Artist on Artist: FKA twigs x David Byrne at Coachella 2026

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00](rousing music) - [FKA] I know that some people don't understand my music, but that's fine.

[00:00:08]I don't want everyone to like it.

[00:00:11]- You don't need a huge crowd to begin with.

[00:00:15]That's kinda what I tell people.

[00:00:18]If you've got a handful of friends and strangers who like what you're doing, they'll tell their friends.

[00:00:25](spectators cheering) So, great to meet you.

[00:00:34]- Lovely to meet you, too. - I'm a big fan.

[00:00:36]Where am I gonna start?

[00:00:38]Your music's, to my ears, more stripped down than what I do, which I'm envious of, because I feel like it then clears the way for what's essential, which might be the voice, or it might be the beats, it might be a sound.

[00:00:54]I think, maybe less so, I have a little more confidence now, but the tendency might've been, pile things on.

[00:01:02]Oh, doesn't it sound better with another layer of this, more of this, more this, more of this, is more better?

[00:01:07]And more is not always better, yeah.

[00:01:10]- First of all, I love that you think that my music's stripped down, because I feel like it's too complicated.

[00:01:16]- You know all the stuff that's in there.

[00:01:18]- Yeah, maybe. So, I love that you have that point of view, 'cause sometimes I think my music's really complicated and I wish that I could make it more simple.

[00:01:25]But for me, I allow myself projects to indulge, and then I have projects that I don't work.

[00:01:31]So I have kind of my more mix-tapey-esque projects, like Caprisongs or Afterglow are things that I made quick and dirty, and it was almost like first idea, best idea, and I just enjoyed making the songs.

[00:01:47]And I have other ones, like Magdalene or Eusexua, or even like M3LL155X, I think, that are really labored over in the sound design, and I just allow myself to go back and forth.

[00:01:56]So I'll often do a project where I'm like crazy about every single sound, and layering and everything has to be perfect, and then I'll do that, and then I'll do one where I'm just like, this is for me to have fun, and let go of some of the meticulous mad scientist energy.

[00:02:14]- Sounds like a good balance.

[00:02:15]- Yeah, it works for me.

[00:02:17]It's funny because when I think of your music, I think that it's really precise.

[00:02:22]I think that everything that's in there is the perfect amount that needs to be in there.

[00:02:26]It feels... - Yes.

[00:02:28]And of course, probably like any musician, we hear our own things and go, that could have been a little different, or a little better, or whatever.

[00:02:37]We hear all that stuff.

[00:02:38]- Yeah, the grass is always greener.

[00:02:41]- Someone else hears what's there, not what could have been there or whatever.

[00:02:45]- Exactly.

[00:02:46]I always say, "That will sound really amazing when it's muted."

[00:02:49]- Sometimes, yes.

[00:02:51]- Are there any things from the beginning of your career that you learned, mistakes that you made, or things that you did wrong and you were like, "I will never do that again?"

[00:03:03]- I can think of one big one that's kind of a process.

[00:03:08]I think maybe I was insecure about collaborating with all the various people, but very secure about my vision, what I wanted to do.

[00:03:17]So I became like this little tyrant, who would say, "It has to be this way.

[00:03:22]No, you're not doing it right.

[00:03:23]It has to be like this, and you have to play it like this, it goes like this, and na, na, na, na.

[00:03:27]No, Let's do it again."

[00:03:28]Which, in some ways, you have to do anyway, but I would get very bossy about it, and I thought and realized that's not the best way to get results.

[00:03:39]Over the years, I found out that if I can, in a way, make everyone a collaborator, like, here's what I'm trying to do.

[00:03:48]If we all get on the same page and we're all going in the same direction, I'm not telling you what to do.

[00:03:55]You're gonna find out where this wants to go, musically, movement, whatever.

[00:04:01]And that took a long time for that to happen.

[00:04:07]- That's a good lesson.

[00:04:08]- And you?

[00:04:09]- Just not maybe being so shy all the time.

[00:04:13]It's not just shy, it's like I'm deeply reserved.

[00:04:17]A little bit shy, but mainly deeply, deeply reserved.

[00:04:20]So sometimes, yeah, if people come to talk to me, I sometimes don't realize that they want to collaborate, or they want to make friends or something.

[00:04:30]So now I really try to just make a really big effort with other artists and everybody, just to be really present.

[00:04:39]For me as an artist, especially when I was young, I spent so much time alone.

[00:04:44]So it's kind of, you go from being so alone and thinking, to all of a sudden... - Having all these people around which nobody can see except us.

[00:04:51]- Just sit and watch you talk.

