It feels somewhat magical when you discover a new artist to you for the first time – one that you know you are going to have a new found love for and invest in for years to come. This is how I felt upon listening to Kevin Atwater for the first time – and then seeing him live made that admiration so much stronger. Talking to him in person, solidified that feeling.

Atwater had one of the biggest turn out’s on the Birdcage Stage at BST Hyde Park supporting Noah Kahan. His Indie- Folk sound, gentle vocals and warming, witty personality had me and the rest of his audience, in the palm of his hand. Read our review here.

Venturing backstage for a quick chat with Kevin in the artists area, we sat on some deck chairs and just basically chilled out. That’s testament to the kind of person Kevin is, he makes you feel so at ease that you feel you could chat for hours so freely.

Hello Kevin – Welcome to BST!

Thank you.

How was your set? Did you enjoy yourself?

I did, yeah! It was my first festival, so the chaos and the energy of that was interesting for like, the first time, but it was so fun, so cool seeing people, like, knowing the words.

I felt very privileged to be at your first outside event.

Yeah, it was so cool. Oh, thank you for being there.

Yeah, I loved it. I mean, I saw so many people singing along. I love paying attention to the crowd as well. So it was pretty nice. How was last night? (Kevin had a headline show in London the night before)

So fun! Oh my gosh! Yeah, the crowd was amazing. I just, I feel like I just got the luckiest time. Like that was so wonderful.

Is this your first time in the UK?

I’ve been here one time, seven years ago but this is my first time playing shows and, like, I was a very different person seven years ago.

Where did you go? Just London?

We did all the touristy stuff. And it was New Year’s Day.

What instruments can you play?

I play guitar and a little bit of piano, but I actually studied Clarinet. I played for like 10 years consistently, and I still play so for however many years, I don’t even know, 15.

Oh, wow,

I love it. It honestly is like, my first love of music.

What would you say is your weakest instrument?

The ones I don’t know, like brass instruments are horrifying to me. I’m not a great pianist,

Do you start writing a song on guitar?

Yeah, so far, it’s just what comes naturally to me.

Let’s talk about the album ‘Achilles’.First of all, have you been to the statue yet?

No, but someone was telling me, like, they’re like, oh my god, there’s an Achilles statue here. And I was like, It’s fate.

You’re gonna have to go find it and take a photo.

Tell us about the album briefly. How would you describe it?

I decided I really wanted to write an album about queer pain and complicated relationships and sort of a coming of age story, or a snapshot of just like one period of my life, and i wanted it to feel like folky and gay and sort of just about vulnerability, intimacy. So yeah, I set out to do that, and hopefully it turned out that way.

How did you decide on the bookends of it? Are opener and the closer important to you?

Yeah, I wrote the opener a really long time ago, and the last track was the last one we wrote for it, I felt like it needed a huge crescendo at the end, just to, like, ramp up the drama of it all and all the emotions. Because a lot of the time it’s like, I sing like, very restrained. I don’t want it to be too loud or too much. But then it felt like it earned a moment to, sort of like, bubble over at the end and the beginning is just… I wanted it to feel as weird and scary, sort of like dark as possible, just to like set the scene.

Was it ever gonna be called something different than then if Achilles was the last song added?

I went through a lot of names. I don’t even want to share haha. I might use them sometimes, but yeah, this just felt perfect. I mean like Achilles tendon. Achilles being the Greek historical figure, also the cat on my block, the neighborhood cat. I found out his name is Achilles.

Oh everyone should name their album after a cat.

Do any of your songs on the album sound completely different from the writers room to full production, to the point you were like “Wow, I didn’t know my could sound like that”.

Yeah, the cage and Achilles. Essentially, anything that I knew I wanted it to sound like, loud and huge when I wrote it, it didn’t sound like that because I wrote everything just by myself on my guitar. I knew, that’s how I wanted to sound in my head. But, like, a lot of the times, I just have to get into the room and explain it, and we have to, like, find the sound . But if you’ve heard, like, early voice memos of those, they’d be like, quiet sort of vibes – it’s what I gravitate towards.

So ‘Why did you invite me to a wedding?’ is a true story?

It is!

But he wasn’t an ex was he?

He wasn’t an ex – just a friend – I mean, we certainly aren’t close friends, but for no dramatic reason, just losing touch and then getting back in touch randomly, and it sort of just all came out of me that night. I forgot about the way I felt about this person, I was like, wow, that was a long chapter of my life that I was infatuated with this person. I don’t feel like that person anymore, but it was interesting to visit again.

And the short movie, that’s really amazing.

Yeah, that was, that was really cool. It was, it was a little crazy at times, just like acting as myself in a short film based on the song I wrote about things that really happened to me, but then they’re, like, adjacent, sort of not exactly how they happen. It felt a little weird sometimes, but it was so cool, and everyone was awesome. And, I just let the director do whatever he wanted . I was like, I don’t even want to tell you the true details, because I don’t want it to make me go crazy, but it was so, so cool. It felt really awesome. And I’m happy that that exists as a different way for people to get that story.

Is there more acting in your future?

Yeah, that is actually what i was doing before music.

What did you reply at the end of movie? Are we allowed to know what you replied?

I didn’t reply. I stuck to the guns of the song, and I just didn’t. But as the song sort of explored, I was like, I feel like I should just not engage with this and keep the memories it was. and i haven’t heard anything back.

What song of yours is a family favourite?

I think they all really love my first song I ever released, which is called ‘freckles’.. It’s kind of like the only happy one I’ve ever wrote. So that’s probably what they like. One where he’s not like saying how miserable he is, probably that one. I don’t know, my brother is super into music too. And, he like, loved my album.

Do you watch Chicago P.D?

I know exactly what you are going to say to me haha. I don’t watch it. I do know that there is a character called Kevin Attwatwer in this show, and he is a regular in that show. I’m actually from outside Chicago, for a while there was very hard to figure out and find me online

I think his name is spelled with two t’s.

That would be amazing.

Well thank you for taking today, you definitely have a huge new fan in me. I really hope that you’re gonna make UK like a second home.

It’s been so amazing here.

Truly, you deserve a bigger stage, and I hope that they put you on a bigger stage next time you’re here,

Thank you so much. Thank you. It was very fun.

And have you got any plans to come back yet?

Not yet, but I need to make them right away.