In this feature, we get to know the most radicalist up & coming stars on the planet. This week we're talking to artists playing at The Great Escape festival in Brighton (19-21st May).

The world generally falls into two camps: those were who born with a deep knowing of their Life’s true destiny, and those who crack under the pressure of placing a simple Deliveroo order. Thankfully for us, South African singer/songwriter Gina Kushka falls easily into the former category. The 23 year-old rising star not only makes effortlessly slick pop, but it appears she was ALWAYS this way, starting as a fiercely determined mini-popstrel at age 5, evolving into a self-taught singer/songwriter/guitarist by age 11. Kushka readily admits that ‘...writing is my confession...I need a voice to express what I can’t explain, whether it be pain, fear, darkness or love. So I sang before I could talk.’  

TMR has been quietly admiring this fine-arts trained Renaissance woman’s sixth sense for making infectious tunes for a while now, and we hold her directly responsible for getting her edgy, catchy as fuck banger ‘Hurtproof’ stuck in our feeble little brain for an entire weekend. Read on to learn more about her fascinatingly intricate inner world, as we furrow our brow and promise we only need 5 more minutes to choose between Chinese or Indian.

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TMR: You’re originally from South Africa - does your homeland influence your musical taste and style?

Growing up in Cape Town has definitely helped define who I am as an artist. Life there was completely immersive and multi-dimensional; we were surrounded by different cultures, exposed to their languages, all the different forms of music and arts you can imagine, their nurture, beliefs, and ways of living. And I was like a sponge; I just wanted to be in the middle of everything, completely absorbed in new things. For example, my nanny was from a Xhosa tribe and she would sing and dance with us every day teaching us her native culture. I feel like African artistic culture has evolved out of the truest, most honest place of pure feeling; moments that cannot be explained in any other form. There’s a soul and heart there that I haven’t come across anywhere else in the world; it just feels raw and real. To me, that’s what art should be, completely raw and real, with an honest message, whatever it is. I guess art there was born as a sort of rescue for the people, creating something beautiful and celebrated out of a dark moment, which is exactly what music did for me when I started writing. Also, the fact that it was easy to be a bit of a tomboy there might have contributed; I was the girl in the middle of the boys group, climbing trees and running after wild animals with them etc. The boys were listening to punk and rock music, so they introduced me to that and it stuck with me ever since. My mum would also play me all the iconic rock, blues/jazz/soul and pop stars from all the eras. So now, when I write music, people always ask me where I get my influences from as they say it sounds “different”; I think I’ve just ended up being a bit of a chaotic messy mix of everything?

TMR: You’re a ridiculously talented self-taught singer/songwriter, having started singing, acting and performing from a very early age - did you always know you were going to follow this path?

Thank you. My mom says that I hummed the lullaby back to her that she would sing to me when I was 9 months old, and that was my first note apparently. I guess after that she couldn’t ignore me singing and performing anymore at every possible moment, to every possible audience, so she put me into my first singing lesson at the age of 4. It feels like I’ve known that this is what I wanted to do for a lifetime because of how young I started. I started violin, dance, acting and piano lessons all around the same time too, and I just knew nothing could change my mind, no matter what or who got in the way later down the line; nothing was going to come before music. With writing, I always felt more comfortable writing my feelings down rather than talking about them. I was terrible at that; words would always come out wrong, actually they still do. I even wrote letters to my mom when I was struggling with things when I was younger, only because I knew that I would let my feelings get the better of me if I talked about it. When I was 11, I started writing poems and drawing a lot to channel my feelings and understand what was going on around me. It just felt like I could un-scatter my feelings onto a blank page and then grasp them. My mom then bought me a guitar for my 12th birthday and I taught myself how to play, turning the poetry into writing songs.

TMR: We’ve heard you’re also a pretty serious painter - does this affect your songwriting process? Do you see melodies and hear landscapes?

Painting and I have a serious love affair going on; when I discovered it, it was so intense that I actually felt like I was cheating on my music. I only really started taking art seriously when I was about 14 after I got the art scholarship to my dream school (which I thought was a complete fluke because my work is so abstract and un-institutionalized). I went on to study art further after school. In a writing session the other day, the producer told me he reckons I suffer from synesthesia; it’s when you experience two senses at once, and as strange as that sounds, I’m convinced that I have it. Since Hurtproof happened, every time I write music, I’m now trying to explore sound choice deeper than ever. When we’re working with sounds that intensely, I get vivid and intense visions of color and shapes, and I feel really anxious if I can’t put them on paper. Just like writing, if I don’t paint, I get serious anxiety; I need both of them hand-in-hand to stay sane. I just want my music to sound like my paintings look, because I reckon what I paint is my most honest state.

TMR: Who do you think your songs resonate with most?