[00:04:54]So it's just such a big change.

[00:04:56]But now I think, especially in this Eusexua era, I've really felt my heart open a lot and my personality open up a lot more, even to be able to do this interview.

[00:05:11]For me, probably, five years ago, I might not have been able to feel so comfortable.

[00:05:18]I think for me it's more this stuff that I'm growing up.

[00:05:22]The art, and the performance, and the music comes a bit more naturally.

[00:05:27]I think if I could speak to my younger self, I would say, "Go on, just go for it, do the interview, say hi.

[00:05:33]If you see someone that you love, just go up to them and just tell them," that type of thing.

[00:05:39]- As I was starting to be a musician, I started reading these musician biographies, tragedies most of them.

[00:05:47]I thought, "I gotta learn from this.

[00:05:50]Don't do what this person did."

[00:05:53]I mean, there are all those kind of stories.

[00:05:55]And I thought, creatively, I realized that in order to have the freedom that I would love to have, I can't really repeat myself over and over, 'cause then you're gonna get pigeonholed, and do different things in different areas, and different mediums, if you can, and that will grant you the freedom, and the audience will, if you're lucky, they'll come with you.

[00:06:24]- Yeah, I feel exactly the same.

[00:06:27]I feel exactly the same, in both of the things you said.

[00:06:31]First of all, I love, not in a schadenfreude kind of way, but in a studious way, learning from other people's mistakes, from the past, and then also just my contemporaries.

[00:06:44]Looking at my contemporaries, I think, "Oh my gosh, I love what they're doing.

[00:06:48]This is so amazing, it's so inspiring."

[00:06:50]And then I suddenly think, "Ooh, what they did there didn't feel completely aligned with what they said before," and then I just remember in my head that, if I'm ever in that situation, to learn from it, and at that point stop and be careful of my next move.

[00:07:04]And also, yeah, musicians from the past.

[00:07:06]I find documentaries from musicians really hard to watch sometimes, because they can be so tragic.

[00:07:14]A lot of musicians being used, drugs, depression.

[00:07:21]It's a hard life, and a lot of musicians have, famously, almost a lot of mental health issues, and drug dependencies, and all of these things, and I've always really tried to look after myself in that respect.

[00:07:41]But then also, the idea that I can change each time, that I can complete a chapter, and I can close the thing and just completely move on.

[00:07:50]I can say, "Okay, this is what I made.

[00:07:52]I made this piece of music, and it's this energy and this vibe, and I'm making this world, and then that album came out and then it's done, next."

[00:08:00]And I've been really grateful that my fans have stayed with me.

[00:08:06]I think now, at this point in my career, it makes sense, but I also understand that a couple of chapters ago when I kept on changing, it didn't make sense for them even, whereas now I feel like it does, and it makes sense for myself as well.

[00:08:19]- It's probably, they develop a deeper respect for you as a creative person, 'cause they've followed this kind of winding path.

[00:08:29]- Yeah, but I think those two things.

[00:08:31]I agree with what you said, that A, to learn from others' mistakes, and B, to be brave and never look behind, never try to recreate what you've already done.

[00:08:40]I dunno about you, but I instantly forget how to do it anyway.

[00:08:44]When I've done something, I could never like go back into that world and make another song of that type, I've just forgotten.

[00:08:49]- Okay, but you're occasionally performing older songs?

[00:08:52]- No, but I mean to create it again.

[00:08:54]I can perform it and dive in.

[00:08:57]- My head was in that place at that moment. - Yes, but I couldn't create it from scratch again.

[00:09:01]I wouldn't know how to do. - Exactly, yeah, "I'll never write that again."

[00:09:03]- No, no.

[00:09:04]That's why sometimes when I write a really good song of a certain era, I mourn, 'cause I'm like, "Wow, well, that was nice while it lasted.

[00:09:12]Now it's gone."

[00:09:14]- It becomes kind of an icon of a particular period.

[00:09:17]- Yeah. Yes.

[00:09:19]- It represents something of that moment.

[00:09:21]- And I've learned not to be resentful of that.

[00:09:24]I feel like I've been resentful.

[00:09:26]- I find that the older material sometimes changes meaning when you do it. - Oh my god, yes.

[00:09:31]- Perform it in a different way, with different movement, or change the musical arrangement, it suddenly becomes, oh, I see something in there that I didn't know was there.

[00:09:44]- Or it can become about someone completely different in your life.

[00:09:47]- [David] Yeah, exactly.

[00:09:48]- It could start off as a lover and it can end as your mom, you know?

[00:09:51](David laughing) - It could, yes.

[00:09:54]- I love that actually.

