Khazali
Khazali cannot be boxed in — in fact, his essence is best described as fluid. The London musician has moved from solo projects to music collectives like Slow Dance effortlessly, all while retaining the qualities that make him discernible from every other artist on the scene. His unique and heartfelt music production is what has set him apart from his contemporaries. After deciding to pursue a solo career, he released his debut single “You’ll Be The One” in 2020, which has amassed 50K streams so far. With an audience of over 10K monthly listeners, that hails everywhere from London to LA, it’s clear there’s a market for artists like him that will only grow larger in the future. His status as an up-and-comer to watch was cemented by his features on Spotify’s Alt. Pop. and Fresh Finds: Pop playlists. We recently spoke with Khazali about his hobbies, his dream collab, and more!
How did you start making music?
I became interested in making melodies and harmonies at age 17 with my first project, an instrumental somewhat ambient project called internethacker. With my current stuff I really like making sense of my old dream journals and crafting stories around them for my songwriting process. This is something I discovered as a way to write songs when my friend Marco, who’s also known as Glows or GG Skips - sent me a track whilst I was at uni, suggesting I should sing. I reached for my journals to start on the lyrics.
What's your favorite non-musical activity?
Binge watching Real Housewives has been a favourite of mine during lockdown. Recently I’ve loved cycling to random places, I think bikes are really freedom inspiring. I also like collecting a few images of inspiring design and art work into a massive folder on my computer daily.
You recently released your single "You'll Be The Only One". What does this track mean to you?
This track means so much to me because it helped me understand my emotions in a really difficult situation where I knew I had to be fair to my emotions, but it was time to leave. It’s about that really lovely moment where you realise your worth, and I think everyone can relate to that.
What was your reaction when you realized you were featured on Spotify UK's "New Music Friday" playlist?
I screamed lots of swear words, was out of breath and then went on a run dude I didn’t know what to do with the energy.
Who's someone that inspires you?
I’m inspired by so many people, but someone who in particular really inspires me is Jean-Michel Basquiat, because I’m quite obsessed with his life story after someone got me a book on him.
Who would be your partner in your dream collab?
That’s such a difficult one to answer! There’s so much great music coming out (despite the naysayers), and I have such an attachment to the music I listened to when I was 15-18 years old. I would say it would be pretty up there in my list to be in the studio with Jamie xx.
What can fans expect from you in the future?
I’m certain that anyone who liked “You’ll Be the One” is going to be quite pleased with my next single.
