Rising London star twst, the project of Welsh songwriter, vocalist and producer Chloé Davis, is jumping in 2020 with everything she's got making her one of our favourite ones to watch right now!

Listen up, because twst is asking us ‘Are You Listening?’ in her latest release that premiered on Zane Lowe yesterday, so if you missed that, now is your chance to get in line.

 

Trying to pinpoint twst’s soundscape is not an easy task, but that’s entirely the point as the rising futuristic pop goddess self-describes her sound as “ironic, post-ironic, post-truth, aspirational, yet classic and timeless.” Filled with juxtapositions in the best way possible, twst’s music is a commentary on her internal and external spaces, how she reacts to them and how they react to her.

 

A creative powerhouse in the truest sense, everything twst gets her hands on seeps into her veins and becomes the medium of her art. From writing, producing, directing, singing and inspiring – there seems to be nothing that this smalltown girl can’t do with a Midas touch. 2020 is gearing up to a year full of twsts and turns and we can’t wait to be taken along on the ride.

 

Beginning her journey into the musical universe by using her gift of storytelling to escape the present reality, twst began writing sonnets and songs about mystical fantasies that she could one day live up to, and it looks like that day has come. “I first started writing as a way to travel in my mind,” twst revealed to us, “create worlds that I could go to that where so far from my reality at the time. I spent all my teenage years pretty much reclused in the valleys in south Wales, writing music, teaching myself production.” Those adolescent years were guiding twst down a pathway she is now following as her career is blossoming and glistening like a fantasy from her mind.

 

Get to know the enchantress below and get lost in a twst world – you won’t regret it.

If you could summarise it, what would be the story of how you became a musician?

I first started writing as a way to travel in my mind, like create worlds that I could go to that where so far from my reality at the time. I spent all my teenage years pretty much reclused in the valleys in south Wales, writing music, teaching myself production and also just educating myself on things that I truly wanted to learn about… Trying to make sense of the world and form my angle on how I wanna see things and music naturally became my medium for that.

How would you describe your sound?

Ironic, post-ironic, post-truth, aspirational, yet classic and timeless.

What are some of your first memories of music?

Forcing my cousins to do band practice at every family gathering and being mad bossy but only because I genuinely believed we were about to change the world. 

What’s the best part of being an artist? And the worst?

The best part is definitely when I create something and the conversion between feeling something and turning it into something tangible… Music, art, whatever the expression is, feels like nothing gets lost between that moment of feeling and how the expression itself comes out. 

 

The worst part, there is no real worst part…  I mean, I guess I’m mentally overstimulated a lot of the time because I really like to work on my shit a lot, so I get pretty bad insomnia.

What is something not many people would know about you?

I have huge muscles.

What energy do you want to give off when you perform live?

I want people to feel how I do at all my fave ever shows. That feels like you’re taken out of whatever shit or worries you have at that moment, time stops, you’re fully invested in that whole situation and then the feeling of it stays with you for days after and then you just keep running up the songs for days after too and keep reliving the energy. I love that feeling.

What are you most looking forward to in 2020?

I am really looking forward to Eurovision.

What does being in love feel like for you?

Being in love makes everywhere feel different, it’s just like this filter over everything and it’s fucking beautiful and I miss that shit.

What is the best piece of advice you have been given?

This David Bowie quote always stuck with me:

“Never play to the gallery… Never work for other people in what you do. Always remember that the reason that you initially started working was that there was something inside yourself that you felt that if you could manifest in some way, you would understand more about yourself and how you co-exist with the rest of society… I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfil other people’s expectations.”

Do you have a favourite lyric you’ve written right now?

“I was minding my own business meditating in Hackney / When you bumped into my aura and you triggered my acne.”

If you could say one thing to baby twst, what would it be?

Do it yourself.

Dive into twst's new single below!