[00:09:55]I actually love that about performing songs, that it can start off about someone very particular, and sometimes you can even sing it again 10 years later and it's actually about yourself.

[00:10:06]- They're probably all about ourselves.

[00:10:09]When you started doing music, were there discouraging voices where people said, "Oh," because it was not like a lot of other music out there?

[00:10:20]As you said, the rhythms would change, and the sound was really different, and I can imagine there might have been some, "Are you sure this is what you?"

[00:10:32]- Yeah. I mean, even still now, I know that some people don't understand my music, but that's fine.

[00:10:41]Building a community of people that understand what I do, and if you understand, you deeply understand it.

[00:10:46]And I don't want everyone to like it in the whole world, 'cause that's like fast food or something, do you know what I mean?

[00:10:52]Everyone loves fast food fries.

[00:10:55]- Yeah, everybody likes the salt and the sugar.

[00:10:57]- Yeah. Fries from any fast food restaurant are delicious, but that's not who I am, you know?

[00:11:03]And so, I don't wanna be fries.

[00:11:07]I wanna be something very specific and very delicious that people will travel across the world to come and taste this delicious, very specific thing.

[00:11:17]- And here they are, yes.

[00:11:19]- What about you, did you have people, when you said that you wanted to become a music artist, did people support you, or?

[00:11:27]- I came at it, my ambition was to be an artist who did artworks, and showed in galleries and things like that. - Yeah, I can see that.

[00:11:36]- I did music for fun, and eventually did it with friends for fun.

[00:11:41]But I never thought in a million years.

[00:11:44]I thought, "No, there's people who've gone to school for this, there's people who are really, really good at this.

[00:11:51]I'm just doing it for fun."

[00:11:53]And so I thought, no hope of ever having a career doing this.

[00:12:00]But then one of the band people I was playing with said, "Let's audition, let's audition at the club," and a handful of people liked it.

[00:12:10]That was enough.

[00:12:11]That was enough encouragement.

[00:12:13]That's kind of what I tell people.

[00:12:14]You don't need a huge crowd to begin with.

[00:12:19]If you've got a handful of friends and strangers who like what you're doing, they'll tell their friends.

[00:12:25]- Exactly. I always think 10 people at a time.

[00:12:27](David laughing) No, I always think that, like all I need is 10 people at a time, just 10 people.

[00:12:34]And then, if you keep on collecting 10 people, 10 people, then in the end, it's a whole crowd.

[00:12:39]I think now, a lot of people can focus so much on a viral moment, or paying the biggest show in the world, or having a number one hit.

[00:12:52]But to me, that's actually just noise a lot of the time, and it can mean nothing.

[00:12:56]But if it's 10 people at a time, then you put every single foot on the step of a ladder.

[00:13:02]I never want to get lucky and miss a few steps, 'cause then if I fall, then I'm gonna fall down those five steps.

[00:13:09]Whereas if it's 10 people at a time, then it means that people are truly invested and truly love what you're doing, and so, you can't really fall down.

[00:13:16]You'll always just keep on growing because it's just small increments.

[00:13:21]It feels safer that way as an artist.

[00:13:23]Also, what is a weird part of your process that only you do?

[00:13:29]- I save song titles.

[00:13:31]I make up song titles. - Mm, that's a good one.

[00:13:33]- And I save those in the computer.

[00:13:35]Each one has its own page waiting for the words.

[00:13:40]Because I feel like sometimes an evocative title, the rest of it is just gonna flow from there.

[00:13:46]- It's true.

[00:13:47]I used to work with a songwriter called Mike Chapman, and he wrote "Simply the Best" for Tina Turner, and he said that he had that song title, "Simply the Best," for so long, because he was in a supermarket and there was some bread, and it was literally just, "This make of bread, simply the best," (David laughing) and that's where it came from.

[00:14:07](David laughing) It was just a supermarket.

[00:14:10](tranquil music) (spectators cheering) - Do you think that your approach to music is different because you came at it as a dancer?

[00:14:47]- Yeah, 100%.

[00:14:50]- Okay. I was right on that one.

[00:14:51]- As a dancer, I feel very confident in changing rhythms and BPMs, and having lots of changes in my music, because of course, as a dancer, that's almost encouraged in a score.

[00:15:04]And even as a dancer when I was growing up, if you danced to a piece of music, it would... I mean, a lot of dancers will understand, say, even if you do a dance competition, there might be multiple pieces of music in a seven-minute piece, and there's lots of different cuts.

[00:15:19]So, I was used to dancing to lots of different music and having dramatic changes.

[00:15:25]I come from competition dance as a kid, and also, my mom was a salsa teacher.

