Kimbra
Kimbra
Kimbra Lee Johnson, known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand recording artist who mixes pop with classic R&B, jazz and rock musical elements. Her musical influences range from Prince and soul singer Minnie Riperton, to Björk and Jeff Buckley. Her debut album, Vows, was released in Australia in 2011. Singles from the album include "Settle Down", "Cameo Lover", "Good Intent" and "Two Way Street"...
NationalityNew Zealander
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth27 March 1990
CityHamilton, New Zealand
I have times when I doubt what I'm doing. When those moments hit, I think about how grateful I am to be able to do what I do everyday. It was harder when I started because I didn't see the response, but now I'm out there playing for people and seeing them happy, which makes it all worthwhile
Just try to keep the heart turned outward, as well as having moments inward.
It feels like it's just starting in America and the UK. It's great to have a loyal fanbase in Australia and New Zealand. People in America say how polished our band are, but that didn't happen overnight; that came from doing all this touring back home.
The fun of being in the pop world is you can really play with people's perceptions of what the word pop means.
There's a vulnerability in music but you've also got to protect your sacred place and have a place you can still retire to that no one else knows about. So that's a thing I just try to balance.
America is definitely something I'm pretty excited about.
I'm turning 22, so I want to start getting into work that reflects where I'm at in life now.
It's a really cool time for artists who want to strive for a little more depth in what they want to say to come forward. We live in a very fast world right now. We've got all this media and music which is so accessible to us, it's here one minute gone the next.
All my album artwork is body painting.
Music is my catharsis for that. It's an incredible blessing that I have this way of expressing myself through music and lyric, and I'm so grateful for that in moments of pain or of suffering - that I have this means of channeling it; it's really amazing. My band as well - having them around and being able to jump on stage and bond together and share that energy is really uplifting as well.
I like challenging people. I love pop music that can just throw you off.
Im so fascinated by the human longing for meaning. The way we relate romantically to each other is so much to do with our longing for meaning as well.
That's the beauty of song writing. You never know when inspiration will come or how it will hit, you just gotta kinda grasp a hold of it and make sense of it somehow.
People like Jeff Buckley, the Mars Volta and Bjork made me listen to music differently. You learn the voice is an instrument you can do crazy things with.