level. It’s so good.”
In a four-star review of ‘CAPRISONGS’, NME‘s El Hunt wrote: “While Barnett has long cultivated a back catalogue of warped and twisted R&B – a skeleton of skittering beats and lurking menace, her voice cutting through like a knife – ’CAPRISONGS’ draws on hip-hop, drum’n’bass, dancehall, and most notably, the increasingly scrapbook-like shape of contemporary pop.”
Back in March, twigs was honoured with the title of Godlike Genius at the 2022 BandLab NME Awards. Following a stellar performance, she said in her speech: “I don’t know a godlike genius but it’s a godlike strength to carry on throughout difficult times, the personal experiences, through world experience.
“The hardest thing to do is to keep going and I feel so grateful to know people like [Soul II Soul legend Jazzie B, who presented the award] who I know stayed up all night making music and people like Boy George who do the exact same, staying up all night making art and music. That’s what I’m doing and I’m just so grateful that there’s a space for me here.”
Last week, FKA twigs officially shared her latest single, ‘Killer’ – listen to it here.