[00:15:30]So even in Latin rhythms, there's a lot of different types of rhythms within one song.

[00:15:37]So a salsa song can be eight minutes long, but there's lots of different versions, and sometimes it's like the voice and then the drums, then it can even speed up towards the end of the song in some salsa music.

[00:15:48]So, I think that that's encouraged me to be a bit more direct.

[00:15:52]- Really different than someone like me who came out of a kind of rock band background and gradually, very slowly, little by little, adopted dance stuff into what I do, and realized, oh, this opens a door to a lot of other things.

[00:16:10]And every time I do it, I'm learning something else.

[00:16:14]- But you're an amazing mover.

[00:16:16]- Thank you.

[00:16:17]- I mean, I feel like your movements have inspired so many artists in particular.

[00:16:22]And it's funny, 'cause I was re-watching some of your performances, and of course, I know that you've inspired so many people because you are an icon.

[00:16:28]But when I re-watched some of your performances, it became so apparent how many other bands, and especially lead men in bands, have been so inspired by what you do, or even the setup of the way that you've used backing dancers and musicians, and, I guess, the silhouette of the human form.

[00:16:51]It's almost beyond dance, what you do.

[00:16:53]It's like this kind of kinesis, like this sort of kinetic.

[00:16:57]It's like this kinetic representation of the music that is so free.

[00:17:03]- Coming from a dance background, do you think of the body and the way the movement is put together as telling a story?

[00:17:14]- Yeah.

[00:17:14]- Not a literal story, like with the lyrics, but a story told with the body?

[00:17:20]- Oh, a hundred percent.

[00:17:21]Okay, let's see if I can do an example.

[00:17:23]Say if I go like that, or if I go like that, and it's such a slight difference, but they mean two completely different things.

[00:17:34]So say, if you were talking to me and I went like that, to me, it's like either concentrating, or maybe like you said something slightly offensive and I'm not checking. - Yes.

[00:17:44]You go, "What did I say?"

[00:17:45]- Yeah. Whereas if the chin's up and you go like that, then there's a curiosity. - Oh, there interest.

[00:17:50]- Yeah, and there's an allure to it and a curiosity.

[00:17:54]And so, when I'm on stage, I think about that a lot, just in terms of every part of my hands or my shoulders, like whether my shoulders are forward or whether they're back.

[00:18:07]Even in the set I did last week, there's movement.

[00:18:11]There's songs like "Room of Fools" where everything's very forward and it's kind of got this like jack, and it's a bit more androgynous or even masculine within the movement, to then a song like "Meta Angel," where it's like this curiosity, and the shoulders are back and the arms are back, 'cause it's the beginning of the set so there's an ethereal sort of quality.

[00:18:39]But yeah, everything is a movement.

[00:18:41]Even how quick you move your eyes is a story, or choose not to, or whether your gaze is completely set to the back of the room, or whether you're not looking at the audience and you're more monitoring the space.

[00:18:55]But everything has a different way of, for me, bringing the audience into the story that I'm trying to tell.

[00:19:02]- I agree.

[00:19:04]I think an audience knows how to read that.

[00:19:07]They instinctually know how to read that, if they're a human being and they're used to being with other human beings.

[00:19:13]They've seen those postures and gestures and everything, and they have a sense, "Oh."

[00:19:19]It telegraphs that feeling from inside without having to say anything.

[00:19:24]But I also think people don't realize that they are understanding all that.

[00:19:31]They don't realize that, oh, there's a whole set of emotions, and story, and back and forth being told that I kind of instinctually understand, but I don't know if I can put it into words.

[00:19:44]- That's the beauty of theater though, isn't it?

[00:19:46]- Yes, yes. You don't have to put everything into words.

[00:19:49]- Yeah, exactly.

[00:19:51]- Your process time.

[00:19:53]But I'm wondering, okay, what's your process?

[00:19:56]Where do you begin, how do you bring in the dancers?

[00:19:59]Are they dancers you've worked with before or new ones, or does it depend on how you're conceiving the show what kind of people you're looking for?

[00:20:08]What's the process of building it from there?

[00:20:11]- I mean, I really believe in, when creating anything, like a song or one of my shows, I create from where I'm at, and everything is useful.

[00:20:24]So even if I'm sad, or happy, or angry, or in love, or heartbroken, it's like that state of where I'm at is what the show should be.

[00:20:36]So say for example, if I was in love and then I planned this whole show about being in love, if rehearsal started and I had six weeks to rehearse, and then I was heartbroken, it would completely change, even if I completely planned that it would be about being in love.

