Biography
Blending sporadic club beats with glossy pop textures and experimental touches reminiscent of Radiohead, Colouring shapes an atmospheric brand of art pop. After launching the project as a quartet through three major-label EPs, songwriter Jack Kenworthy shifted to a solo and independent path for Colouring’s first full-length release, the 2021 album Wake. Its 2024 successor, the grief-informed Love to You, Mate, drew primarily on piano and a synth sampler to achieve a more restrained palette.
A reworking of the short-lived indie pop quartet Osca, Colouring surfaced from London during the mid-2010s. Fronted by Goldsmiths University graduate Jack Kenworthy, who handles songwriting, vocals, and keyboards, the group also featured guitarist Sean Reilly, bassist Dom Potts, and drummer Alex Johnson. The band secured a deal with Interscope Records in 2015, and its debut Colouring single, the brooding, house-inflected “In Motion,” debuted on BBC Radio 1 in mid-2016. The first EP, Symmetry, appeared later that year and led to North American dates supporting the 1975. Continued audience growth brought the four-track Heathen, highlighted by the single “The Wave,” on Interscope in mid-2017, followed a year later by the EP bn. The original lineup subsequently dissolved, prompting Kenworthy to part ways with Interscope and continue under the Colouring name as a solo endeavor.
Colouring issued its first long-player, the independently released Wake, in May 2021. Kenworthy tracked the set with producer Mikko Gordon, whose subsequent credits include work with Arcade Fire and the Smile, whose members overlap with Radiohead. That June, Colouring issued the non-album collaboration “Lean On” with Mysie.
In the period immediately preceding the debut album’s arrival, Kenworthy learned that his brother-in-law had received a Stage Four cancer diagnosis, and he devoted much of the following year to supporting his partner and extended family. The experience shaped the songs on Colouring’s next release, Love to You, Mate, which arrived in February 2024 on the Bella Union label. Recorded with Gordon alongside prior associate Gianluca Buccellati, the album limited its core instrumentation to piano, bass, drums, and an OP-1 synth sampler, aside from select exceptions, yielding a more intimate and restrained result.
A reworking of the short-lived indie pop quartet Osca, Colouring surfaced from London during the mid-2010s. Fronted by Goldsmiths University graduate Jack Kenworthy, who handles songwriting, vocals, and keyboards, the group also featured guitarist Sean Reilly, bassist Dom Potts, and drummer Alex Johnson. The band secured a deal with Interscope Records in 2015, and its debut Colouring single, the brooding, house-inflected “In Motion,” debuted on BBC Radio 1 in mid-2016. The first EP, Symmetry, appeared later that year and led to North American dates supporting the 1975. Continued audience growth brought the four-track Heathen, highlighted by the single “The Wave,” on Interscope in mid-2017, followed a year later by the EP bn. The original lineup subsequently dissolved, prompting Kenworthy to part ways with Interscope and continue under the Colouring name as a solo endeavor.
Colouring issued its first long-player, the independently released Wake, in May 2021. Kenworthy tracked the set with producer Mikko Gordon, whose subsequent credits include work with Arcade Fire and the Smile, whose members overlap with Radiohead. That June, Colouring issued the non-album collaboration “Lean On” with Mysie.
In the period immediately preceding the debut album’s arrival, Kenworthy learned that his brother-in-law had received a Stage Four cancer diagnosis, and he devoted much of the following year to supporting his partner and extended family. The experience shaped the songs on Colouring’s next release, Love to You, Mate, which arrived in February 2024 on the Bella Union label. Recorded with Gordon alongside prior associate Gianluca Buccellati, the album limited its core instrumentation to piano, bass, drums, and an OP-1 synth sampler, aside from select exceptions, yielding a more intimate and restrained result.
Albums
Singles
