Before Sarah Kinsley’s headline show at Koko last month, she made one decision: “I’m gonna go kind of feral,” she recalls. The 25-year-old American singer-songwriter doesn’t make the kind of music you might describe as “feral”. Cascading pianos and synths open many of her songs, giving way to erudite and careful lyricism. In someone’s music library, her work would be filed between Lorde and Kate Bush, and reserved for the more delicate, self-reflective moments of life.
But that didn’t stop Kinsley letting loose in front of her London fans — and her audience ate it up. “It was genuinely the best [show of the tour], and we didn’t even have to really try,” she laughs. “Even though I am an overthinker, when you just decide to give in to something, people can sense it. It’s like when cats can tell if you really want their attention, the opposite of that.”