[00:20:54]On day one of rehearsal, it would completely fall apart and I would decide it was actually about heartbreak and devastation.

[00:21:04]And so, in that way-- - Could you make those changes?

[00:21:07]- Yeah. - In the performance?

[00:21:09]- Oh, a hundred percent.

[00:21:11]Yeah, a hundred percent.

[00:21:12]Because for me, it's all about telling the truth, and for me, collaborating with people that can be malleable.

[00:21:19]And in the same way with my dancers as well, I require a lot of physicality, a lot of concentration, but also a lot of grace in things being able to change so that we can tell the truth together.

[00:21:35]My dancers, I feel, are almost an extension of myself, like parts of my personality and then some, or a small part that I see in myself.

[00:21:45]Like say if there's like the Venn diagram, it's like they are that part of myself, and then that part extended and magnified so that I can tell a story through their physicality that I even maybe couldn't do myself because I don't have the skill, or the craft, or the physicality, but they can take a part of me and they can push it even further.

[00:22:07]So, the way I work with the dancers is that, if one of them has an aggression or a softness in their movement, they in that part will then get the solo, or they'll get the light shone on them to continue the emotion in the story for me where I can't because I'm singing or I'm not good enough, whatever.

[00:22:28]But I think it's just, for me, a process of figuring out how to tell the truth and how to tell a raw emotion, and to not be afraid of something that doesn't make sense at the time, because in the end, it always makes sense, as long as it feels real.

[00:22:44]Does that make sense?

[00:22:45]- Absolutely.

[00:22:45]I mean, I got asked by friends, "What are you trying to say here, what are you trying to do, what's the story?"

[00:22:51]And I go, "It'll tell me."

[00:22:55]We'll start putting things together and then I'll go, "Oh, that's what this is."

[00:22:59]- I feel like that too.

[00:23:00]At a certain point, you just give up to the process, and then the message starts leading you.

[00:23:07]It's like in the beginning, you're leading it, and by the end, you think, oh no, this is actually about repressed aggression, and I didn't realize it, but now it's about repressed aggression, and now I have to follow that, and everything's to do with that.

[00:23:21]But I wanna ask the same question of you.

[00:23:25]How do you pick your band members, how do you pick your dancers?

[00:23:29]It's been such a huge part, like the physicality and the way everyone moves together, how did you know that you had the right people in the room, and how did you meet?

[00:23:39]- With the musicians, it was... The drummers, I have four drummers, and I've worked with them before, so that was easy.

[00:23:48]I just had to say, "It's a long tour, it's a long one.

[00:23:52]Are you? Yeah?"

[00:23:54]And then, some of the other musicians, one person would recommend another, go, "Oh, do you know somebody who can do this?"

[00:24:01]"Oh yeah, I do know somebody who can do that."

[00:24:04]Put that together.

[00:24:05]The dancers, they're new, so we did auditions with the choreographer's assistant.

[00:24:12]The choreographer was Steven Hoggett, a guy from London, and his assistant is Yasmine Lee.

[00:24:19]So we auditioned people, and the tricky part was, I wanted them all to sing.

[00:24:25]So we had to balance how much movement can you do and sing?

[00:24:30]What you do is incredible.

[00:24:31]I'm watching, I'm going. (exhales) But can you sing, hold notes and do the whole thing here, hold a nice harmony here and then move, or whatever?

[00:24:42]The beginning of the rehearsals was really a lot of improvising, a lot of just movement stuff, of seeing how people connect with other people.

[00:24:53]The choreographer was in there saying, "I wanna see how the musicians move without me telling them anything, without me choreographing anything.

[00:25:01]I wanna see how they move when they play their instruments."

[00:25:05]Said, before we put on what he calls the cold dead hand of the choreographer, is exaggerating.

[00:25:16]Yeah. So, I can't believe... Well, I mean, we ended up with a great bonded group that, we love hanging out.

[00:25:27]- And do you hang out a lot outside of performances as well?

[00:25:31]Do you feel that when you build the bond and build the relationship outside of the rehearsal room and outside of stage, do you feel like that strengthens a performance as well?

[00:25:41]- I think it does.

[00:25:42]I know not everybody does that.

[00:25:44]But I like it because I feel like they'll tell me things, not personal stuff, but they'll tell me if something's bothering them, if they're concerned about something in the show.

[00:26:00]There's this nice process of tweaking things and adjusting things, and it doesn't just come top down from me, it's coming from them as well.

[00:26:09]Okay. Different modes of things that you do.

[00:26:14]There's performance, there's the videos, and some acting, and recording.

