When searching for the next ‘it’ artist, looking to the supporting acts of some of your favourite artists is always a good shout. And, with an upcoming stint supporting Pip Millet on the horizon, The KTNA is the only group you should be listening to. Formed of twin sisters Hope and Millie, the Kenya-born artists have been serving up intoxicating R&B cuts since their beginnings, establishing themselves as stars on the rise with track “MBD”. And now, in a bid to continue on with their winning streak, the pair unveil their EP, “Resurgence” featuring the stellar new track, “Summer Never Dies”.
When speaking on their new project, the group claimed, “to be honest, when we started “Resurgence” we didn’t really have a direction or a purpose at the time, and it really gave us something to believe in. Our debut EP came out in 2019, and in 2020 we went into lockdown, so it was strange because when ‘Life Under Siege’ first came out it did well. But, as soon as we lockdown happened, we had this weird resurgence of streams and people listening to us that never had before. Our monthly listeners went through the roof, and so we began to be inspired by what we created a year earlier, so we wanted to put our all into this project. I started to play bass and really dive deeper in with our production, and of course, the most important ingredient for us, speaking for the heart. We want to take the listener on a journey through the rough times to the sunny side, quite literally!”
Ahead of the release of “Resurgence”, the pair got candid with Wonderland on all things music. Head below to read our interview with The KTNA below…
Hey guys, how are you? How has this past year been?
Hi Wonderland, thank you for having the Sister Of Darkness! We’re okay thank you the past year has been weird, the same for everyone really it’s been a little bit crazy, hectic and strange. But, hey, we’re alive, so we can’t complain!
With everything that happened last year, has your creativity been affected?
Absolutely! I think we’d be lying if we said that our creativity hadn’t been affected we’ve not been able to work with people the way we used to before we’ve been working a lot remotely and it’s been a difficult time for all creatives, but it has given us the time to really focus alone which has been enjoyable sometimes!
You guys are twin sisters! What sparked your interest in music?
We really didn’t need any encouragement to start singing together as kids, as far back as we can remember we have always sung together in some way shape or form, always in harmony too! So I think it was just being indoctrinated by a lot of different music in our house that our mum listens to, and hope would always do a bottom harmony and so it just started from there.
Do you guys have different creative processes? If so, how do you guys navigate it?
We actually do have slightly different processes. We write our own verses separately and I think that’s how we keep our duality, by not interfering with the other one’s process or the other one’s thoughts of the song. We pick a theme and we probably write the chorus first, and then we just basically let each other go off and write our own verses and express how we feel individually, which really is helpful. I think some people overcloud the others thoughts in a duo by constantly talking about lyric changes and melody changes, but I think when you’re a duo, the best thing you can do is maintain your own individuality, and that’s what people will connect with.
You’re originally from Kenya but you moved to Manchester, has this change impacted your sound?
I’d say although we don’t really remember living in Kenya, it definitely is within us, of course! It’s our heritage and it’s where we’re from so it definitely has inspired us in many ways. African music is so incredible, although he’s not Kenyan, Fela Kuti is a huge inspiration for us musically – that African sound is just infectious! I hope we get to infuse it more with our own sound as we grow.
And then you got in acting, what do you prefer, music or acting?
Music! We’re not really actors! Our time on television is a testament to that! Music has always been our number one love, music is how we fell into acting, actually!
You’ve just dropped your new EP, “Resurgence”, talk us through the production process?
To be honest, when we started “Resurgence” we didn’t really have a direction or a purpose at the time, and it really gave us something to believe in. Our debut EP came out in 2019, and in 2020 we went into lockdown, so it was strange because when ‘Life Under Siege’ first came out it did well. But, as soon as we lockdown happened, we had this weird resurgence of streams and people listening to us that never had before. Our monthly listeners went through the roof, and so we began to be inspired by what we created a year earlier, so we wanted to put our all into this project. I started to play bass and really dive deeper in with our production, and of course, the most important ingredient for us, speaking for the heart. We want to take the listener on a journey through the rough times to the sunny side, quite literally!
