FKA Twigs has been a truly enigmatic presence in music for quite some time now. Bursting on to the scene back in 2012 with her debut extended play EP1, and then releasing her critically acclaimed debut album LP1 in 2014, she has been a vital trailblazer and great shot in the arm for British music ever since. It may therefore come as a surprise to readers that Twigs, real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett, got close to becoming destitute during the pandemic.

In a candid and forthcoming interview with GQ, Barnett revealed how close she came to losing her home after having to cancel all of her upcoming shows whilst not being able to claim the Governments small business loans “I came really close, and it made me pay attention and learn a lot about things that I never really paid attention to before, because I’ve always been on the go“. She had a lot of people to pay in her team, and continued doing so despite said losses, but as time went by and her balance ran lower, it became increasingly hard to find a solution in a world turned upside down by the pandemic.

With the ban on live music taking out a huge chunk of her earnings, she felt the pinch of agreements she had signed up to earlier in her career when she was less aware of the small prints repercussions. Learning from it all now, it’s served as a sharp wake up call to the singer who is now placing more emphasis on her business practice and personal sovereignty in an industry that often seeks to take it away.

Speaking with GQ‘s Briana Younger in a typically thoughtful and open manner, she said “It has been intimidating for me being a young woman running a business because I felt like I didn’t deserve to understand everything. I felt like I didn’t deserve to understand the contracts – or even, sometimes now, when you do a song, there’s royalties, publishing, there’s points, there’s who gets paid first”. 

Now she feels like she’s matured and gained enough experience of the industry to deserve a seat at the table and be at the helm of the decision making of her business “I’m learning, and I want to make my own mistakes. I don’t want other people to make mistakes and then me not understand what’s happened… I think it’s important for specifically young women in a creative industry to have the confidence to understand their business and have the confidence to understand their worth and have the confidence to want more for themselves”.

You can check out FKA Twigs latest single “Killer” here: