Photo credit – Sam Taylor-Edwards
“Electronic soul with plenty of pop appeal, his work feels reminiscent of everyone from James Blake to Metronomy’s more melancholic side” – CLASH
“No wonder Bosch has captivated audiences and critics alike.” – The Line of Best Fit
“I think hes got something proper special” – Maia Beth, BBC Radio 1 Future Pop
Following on from the enormous praise for his first two EPs ‘SLIPPING’ and ‘Spider’, which was supported by the likes of The Line of Best Fit, NME, CLASH, Gay Times, NOTION, Gigwise, Hunger, The Independent, BBC Radio 1, BBC Introducing and more, not to mention his track “Spider” landed the #1 spot on Spotify’s global Fresh Finds playlist as well as his production work on Nell Mescal’s hit single “In My Head”, fast-rising alt-pop artist Kai Bosch returns once again to deliver his euphoric new single “Bodybag“.
Co-written with APRE’s Jules Konieczny and co-produced by Konieczny and Brit Award and Mercury Prize-winning producer Charlie Andrew (Alt-J, London Grammar, Bloc Party), “Bodybag” sees Kai Bosch continue more of that rich and illuminating aesthetic he has been developing these last few years. With its broad and progressive ascent elevating his soaring vocals throughout, he continues to cement himself as one of the more captivating names on the rise today. The track is accompanied by a moving video directed by Alex Deitsch.
Speaking about the new offering, he said, “Bodybag” is about a vicious argument I had with my ex and the moments that followed shortly after. I have a vivid memory of hearing him sing “Break The Ice” by Britney Spears in the shower while I lay in the next room feeling like a corpse – I truly felt like a dead person in that moment, and that is how the song came to be.
“Although I was in so much pain at the time, this was my first long-term relationship and I could never bring myself to cut things off – the song very much taps into that ignorance-is-bliss approach throughout (“I’m too fragile for explosions and a blank slate”).
“The song is both the most straightforward yet also most emotionally cutting song I’ve released so far, writing from a much more weathered perspective on the slow and painful breakdown of a deep love between two people, but at the same time still desperately holding onto something that has long turned sour.
“Bodybag feels airier and brighter than my previous work – more delicate. I like to think of it as the beauty of a past love still shining through – the memories that still get stuck in your brain when you look back in hindsight, even if that’s not where things ended up.”
Having already been extremely busy on the live circuit throughout this year, including festival appearances at Latitude, Boardmasters and The Great Escape, and supporting Seafret in both London and Manchester, Kai Bosch will also be supporting Gretel Hanlyn on her upcoming UK/EU tour as well as a number of other festival dates.
Adding about touring with Gretel, Kai said, “I’m so excited to support Gretel on tour in Europe and the UK – I discovered her music pretty early on and have been obsessed with her ever since. She’s always been really supportive of my work too and it’s the best feeling when there’s such a mutual appreciation between creatives.”
KAI BOSCH LIVE DATES: * supporting Gretel Hanlyn
Oct 24 Berlin, Germany BERGHAIN / Kantine*
Oct 26 Paris, France La Maroquinerie*
Oct 28 Brussels, Belgium Le Botanique*
Oct 31 Bristol, Strange Brew*
Nov 1 London, Village Underground*
Nov 2 Manchester, Pink Room YES*
Nov 3 Glasgow, Broadcast*
Staged under the cover of darkness and imbued with a subtle yet high-stakes sense of emotional drama, the music that Kai Bosch crafts makes a lot of sense if you look not at where he’s come from, but where hes been. Having uprooted himself aged 17 from the sleepy town of Polzeath, Cornwall to the throbbing nightlife of Berlin before moving to London, his music is as indebted to the pursuit of sensation as its author.
If the narrative of the small town boy finding himself in the big city sounds like one taken from a coming-of-age film, then Kai’s early years serve only to amp up the redemptive story arc even further. It’s easy to forget given the positive recent leaps in queer representation in the media that, even half a decade ago, the public role models for a young gay man growing up in a “very Tory, very closed-minded” area were far more limited. “I came out when I was 14, I was the only gay kid at school and I didn’t quite know how to act,” he recalls. “At the time, the only film on Netflix that was gay was called ‘Gay Best Friend’ so you bet I became that. All of a sudden I changed my voice, bleached my hair and started wearing iridescent silver jackets and horrendous foundation. The further and further I got into that, I really did have an identity crisis that took quite a long time to pull myself out of.”
During this time, however, Kai had started to discover artists such as Lana Del Rey and Lorde – people whose music embraced sadness and vulnerability, and who showed that there was a beauty to be found in life’s messy grey areas. These were women who could transport you to a whole different universe, one far removed from the blinkered reality Kai was actually living in. “From then on, music really became the only thing that helped me cope and escape,” he says. “I think someone like Lana probably resonated with me because I wasn’t very happy at the time. I’d listen to her and get to be in my own world.”
Taking this increasingly important passion, teaching himself the keyboard and starting to write in secret, it took a while for Kai to let anyone into the private musical safe space that he’d started to build. But by the time he reached his second year of college, it just became everything. He applied early to Goldsmiths, was accepted to start on a music course the following year and immediately left for Berlin. Inspired more by the idea of articulating feeling than any particular genre, the sensory explosion of his new life quickly translated into ripe material. The duality of vulnerability and hedonism that runs through Kai’s music, can all be traced to those formative Berlin months.
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