[00:26:20]I'm wondering, how do you navigate, what you're thinking of when you go into each area?

[00:26:25]I think, for a lot of people who've seen the show, they will listen to the music in a completely different way.

[00:26:31]It tells them, "Oh, now I know what this song is about," and they feel that whatever movement it is, is happening on stage, now they imagine that in their head, and maybe in their body, when they hear the song.

[00:26:49]At some point, you can't separate them.

[00:26:51]- It's the same thing that I was saying, I guess, about the making a show, that in the beginning it's like you have this feeling, and you just follow the feeling, and it has to be the truth.

[00:27:06]And then in the middle, the feeling reveals itself with the personality, the thing that it is.

[00:27:11]And then in the end, you feel like you're chasing the truth.

[00:27:14]It's like this kind of reverse, like this kind of bait and switch.

[00:27:19]And I feel like that in my career as well, that there's this overarching story that I'm telling, and it's singing and dancing, and now being in films or making videos.

[00:27:32]And at the end, there'll be an overarching story of who I am as an artist.

[00:27:38]But at the moment, I'm still in the truth of it all.

[00:27:41]But I should imagine that at one point, the narrative will become very clear, and then I'll have a north star more to follow rather than just creating in the truth, if that makes sense.

[00:27:53]It's kind of, I'm making a story and the story will be my legacy, and it's all the same, it's all on the same canvas, it's just different colored paints that I'm using to make the story.

[00:28:09]But I still feel very young and at the beginning, I think.

[00:28:17]I still feel in the first leg, in many ways.

[00:28:19]- I'm still learning.

[00:28:20]- [FKA] Yeah, me too.

[00:28:21]- I've been doing this for a long time.

[00:28:22]- Me too, yeah. - And I feel like every time, it's a new experience.

[00:28:28]- Totally, yeah.

[00:28:29]- I saw a show you did in Brooklyn quite a while ago.

[00:28:36]There was a lot of, I might be wrong here, flex dancers and different folks that you brought in from, I think, LA and maybe other towns.

[00:28:47]I loved it.

[00:28:48]I thought it was an incredible show.

[00:28:50]There was this laser wall.

[00:28:52]- Wow, that was ages ago.

[00:28:53]- It was ages ago, but yes, and it was kind of a one of, I think.

[00:28:57]- That's incredible.

[00:28:58]- It was just an amazing show.

[00:29:00]To me, it was you making your own show, but also presenting these dancers that you admired, and they were influencing you, basically saying, you have to check this out, you have to see what these people do, which was really generous.

[00:29:16]- I left home pretty young, and I really feel that there are certain scenes and cultures that have raised me.

[00:29:23]My parents did an amazing job as well, but I didn't go to university, and I feel that a lot of my years past 18, I just was almost raised by the streets a bit of like different places.

[00:29:42]And so, I'm always really thankful for the families that I've made along the way, and a lot of it has been movement based, like crumping and voguing.

[00:29:50]I've always really felt embraced, and inspired, and nurtured by dance communities.

[00:29:59]And so, whenever I have the opportunity to say, hey, check this out, it makes me so happy, and it's almost like paying homage to family that have become like a part of my art.

[00:30:13]Each dance form is kind of a different rhythm or a different way of looking at things, specifically like ballroom culture and voguing.

[00:30:22]I don't really vogue myself, I wouldn't call myself a vogue dancer, but I feel very inspired by the notion of loving myself, of community, of embracing my sexuality, about taking almost my flaws and making them into my crowning features, and these are all things that I've learned from the vogue community, and just like a confidence, you know?

[00:30:50]I have many lines about it in my songs, just about the way that, for me, ballroom culture has helped me understand the type of woman that I want to be, because I don't feel very effeminate, but I feel also deeply feminine.

[00:31:08]And so, that complication and that spectrum that I have within myself is really, I think, embraced by ballroom culture and queer culture.

[00:31:22]And so, I've been able to find my womanhood there.

[00:31:25]And so, for that I'm very grateful.

[00:31:29](spectators cheering) (tranquil music) - Inspirations, whether dance, music, film, whatever, that kind of thing, that's gotta of be tough.

[00:31:54]I know from experience being asked, "Oh, what's the best song you heard today?"

[00:31:59]And it's like, mind goes blank.

[00:32:02]- Yeah, it's hard.

[00:32:04]I think it changes all the time.

[00:32:08]At the moment, I'm really inspired by Pina Bausch.

[00:32:13]She like a dancer and choreographer.

[00:32:18]I'm really into like... - Oh, she does that?

[00:32:21]- Yeah. I'm into, what's this, your clavicle?

[00:32:25]Is this called your clavicle?

