It’s a sunny April evening and Kadeem Tyrell is chatting to me while riding a Lime bike. He’s on his way home from his full-time postman job, which he’s held down for seven years alongside being an R&B singer-songwriter.
Tyrell grew up in South London amongst the church and a musical family. One of his four younger brothers is DJ and producer P-RALLEL, with their dad having also been a DJ. Tyrell originally wanted to be an architect and build his own house, but shifted his trajectory into music, even though his vocal talents weren’t yet known by his parents. Releasing music officially since 2018, Tyrell has been a reliable source of UK R&B, with his biggest single being ‘April 25th‘, written by Ego Ella May.
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Having been fairly quiet since 2022, Tyrell has been working all over the world to release his latest EP (on April 25th) “KT.FM”. At a pre-launch event in London, Tyrell effortlessly took the audience through the project, introducing each track, singing some of them live, and crediting each person who worked on it. He is confident yet humble, and incredibly smiley, clearly thrilled to be releasing music again, especially as it’s more personal than ever.
With at least one more EP dropping this year, and a visualizer for every track on ‘KT.FM’ coming soon, Tyrell is making 2025 all about him – and why not?
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R&B as a genre is especially personal. Do you think you can make good R&B without diving into your own emotions, and instead write about other people’s stories?
100%. I think it’s more than possible because at the end of the day, it’s a real story…A lot of the songs that Beyoncé sings, she didn’t write it, but we feel it.
What is your view of the state of UK R&B right now? And do you ultimately think that bigger success has to come from international audiences e.g. the US?
I think when it comes to London, because we’re so conservative, we don’t really want to give the props to our own people unless we’re co-signed… Everybody in the UK loves R&B because when Brent Faiyaz comes on or Leon Thomas comes here, we are there…To me, UK R&B is fantastic because it’s got elements of the things that we grew up with… Jorja Smith, she’s the person that for me she does it perfectly. One time she’s doing garage and the next minute she’s doing R&B or a stripped back song.
R&B and sampling go hand in hand. In the UK, sample culture has increased so much recently, especially in drill. What’s your view on that?
If it’s done tastefully, then I think that’s cool. A lot of people are just taking a song and making the old song be the hook. I think it’s better to do it in a way where you recreate something so that one day you can be sampled too.
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You’ve worked with some very talented artists in the past, such as Ego Ella May and Mahalia. What do you personally get from collaborating with your peers?
Before I was just listening to them wishing that I could just be in the same room as them. For them to really feel as though my gift was good enough to work with and for them to share their knowledge and their gift with me, is something that really means the most to me…and my gratitude just extends to the moon.
Do you think there is a common thread between your 2018 releases through to this EP?
Before I was having fun with it, but I was thinking too much…Some of the sessions were super short, it was four hours and we had to make the song from scratch…I was in Texas for one week [for SXSW] and then I was like, “I’m gonna go to LA. I ain’t got no sessions, but I’m gonna make this happen somehow.” The minute I got off the plane, literally every single day was booked up…I’m very much a bedroom recorder, I literally record in my utility room. But now I’ve had sessions in studios and that’s where I felt like, “Okay, this is where I belong”.
Why did you call this project ‘KT.FM’?
I wanted to channel parts of me that I feel as though I haven’t really sang about or written about before…I went to so many different places that inspired me, for example Italy, I went to Portugal, I went to Texas, Barcelona… But the biggest one that really helped me was probably Brazil where I channelled more of myself and I was like, “I need to put this into writing”. The reason why I called it ‘KT.FM’ was because it’s me channeling into me, tuning into who I am and writing some of my own stories.
Who were you listening to at the time of making this EP, and how do you honour those influences without just mimicking them?
I can definitely say there’s been a lot of influences in terms of my peers… When I made ‘One Time’, I initially wrote it in the mind of how FLO and No Guidance would do something… But I also like to take influence of course from Ginuwine, Timbaland, Omarion, who I actually I quote in the song… So without trying to copy, I was like, “This is where my influences are at today and this is what I’m listening to now, and I want to put that into my music. What would my spin on that style of R&B be?”