It’s interesting because I have a really mixed audience at the moment that seem to have connected to my music, ranging from 12 years old, to 70 years old. When I write a song, I just write what I’m feeling at the time and it never crosses my mind what people are going to think about it. It seems like a pretty selfish process to start with, but it ends up being completely selfless because as soon I’ve gotten the therapy of writing it all down, the song is then no longer mine; it becomes a tangible thing for other people to keep and relate to for themselves. I grew up listening to a huge range of music, mostly inspired by my mom and the people I grew up with at each stage of moving around as much as I did. So I was exposed to everything from Nirvana, to Iggy Pop, Avenged Sevenfold to Leonard Cohen, Pink Floyd and N.W.A. The music I resonated most with, was the rock and hip-hop stuff because it felt honest; like they didn’t give a damn what people thought when they wrote it, they just needed to get it out. I just want to write music with an honest message that connects. I’m still really young too though and I do have a lot of fun, so for me it’s about maintaining that balance in my music.

TMR: What’s your favourite thing about living in London as an ex-pat?

I am really grateful that I am able to live in London; I guess the most incredible thing for me is the amount of opportunity London has to offer. It has allowed me to dream beyond “reality” and believe anything is possible. The vibrant music scene is so inspiring, I have a really wonderful singing coach, amazing writers, producers, manager and the whole family that I would never have connected with if I wasn’t here, the talent surrounding me, the multiculturalism, the accessibility to knowledge and education – it’s all so stimulating. There is just so much energy and inspiration here and it makes you feel like if you have enough drive and motivation, you can do anything you want to do.

TMR: Where do you feel most at home, in the studio or playing live?

That’s a really hard question actually. I started both writing and performing really young so they’re both home to me. However, I do still get nervous before playing; no-ones really heard anything other than what’s online yet, and its developed quite a lot since, so it feels like whenever I play a live set, I’m basically putting myself and my music on a chopping board – its scary. After the first song though, I’m in the zone and I forget anyone’s even watching because I’m having so much fun. Being in the studio though is just a place to completely let go and the people I work with have all become like family to me. It’s hard to beat those moments. The whole thing is just great to be honest and I’m so grateful every day that I get to do this.

TMR: Do you ever co-write music, and if so who have been your most memorable collaborations?

I’m all about artistic collaborations because I believe that it’s good to get an outside perspective sometimes. You can get quite wrapped up in your own head and feelings when writing music, so I really appreciate other people being there whom I click with. I’ve had a couple sessions where I’ve been in the room and had to pinch myself like, “am I seriously writing with this guy right now…like me? For real?” I don’t ever force a co-write though - it can get pretty awkward if you don’t click with someone and you’re wondering how to break the news without hurting anyone’s feelings. There are writers that I have connected with, who I would love to be in every session but there super busy too so I do most sessions on my own at the moment, with a producer. Most of the producers I work with write a bit too, and even if they don’t, it’s still a collaborative process.

TMR: What has been the most influential live music experience you’ve ever had?

Surprisingly, the first thing that springs to mind is when I was about 14, and I watched a cellist, about my age at the time, play in a chapel. It brought me to tears which I had never experienced from a single solitary instrument; it was just the sheer impact of the amount of feeling he put into playing the instrument and how beautiful it sounded in those surroundings that made me realize what music is actually capable of.

TMR: How do you think music blogs can help (or harm) an emerging artist/band’s career?

I think music blogs can both help and harm emerging artist/band’s careers; personally, they’ve been a hugely important part of my journey so far, and certain blogs have supported me from really early on that I didn’t expect to get the support of, so blogs can be incredibly exciting for new artists. Also, as tastemakers, they have the power to spread music a lot further than you could alone. I listen to blogs’ recommendations of new music every day, and I just think they are able to allow so much amazing new music to be spread across the world through the Internet, which you might have never been able to hear without them. Also, if it’s still early for the artist, their opinions can be really interesting and might clarify the lane you didn’t realize you were already in. However, saying that, even though getting good coverage from credible blogs can put you on the map (so to speak), it can also box you up as an artist quite immediately and expose you very quickly and possibly too early. What I mean is that, it can potentially define you before you’re ready to be defined. A lot of artists put music online whilst they’re still developing their sound, just to begin building a fan base and a journey, or to put feelers out and see how much they could potentially connect later down the line with the right things in place. I think blogs can then latch on quite quickly, for example they might state the artists’ releases as “singles” or describe their sound for them, when actually, the artist just wanted to put out some music online for fun and test the waters. I do think blogs are really important though overall.

TMR: At what point in the day are you most at peace?

Either when I’m doing yoga in the morning, drinking a cup of tea with/whilst speaking to my mum on the phone, eating Rice Krispies with warm milk (it is amazing, I promise), or when I’m painting.

Pop cyclone Gina Kushka blasted through Brighton's Latest Music Bar on Friday 20 May - stay tuned for news re upcoming live dates and single release info.

-Ayla Owen