All-Access Indie Discovery

Basking in the glow of Michael Kiwanuka, outskirts of London, 2014

Music is for everyone, right? I mean, per poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” It’s how we as humans are able to communicate on a deeper level—learning from others and their experiences and sharing our own through melody and harmony. Harvard even came out recently with a study that supports Wadsworth’s declaration, lending scholarly credence to fireside banter.

It’s been a while since Wadsworth waxed poetic about the universality of music—some 150 years or so—and I’m guessing he hadn’t really grasped how much music is actually being created all over the globe. That instant, all-access pass to music that we enjoy today is pretty mind-blowing, whether you’re a 19th-century poet or not. Yet, how universal is music really? When artists are filtered through the algorithms, the social media, the promoting—too many voices are being lost in the shuffle. We must do a better job of supporting Black Artists and other Artists of Color, so that the music we listen to is more inclusive and representative of everybody. The telling and sharing is important, particularly in the realm of indie music where word of mouth is essential in uncovering hidden gems. Since indie music’s inception in the post-punk era of the 1980s, the genre has skewed overwhelmingly white and male. There are, of course, People of Color and women making indie music but their contribution to the genre has been, and is being, overlooked, ignored, and unshared. I love the indie sound, but by not including all of the voices who are making that sound, it will stagnant and fizzle out under the weight of its exclusivity. As I mentioned in my Plum Indie post “Of Pirates and Plums,” I started this music blog as a way to discover and share indie music that is being made by a diverse group of artists—music that is inclusive and universal. I continue to work toward that.

So, I share this Plum Indie music blog post in support of Black indie artists and I have two incredible artists to share with you: Michael Kiwanuka and Vagabon. I’d like to say I discovered Michael Kiwanuka on my own but I didn’t. That was Angie, the omniscient mistress of music discovery. It was 2014, it was London, and I was on a once-in-a-life-time trip with my sister, Mary, and her friend, the aforementioned Angie. Angie, who’s had her finger on the pulse of indie artists for some time, was a fan of Michael Kiwanuka and knew of a charity concert he was headlining near London during the time of our trip. Angie had the foresight to get us tickets for said concert. Me? I could barely pack my bag for international travel, and the thought of preplanning an outing before arriving in London never even occurred to me—I was yet to discover my interest in discovering indie music.

Anyway, we boarded the Tube for an unknown-to-us part of London and ended up on a quiet, residential street, not a likely place for a concert. Perhaps Angie had a diabolical plan to leave Mary and I out there to see if we could make it back to the hotel on our own just for giggles. Not funny, Angie, not funny. But then, we found the venue—a church—or what used to be a church. No pews just people and pints and awesome music. It was one of those evenings you need a few days to wrap your head around—music flowing over you, beer in hand, friends and like-minded strangers standing shoulder to bobbing shoulder. I don’t remember what charity was benefiting from that concert and I couldn’t find that repurposed church again, but I remember Michael Kiwanuka’s brilliance and his music bonding all of us strangers together. I came away wanting more of that unexpected musical connection. I wanted to know more about the underground world of indie music, and, thanks to Angie and her prescient concert tix, the groundwork was laid for indie discovery.

“I came away wanting more of that unexpected musical connection. I wanted to know more about the underground world of indie music.”

I may not have known of Michael Kiwanuka in 2014 during our London adventure, but I have come to appreciate him as one of the most versatile indie artists around. With his beautifully mournful “Cold Little Heart” from his 2016 album, Love and Hate, which was featured on HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” to the effervescent “You Ain’t the Problem” from his latest album, Kiwanuka, Michael Kiwanuka continues to mold indie rock into a new and exciting sound. “You Ain’t the Problem” is a pulsing masterpiece of rhythm and hooks and exquisite vocal arrangements. It’s an exceptionally crafted song, nuanced and catchy and full of hidden treasures to discover on each new listen. Kiwanuka may be more well known than most of the other indie artists I include in the Plum Indie Blog, but who cares. If you haven’t listened to him yet, you can right now here.

Vagabon, the other Black indie artist I’m featuring in this blog post, I did discover without Angie’s help by way of Aude Konan’s article from okayafrica.com, as well as a post of appreciation for Black indie artists by my local radio station, WERS 88.9FM (which also includes Michael Kiwanuka). Vagabon is Laetitia Tamko, a Cameroonian-American musician based in New York City. The okayafrica.com article features her song, “The Embers,” from her 2017 album Infinite Worlds. I fell for this song from the incredible melody of the first line to the last. Tamko’s voice is stunning and edging, taking the indie sound up a salty, sassy notch. When she sings about being a “small fish,” she gives it such vibrance and grit that you know she is anything but a small fish. The lyric I find particularly fascinating is “sorry I lost your cat.” She expertly packs an entire story into that one line. That’s bad ass. The WERS 88.9FM post features Vagabon’s new song “Every Woman” from her self-titled album, Vagabon, check that out.

Life lessons from the floor of a Paris hotel: vivre la vie à découvrir

By the way, on that same 2014, Euro trip, we made our way to Paris. Every time I stepped off of the elevator in our hotel, I walked over a cheeky marketing slogan projected onto the floor: “LIVE LIFE TO DISCOVER,” it stated boldly in English for the out-of-town crowd. After a while, I took a photo of the slogan because it started to sink in. Life is all about discovery, just like this blog. I can seek out and discover indie music, and stream it and share it and tell you all about it. And in that discovery I can show up for social justice in my daily life by supporting and including Black indie artists and other Artists of Color and women in my music selections, so that all voices in our universal language can be heard. Give a listen now to Michael Kiwanuka and Vagabon on the Plum Indie Blog playlist on Spotify; you’ll be so happy you did.