[00:32:27]Is that what it's called?

[00:32:28]- I think so, yes.

[00:32:29]- Yeah, I'm just into the kind of... It's really amazing getting older.

[00:32:37](David laughing) Why are you laughing?

[00:32:40]- I'm quite a bit older, and I feel like I'm doing fine.

[00:32:44]- It's amazing getting older, because when I thought about getting older as a woman, I didn't know what that would feel like, and my physicality hasn't actually changed a lot, since I was even 16.

[00:33:01]I just have always kind of been the same size.

[00:33:04]I have clothes from when I was a teenager that I still wear now.

[00:33:08]And I've been really curious what aging would look like for me.

[00:33:13]And I'm almost 40 now, and the way that my body's aging is so interesting because it's getting really sinewy.

[00:33:22]I'm finding there's like a sinewyness to my muscles.

[00:33:25]- Is that okay, or do you try and do things to counter that?

[00:33:29]- Sinew? No, I like the sinews.

[00:33:32]I remember when I was younger and I'd look at my mom's hands and she kind of would have like veins, and then I would play with my mom's veins on her hands, but my hands were like completely smooth.

[00:33:41]But this thing kind of happens all over, at least my body, as I'm getting older, and I think it's quite common for dancers where you sort of get this like sinewy, where when you move, you can suddenly start like seeing everything.

[00:33:54]Whereas when you're young, or when I was young, or a lot of young dancers, you're like a sort of fresh bit of like chicken breast, everything's kind of like plump and juicy.

[00:34:04]And then you start getting older and like... But it's so useful. - A lot of that baby fat goes away, yeah. - It goes away.

[00:34:11]But it's so interesting on stage because everything becomes so much more visible.

[00:34:16]So you can just literally go like this, and all of a sudden, and you think of like Pina Bausch, and you think of the clavicles and the arms, it's so useful.

[00:34:26]- One of her shows that I saw recently was a big inspiration for my show.

[00:34:33]There was one scene in her show where there was a projection of palm trees or something on the back wall and on the floor, and I thought, boom, what if I took that idea and ran with it for the whole show?

[00:34:53]Not the same image, but immersing myself, and the dancers, and the band in all these different places.

[00:35:01]And I just got it from the one scene in one of her shows. - She's brilliant.

[00:35:05]- Yeah, hugely inventive her stuff.

[00:35:07]- She's so inventive.

[00:35:10]So yeah, just the way that her mind works, and again, it's like being able to say a sentence and being able to create a feeling without words.

[00:35:20]You just see that one scene, and for you it's that you're completely immersed in the world.

[00:35:24]You can take that one tiny bit and turn it into a whole show. - Yeah, that's a world right there.

[00:35:28]- It's a world right there, yeah.

[00:35:29]So, Pina Bausch and, I think, just her physicality and being inspired by that.

[00:35:38]I don't know, I always say it, I sound like a broken record, but I love world builders.

[00:35:41]Just any artist of any form that builds a whole world around them, I find incredibly inspiring.

[00:35:47]So that could be anyone from Prince, to Pina, to Marina Abramovic, to Frida Kahlo, so many amazing artists that somehow have managed to build a world beyond their immediate medium.

[00:36:01]I think it's really cool.

[00:36:03]How do you feel when you see those movements that you've made when you see other artists interpreting them and interpreting that method?

[00:36:15]How does it make you feel?

[00:36:17]- Oh, I often feel like they're better than I am, and then I start wondering, okay, how can I improve what I'm doing?

[00:36:27]And sometimes the improvement is just some something like, well, you'll know this, like if you're doing this, my arm wasn't quite at a right angle.

[00:36:37]- Yes.

[00:36:38]- You have to learn how to do that without looking in a mirror, what does that feel like?

[00:36:43]Or that, I was told sometimes, "No, David.

[00:36:47]At that moment, keep your legs together, so you make a really, that kind of silhouette," and then when you start moving them, something has happened.

[00:36:59]Those kinds of things.

[00:37:00]- That's cool.

[00:37:02]But I mean, okay... If you see other music artists, if they copy you or adopt your method, do you feel any way about it?

[00:37:13]Do you care, or do you?

[00:37:13]- Oh, I'm hugely flattered. - Oh, you're flattered?

[00:37:15]- And sometimes I don't recognize it.

[00:37:16]Sometimes I don't see it until a friend taps me on the shoulder and goes, "David, they're doing you."

[00:37:23]- Oh, I see.

[00:37:26]You like it?

[00:37:27]- I like it, but I didn't recognize it.

[00:37:28]- [FKA] That's good.

