FKA twigs on learning to be the boss

The other day, FKA twigs was waiting for an Uber out - side a London dance class when a man came over to chat her up. This is clearly not a rare occurrence for FKA twigs. But this individual must have had some - thing going for him, as she didn’t immediately tell him to f*** off.

‘He said to me: “Can I get your number?” Then he goes: “Actually, you look a bit young, how old are you?”’ she laughs. She told him to guess her age. He said 21. ‘It was just so funny! I was like: “Don’t worry, it’s fine.”’ FKA twigs, real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett, is 34. And yes, she gave him her number.

I suppose one lesson that you might take from this is that sometimes, chatting up pop stars outside dance studios actually… works? As for FKA twigs, she took it as confirmation of her current theory. ‘I think I’m ageing in reverse,’ she muses. ‘They say that’s what Capricorns do, we age in reverse because we start out so serious. Then we kind of get a bit older and start having fun.’

And while she doesn’t take her astrology too seriously, she did call her latest album Caprisongs and, well, the whole Benjamin Button reverse-age - ing theory — pun intended — sort of twigs. Growing up in Cheltenham, where she won a scholarship to a Catholic private school, she felt like an old soul. She was into opera and ballet — ‘so Capricorn’ — and was highly studi - ous and serious. After training as a professional dancer, she released her debut album, LP1, in 2014 and even now, it sounds like the sort of singular, cerebral work that it usually takes an artist decades to gather the self-confi - dence to make. She is the youngest-ever recipient of the NME Godlike Genius award, too. But Caprisongs, released this January, feels like the sort of care - free collection an up-and-coming teenager might fling out into the world.

In the spoken-word introduction to the song ‘Meta Angel’, she laments her own shyness and announces her new ambition: ‘I wanna be more confident, I really do!’ And it seems to be working. The album is a hook-laden love letter to her Jamaican roots (which come from her father’s side) and to the multicultural London that she arrived in as a dance student at 17. ‘I wanted to do something happy,’ she says. ‘Like, my music’s always so sad and romantic and sexy and sensual. I was like, no: I want to channel pain into happiness and collectivity.’ She calls it a mixtape, not an album, as she wants it to have that ‘flirty’ feel, like something handmade you give to some - one you fancy. And that’s how she feels just now, she says: ‘Like I’ve released a mixtape and I’m a new face.’

Only that bright, fresh, newborn feeling — it has not come easy to FKA twigs, who has had more than her share of ordeals in recent years. There was the racial abuse she received from fans during her three-year relationship with the actor Robert Pattinson, which ended in 2017. During much of this time, she was in physical agony: in December of that year, she underwent laparoscopic surgery to have six tumours removed from her uterus. She then endured an allegedly abusive relationship with the actor Shia LaBeouf, whom she is suing for sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress, allegations LaBeouf has denied. A court case is due in Los Angeles next year — which she has been advised by lawyers not to talk about.

Also off-limits: the split with her more recent partner, Matt Healy, of The 1975, which spilled out into the tabloids the day this interview was sup - posed to take place on the set of the ES cover shoot, to promote the launch of new Viktor & Rolf fragrance, Good Fortune, for which she is the new ambassador. This tête-à-tête was rearranged as she dealt with the fallout among her immediate circle. And so I have to make do with a Zoom call as she heads back from the airport after a trip to Berlin — and a long list of things I am not supposed to ask about.

At first, she seems a little testy. Her life seems hectic, I remark. ‘Yeah it is.’ Do you like it that way? ‘No.’ Surely there’s an element of choice in that? ‘No. There isn’t always choice in it.’ What would you ideally like to change? ‘About what?’ Even when I bring up the evils of social media (which she has been quite vocal about in the past) she is dismissive — she doesn’t want to be seen to moan.

While LaBeouf is off-limits, I wonder whether witnessing the co-ordinated attacks that Amber Heard received from supporters of Johnny Depp has given her misgivings about her own upcoming trial? Here she becomes thoughtful. ‘I don’t know the whole ins and outs so I wouldn’t want to comment on that — but I definitely don’t agree with the fact that a woman who has said she’s been abused has been meme-ified and made fun of in front of the whole internet,’ she says. ‘I definitely have found it really disappointing about human nature.’

As for the Healy split, when I ask about that, she sits there, smiles and we stare one another out for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 seconds. Hardened politicians reliably start spilling at this point. Not FKA twigs. I remember I am dealing with a trained ballerina who is used to retaining her poise through far more excruciating situations than this — and it’s me who blinks first. ‘Oh, I’m so fine not talking,’ she says eventually, with a laugh. ‘It can be really unnerv - ing for people!’ Shyness clearly has its own advantages; it can be sharpened into armour. But what FKA twigs really wants, I begin to sense, is to be in control of her own story. To resist being meme-ified. Or cast as the support - ing player. ‘I have always had big dreams for myself and although twists and turns have meant things have not always gone to plan, I believe that in the end the challenges I have faced have helped me grow into the woman and artist I am today,’ she says. And, well, fair enough: this is the godlike author of ‘Cellophane’, not some tabloid arm candy. ‘I’m an artist and I’m also a woman and I’m also of colour,’ she says. ‘I think all of those things make you lose a lot of agency — but they shouldn’t.’

Around this point, she arrives back at her high-ceilinged home in Hackney, where her puppy, Bam-Bam, comes bounding up to her, demand - ing attention. Once the pair of them have caught up and conversation turns to her actual work, she relaxes and becomes far more forthcoming. She explains that she is only just ‘coming to terms’ with the fact that she is the leader of her own business. ‘There’s something about being a dancer that has always led me to believe that I’m there to follow the choreography, or that I’m a part of someone else’s thing,’ she says. ‘But I’m trying to turn that mentality around. I am the head of my own company. I’m an actual grown woman. I support everybody financially and everyone’s there because I paid them to be there. Therefore: everyone should listen to me! Ultimately I’m the boss, so like if my time’s not managed properly then it’s probably something I’m doing wrong.’