In ‘One Time’ you sample Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’, an absolute classic. Is that actually a sample or did you recreate it?
No, we recreated it, which makes it a little bit easier. I want to have that feel of the 90s that everyone’s going to recognise. Instead of me doing it with my mouth, we can recreate with keys and just warping sounds and having fun with it.
I love the artwork as well, it really fits with the theme of nostalgia but in a contemporary way.
My brother is really big on having themes, so it was actually him that helped me… I saw a picture of Natalie Portman in those headphones…and I was like, “This makes so much sense for where I want to go.” So, I wanted to recreate the picture, but I had to hunt down those headphones because they’re real radio headphones.
Tell me about the ESTA and Mack Keane session, which became ‘Where U R’.
That was a lot because I didn’t know if it was going to happen… then suddenly we got the session in just before I had to go back to London. I walked in there and it was amazing because I think Mack’s dad is a big engineer, so there were loads of plaques on the wall, and I was just thinking, “One day this could actually be me”, but I’m in the room, and I just have to work hard to get it.
Let’s talk about ‘Garden of Eden’. For me, I interpret the sentiment of being that feeling when you’re with someone in the early days and you’re in a bubble. Is that about right?
I walked into the session and we didn’t have too long… I wanted something that’s like ‘Moment’ by Victoria Monet… Suddenly I started talking about, “Look what I created”. I was like, “Creation, Adam and Eve, how do we go from here?”… That was one of my favourite sessions in LA… Me and Stephen [Collins, the producer] just bouncing against each other with words and having fun… It’s about sex and having fun with it and that’s kind of what I wanted to channel so it’s more grown.
Why do you think you were ready for this project to write about those themes a bit more?
I wouldn’t say I’m a shy person but I shied away from showing me as an artist if that makes sense… I didn’t have many friends in music… but when I went to Texas, that’s where I met most of my friends today who are artists. I knew Jaz Karis from before, but it brought us closer. Bellah, Mnelia, Miraa May, Jvck James, James Vickery, we were all together… I think that trip I really connected the artistry, me and the music together instead of separating them.
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Let’s talk about ‘Blue Heart’ because that’s a real favourite too. The production is so ethereal and your voice blends with it so well.
‘Blue Heart’ literally I was going through a situation where someone is kind of gaslighting you and I was just like, “How do I put this into a song and be a bit more vulnerable?” That one with Subculture, I wanted to sing in a way where I play with the melodies but tell a story at the same time… I always think about how SZA and Amy Winehouse are big storytellers, so I wanted to tell a story and they do it better over live instruments. It’s like you’re there with them in the room.
The last track I want to chat about is ‘Situation’ because it’s so heartbreaking. Was that about you or someone else?
That was made in LA as well. I had wanted to work with Aiden Carroll who produced it. He’s produced on the Khelani album, and he works with ESTA too. It was such a good session but I usually listen to the chords because I think in that one the music was speaking to me more than anything. It was sounding bittersweet. It’s sweet, but it’s in a situationship, I want more, but I know I can’t really have you… Usually, I can channel a time when I was feeling like that…It was a nice song to close the project with.
It’s an interesting song to end on because it leaves things unresolved. Was that purposeful?
That shows you really listen to music! That was intentional because this project comes in three parts. This is the first part and the second one comes out in August but it’s completely different…I haven’t done a project since 2022 so I want to give a lot this year.
This EP is being released on April 25th, which is the name of your biggest single. Was that on purpose?
It was supposed to be on April 18th, but because it was Easter… I didn’t want to take away focus from other things, so it fell on April 25th… I feel like everything is for a reason, and I’m hoping that it gets the same love and attention.
What is your hope for this project?
I really do hope that it puts me onto another level of that artistry in terms of who it connects me with and the opportunities that I get. I’m just hoping that I can do festivals, I want to go on tour and open up for an artist… I just try to translate the fun-ness of all the things I wanted to do, like a little kid making a list of all the things I want to do… I want to be able to not have to work anymore, but do music full-time.
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‘KT.FM’ is out now.
Words: Nicola Davies
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Kadeem Tyrell Is Channelling His R&B Inspirations – clashmusic.com