[00:37:30]- Do you see anybody doing you?

[00:37:32]- Sometimes, but I think it's very hard.

[00:37:41]- You're well enough known now that if they're biting your moves or whatever, they're not gonna get away with it.

[00:37:48]- You know, everyone's individual, so it's really hard to fully, fully do it.

[00:37:55]'Cause when you're an artist, there's so many different parts of you, sometimes I just think, okay, well, if they're doing that, I'm just gonna go and do a different part of it.

[00:38:02]You know it can kinda spur you on to jump and do something else.

[00:38:07]So I don't mind.

[00:38:09]If anything, maybe it's like an encouragement to explore a different part of you, in a way. - Oh yeah, it pushes you. - Yeah, it pushes me.

[00:38:19]Looking at your work, for me, I feel like it kind of... Obviously you're a music artist and amazing, but also, there is such a strong performance art as well, a performance art element in what you do, and in the movements, are so complex actually.

[00:38:35]Like the way like you move your body, some of the most trained dancers in the world actually couldn't do that.

[00:38:42](David laughing) It's like a feeling.

[00:38:49]It's beyond technique.

[00:38:53]It's just this deep connection between... You know when there's a sentence or a feeling that you can't explain, and there are no words for it, but when you do the movement, it perfectly explains it and someone can be like, yeah, I felt like that before, but there's there's no word or sentence for it?

[00:39:12]It's like that.

[00:39:13]- We were touring in Australia, and I think the day before our Adelaide show, we saw a sign for a show called Burn Dance at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

[00:39:28]We tracked 'em down.

[00:39:29]They were getting audience members in their little show to move like me.

[00:39:37]- Wow.

[00:39:38]- Of course. I was really flattered.

[00:39:40]I invited them on stage and said, "See if you can teach our crowd."

[00:39:45]- Wow.

[00:39:46]Okay, before we go today, will you teach me one of your moves?

[00:39:49](David laughing) - Are we allowed to stand up?

[00:39:51]- Can can we stand up? - Yes? We can stand up, we can stand up one.

[00:39:53]- Okay, wait. - One that I haven't done in quite a while, but we could try it, is kind of like you're falling down.

[00:40:01]- Like you're what?

[00:40:02]- Like you're about to fall down, like that kind of thing.

[00:40:07]- Okay.

[00:40:08]Show me one more time.

[00:40:09]- Just off balance, but of course, you'll be better at it than me.

[00:40:12]- No, I would probably not.

[00:40:13]- But just off balance, but... Yes, yes. (laughing) - I like it.

[00:40:19]Okay, one more.

[00:40:20]I want another one. - Another one?

[00:40:22]Something that I saw in church services, where somebody to be that kind of moment where, yes.

[00:40:30]Kind of jerk your spine and your arms go up.

[00:40:33]Yes, exactly.

[00:40:34]- Okay, one more.

[00:40:35]- Another one?

[00:40:37]Oh, what's another one?

[00:40:39]- I quite like that one.

[00:40:41]- Yes. (laughing) Another one was, you can probably do it better than me, try and get my arms to go just straight across and hang down, like I'm a human coat hanger.

[00:40:51]- Okay.

[00:40:54]That's a good one.

[00:40:55]- I have been learning one from the other dancers where I just balance on one leg and sing like that, which you can probably do way better than I can at my age.

[00:41:08]It's, yeah.

[00:41:09]- Have you got any like groovy ones?

[00:41:10]Do you do kind of like?

[00:41:13]- Oh.

[00:41:14]- That you've got like a groove?

[00:41:16]- Yes, it's really... And then I'll go down like a puppet.

[00:41:23]- Oh yeah.

[00:41:24]- And then come back up.

[00:41:26]- What's this one?

[00:41:27]- Like a puppet that's lost its strings.

[00:41:29]- Oh my gosh, yeah.

[00:41:30]- The strings have been cut.

[00:41:31]- And do you groove then? - And then I'll let the legs wiggle as well.

[00:41:35]Yeah.

[00:41:36]- What's the one, it's kind of like a knee and out?

[00:41:39]- Oh boy, what is that?

[00:41:42]This one, like that? - Yes!

[00:41:44]- I can't hardly do it now.

[00:41:47]- And you kind of be like one. - It's like open the book, close the book, one side, other side.

[00:41:51]Yeah, I think you've got it.

[00:41:54]- I'm looking forward to getting some of these moves into my set.

[00:41:56](David laughing) - Okay, there we go.

[00:42:01]Dance class is over.

[00:42:03]- No, I'm still in it.

[00:42:04](David laughing) (rousing music) (spectators cheering)