AFTER THE FAREWELL TOUR
We bid Goodbye to Kawala as we knew them, as they close the vibrant chapter of ten years of touring and releasing. The Farewell Tour in Feburary 2025, which included a show at o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, marked the of end Kawala’s time as a live band. From starting their early career at the Concentus Music nights in Camden in 2016, to seeing them grow through the years, their music and their friendship has been a highlight of being a part of the live music scene.
But fear not: their contributions to the music community don’t stop just because they no longer tour. We had an exclusive conversation with the duo, Jim Higson and Dan McCarthy - their first conversation about what they’re up to since the band’s end - to learn about their pivot in to the business side of the industry. But first, Kawala want the fans to know:
Jim: The Farewell Tour was equal parts the saddest and the best tour we’ve ever done.
Dan: We had been doing it for ten years. Every second of our twenties had been spent being in a band, And we thought, do we love it the way we used to? It would be better to go out on our own terms than let it get sad. It was a group decision.
Jim: We kind of ran out of goals actually. Dan: Our goal was to play Kentish Town Forum, which we sold out.
Jim: And our other goal was also to always play with and work alongside Bombay Bicycle Club, and we ticked that off too.
Dan: We achieved our dreams.
Take me through the last ten years, how it started with playing local pubs and gigs.
Dan: Well, some of your shows! (Pictured below, Kawala at Concentus Live in January 2016). We started doing acoustic gigs, even played in every Church’s acoustic Sundays. Then we manged to expand the band, got the other boys in, and grafted our way through every local venue we could of varying sizes and capacities of people who would turn up.
And now you’re coming back and hosting your own shows in the same way?
Dan: Yeah! We’ve set up a night in the heart of Camden at The Prince Albert, called Lymelight Sessions, because we’re on Lyme Street. Genius, actually. We thought there were more of these style of nights when we were starting out than is immediately accessible now.
Jim: The rough concept is we have a spotlight artist who MCs the evening, and the rest of the line up is curated out of their immediate circle of friends and musicians. And the spotlgiht artist will introduce each artist playing, talk about how they know each other, and then sometimes they jump in do songs together. It is to essentially to celebrate the spotlight artist and their community. We’re doing what we can to use our ten year experience and to try and provide the experience that feels like what we would have wanted to do when we were starting out.
Dan: Think “All Points East” but just on a much much smaller scale. We have some really exciting artists coming up over the next few months. It’s a mix of really exciting youn and up coming artists we find, and it’s also, we’re very fortunate after ten years of doing the band ourselves, we have a really amazing network of artists, friends and collaborators, who are some of the best artists that we love, and its a nice thing we can tap in to.
The duo have also launched their own management company called - wait for it - “Kawala Management.” Currently they have four artists on the roster, including Tayo Sound, who is already slightly more established, along with a couple of developing artists they will be launching from scratch.
“We’re offering a different approach, rather than the ‘I’m gonna make you famous,’ we’re saying, ‘How can we use what we’ve experienced to help you achieve what you want to achieve,’ and almost approach it in a more big brotherly sense rather than a big management sense.”
To add to all of that, the group have remained in the songwriting community, continuing to write for others.
“Wer’re still incredibly busy, still incredibly musical. We thought it would wind down, but we’re probably more busy now than we were in the band.” The duo ended on a reassurance, a relief for anyone who has fallen in love with them over the years, that are far from leaving the music industry, even if the capacity in whic they engage has shifted.
Watch the full exclusive video interview with Kawala in our Digital Content Space, as they sit down for the first time since their Farewell Tour earlier this year and update us on what they’ve been doing since!
