In a new British GQ interview, FKA Twigs opened up about her perilous financial situation over the past few years.
Even though Twigs is a commercially and critically successful artist, she wasn't in the best position when the pandemic hit — it led her to almost lose her home.
“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 began, adding that she had no income when at least 22 of her live shows were canceled in just the first year of the pandemic.
“I felt like the Titanic, and I said to everybody, ‘I’m just going to keep on paying everyone until I can’t afford to pay anyone anymore.’ And ooh, it got so close.”
“I wanted to do the right thing and just try to keep supporting the creatives around me,” she said, noting how growing up in social housing and on benefits impacted her views of home as a safe space. That upbringing made it eye-opening and humbling to almost to lose it.
The experience taught Twigs to shift from her previous mindset, where it was easy not to think about financial specifics as long as there was money coming in. “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," she continued.
Part of this shift included signing a new deal with Atlantic Records and starting a collective, leading her to see the experience as more positive than not — and not one that she wants sympathy or pity for. Ultimately, she doesn't want others to also overlook the details of agreements because they're “so grateful to have a seat at the table."
She continued, "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,” she added, affirming the importance of asking questions.
You can read the full interview here.
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