KAWALA

Emerging from London’s Camden borough as a buoyant pop outfit, Kawala achieved an early breakthrough in 2018 once their percussive indie-folk single “Do It Like You Do” gained substantial streaming traction. Their luminous, melody-driven approach prompted likenings to Bombay Bicycle Club and Glass Animals, and the group delivered their first full-length major-label outing, Better with You, in 2022.

The project began as an acoustic duo when vocalist Jim Higson and guitarist/vocalist Daniel McCarthy, who had met while studying music at university in Leeds, returned to North London and embedded themselves in the area’s club circuit. A 2015 slot on the Mahogany Sessions video series markedly elevated their visibility, prompting the recruitment of lead guitarist Dan Lee, bassist Reeve Coulson, and drummer Ben Batten to complete the lineup. Kawala issued their first single, “Small Death,” in 2017 and followed it in early 2018 with “Do It Like You,” which quickly accumulated streams. Momentum carried the quintet onto festival stages at Live at Leeds and The Great Escape throughout 2018, culminating in the summer release of their debut EP, D.I.L.Y.D., on Mahogany Records.

EMI signed the band ahead of their second EP, Kawala, which appeared in early 2020; Paradise Heights arrived the following year in mid-2021. Co-written by the members and tracked with producers Joel Pott (George Ezra, Shura), Cam Blackwood (George Ezra, London Grammar), Joe Rubel (Ed Sheeran, Maisie Peters), Dan Bryer (Tom Grennan, Rag’n’Bone Man), and Mark Ralph (Years & Years, the Snuts), the album Better with You surfaced in March 2022.