Electric Daydream an Enchanting Wash of Sound
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Electric Daydream An enchanting wash of sound and color, Kelly Lee Owens’ music is a natural fit for the runway. Words by Allison Taylor Photography by Heather Hazzan Styling by Lexyrose Boiardo Turtleneck: Falke Blazer: COS 23 24 It’s a hot day in late July, and Kelly Lee Owens is in a haze. She’s away from any formulaic approach. “Too many artists think, Oh, we just returned from the North American leg of her first international want to be successful and make a lot of money and be famous, so we tour, finally able to take a breath. “We had a lot to get done in just do A+B+C. It’s so dull, and you can hear the calculation in the music.” a few days, but it was amazing,” the Welsh singer and producer says Owens often doesn’t know what she’s going to create until the of the experience. “Right now, I’m taking stock of everything that’s moment it comes together, and that’s the way she likes it. “I record happened.” Owens is referring to her whirlwind of a year, which has weird, everyday sounds on my iPhone and sometimes that will inspire seen her recording and releasing her eponymous debut album and me to create a track around them,” she says. “For instance, on ‘Bird,’ playing DJ sets across Europe with other artists such as Jenny Hval what you hear is literally a bird song that I slowed down.” Mixed in with and Karima F. “It’s going to be exciting to see what happens next,” she a looped sequence of tones and intermittent strings, it’s manipulated says. “I’ve got a lot of ideas.” almost beyond recognition. Never quite what you expect, Owens’ Among them is her desire to work with fashion designers to create sound is characterized by a subtle otherworldly beauty. custom soundtracks for their shows. Owens has already made waves Aside from a short stint as a bassist—during which she developed on that scene, having provided the music for Alexander McQueen’s her appreciation for low frequencies—Owens has no formal musical Autumn/Winter 2017 show. When the fashion house approached her training. But she has done her due diligence in the field, working in about using her track “Arthur,” she admits she had to verify that their London record stores like Rough Trade East, Sister Ray, and Pure email wasn’t a fake. “I’ve always connected to Lee [McQueen], so it Groove. It was there that she discovered a wide variety of genres and was an honor to be a part of that legacy,” she explains. At the time, artists—including DJ and producer Daniel Avery, who is now one Owens was fully committed to the recording process, so she watched of Owens’ closest collaborators. “Daniel gave me insight into analog the show’s live feed from the studio. “I thought they would use just a production and writing, and he just said yes to all my ideas,” she says. snippet of the song, so I was completely shocked when it [was] used in “That’s all it takes: one person to say yes.” full twice,” she says with a laugh. When she met Avery, Owens had been playing with the idea of And yet it’s easy to see why they chose “Arthur”; its churning making an album for a long time, but the timing had never seemed rhythm, sultry chimes, and lofty vocals meshed beautifully with the right. Finally, a friend gave her some very simple advice: to stop collection, all celestials, starry capes, and dark magic. “My God,” she talking about her plan and just start doing it. “It’s just about jumping remembers thinking, “I would wear all of this right now. Pay me in in the deep end,” she says. “I feel like we’ve got nothing to lose. The capes!” worst thing is to be at the end of life and think, Why didn’t I try?” Owens’ onstage attire also evokes an air of mystique. She loves to Owens hopes that her story will inspire other female would-be artists shroud herself in kimonos sourced from vintage boutiques across to throw caution to the wind. She hopes to create a workshop where Manchester. “My main things that I wear every day are my big black women can experiment with composition in a safe and constructive boots and my leather jacket, no matter what,” she says. Though environment. “I want to continue the theme of working with female practical when it comes to performance attire, Owens does enjoy a artists and producers if possible,” she says. “There needs to be more playful getup from time to time. “I’m also attracted to clothes that of us present on the scene together.” have some kind of shimmer or glitter…things that are a little bit Amid the buzz from her runway debut with Alexander McQueen, magical. I just played FYF Festival and Opening Ceremony dressed Owens signed with Norway’s Smalltown Supersound; the label’s me for the stage in this cloud paint jacket. It was all so dreamy.” philosophy aligns with her personal goals of longevity. “I want to be And in a word, Owens’ debut album is just that: dreamy. The doing this twenty years from now,” she says. And after taking her record’s ten tracks transition seamlessly into one another, taking the debut LP on a lap around the world, Owens remains in charge listener on a hypnotic journey through a watercolor blend of pulsing creatively, free to develop her sound in whatever time that requires. beats swirling beneath an angelic chorus of layered vocals. She adds It’s clear that this is just the start of her story. “I want music to be texture to the synthetic backdrop with found sounds like water, my life, and to look back on my life’s work knowing that it touched chimes, and bird calls. When it comes to composition, she steers people the way music has touched me.” 25 26 It’s just about jumping in the deep end. I feel like we’ve got nothing to lose. The worst thing is to be at the end of life and think, Why didn’t I try? — Kelly Lee Owens 27 28 Turtleneck: vintage Céline Shirt and pants: vintage Shoes: Tibi 29 30 31 32.