Lea Garn

Nylon Nights

Kelly Lee Owens On ‘Dreamstate' & Partying With Charli XCX

“If my music can be a companion to people's lives, that’s more than what I would expect to achieve.”

by Kevin LeBlanc

Kelly Lee Owens was fresh as a daisy for her Public Records set on Feb. 13 — you could barely tell she had flown in the same afternoon after DJing for 10,000 people at Alexandra Palace back to back to back with Busy P and Erol Alkan. She was still on a high after the gig and on a preemptory wave of euphoria before her string of solo shows where she’ll be singing live. Before then, though, it was a family affair in Brooklyn with label-mate Oscar Farrell and the man behind dh2, George Daniel.

The Sound Room was buzzing by the time she took to the decks. Farrell got the space plenty warm for her, which was full of young 20-somethings looking to dance off the week, and Owens opened with the title track from her newest project, Dreamstate. The London-based, Welsh-born singer and producer is known for tapping into higher frequencies with her work, with insistent trance beats and a delicate understanding of not only timing in music, but timing in her life, as she tells NYLON: “It's important to trust your instincts on where you want to go and your path — however many paths you can look at. It's so cliché, but it's cliché for a reason. It's this ultimate truth.” Following her own path has worked for her: She was handpicked to open for Depeche Mode last year and will join Charli XCX at Lido Festival in June for her Partygirl set again.

We caught up with Owens before she got me into the dancing mood about her best party night ever, what she’s looking forward to feeding her fans on tour, and working with Daniel on Dreamstate.

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Lea Garn
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You’ve played tracks from your new project, but you haven’t performed them live, right?

The first time I'm going to be doing that is next month. I've been DJing tracks out, but it's very different with my live show, where I'm singing and playing with synths live.

What tracks have people responded to the most in your sets from Dreamstate?

“Love You Got.” People just hear that little “down, down” bass stab and they're like, “OK, here we go.” But one people keep talking to me about and want to hear, which is quite interesting because it’s downtempo, is “Time To.” It's one of my favorite beats on the whole records. Me and George [Daniel] did that together. There's something about it where you can be in that dream state energy of losing yourself. I like stuff that has dark and light in it, and that's definitely one of those.

When you're making this record, how much of it is insular, and at what point do you bring it to other people like George?

Kelly Lee Owens: I usually have me and one other person, but this time around — this is my first record on dh2 — George came in at the very end because I was already making the album. This is me: I don't wait around. I was like, “It'll be signed. I'll find a home for it, if not, I’ll put it out myself.”

I cannot tell you how vital it was. It was just one week. He'd been touring for two years with The 1975, he had a weekend off, and then he came to me on the Monday morning. We were in there for five days and it was f*cking glorious. We'd never worked together before. He'll come and tell you. George, we’re just talking about that week that we worked together for the first time and how great it was.

George Daniel: That's sweet. It was brilliant. For me, it's always valuable to have someone come in. I've done it recently with tracks, where I've sat with them so long and I've had to send them to someone else I trust. You put a lot of trust in me.

Kelly Lee Owens: Also, it's not guaranteed that you’ll creatively flow with someone, and by the second day we were finishing each other’s sentences. We just got it. The thing is about George is he has really good taste, obviously. But that week was crucial in making Dreamstate.

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You’ve talked in interviews before about having Brat green on your mind in 2022, and now you’re joining Charli XCX at Lido for the Partygirl set. I love the synergy. How excited are you to join her?

I literally have a notebook with just Brat green. I’m so excited for so many reasons. One of them — it sounds so boring — but it's 20 minutes from my house and George's. [laughs] But no, just the fact that she’s always been a curator. She's always been someone who's great at cherry-picking. We're similar in the sense that we've got an A&R mindset: You see the potential, and if you have an opportunity to grow that, work with that, and be a part of it, as an artist, it's always exciting. Charli is a powerhouse in that sense, and she's always been like that.

I relate to her because I am extremely curious. I'll go and talk to people, find people. As a solo artist, sometimes it can feel... not lonely, but you are with yourself and your team, and it can be quite insular. So bringing other people in, it becomes this family that permeates out and creates another form of culture. I think that's a beautiful thing. She's doing that — and at the height of her career, with everything else she has going on.

She just has the eye.

She has the eye fully. A couple of years ago, I was on tour with Depeche Mode. They handpicked me to open, but anyone would open for them. I met Lars from Metallica, he was there watching in LA, but Metallica would've opened for Depeche Mode if they asked them to. You know what I mean? Charli can do the same: She can have anyone play, but in a way, that's uninteresting. It's more exciting to be like, “Oh my God, these are my favorite artists at the moment. I'm listening to these people. I get to hang out and have this family energy, go off to their tracks, pop out in the crowd, say hi, and have some champagne.”

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What have you been listening to recently?

That's a great question. There's an amazing producer called Mount XLR. Oscar played one of their tracks recently. I was immediately like, “What is this?” I was over his shoulder, and sometimes in the DJ community, that's blasphemous, but we're a family. Then there's some old-school stuff like Massive Attack. They have an amazing track with Sinead O'Connor called “What Your Soul Sings.” Oh my God, it's mind-blowing. It's such an encouraging song. It’s in those darker or harder moments where you need some sense of reassurance sonically and lyrically, and it does that.

Your record is a great walking record. I was playing it at the gym today too, and it's not any detriment to you, but I love a record you can have on and let fade into the background.

No, no. People say this to me all the time. That's a compliment. That is the dream state. It should be a companion, and should live with you in your life. It doesn't need to be drilling into your brain every five seconds. If my music can be a companion to people's lives, that is more than what I would expect to achieve.

What's the best party you've ever been to?

I played Glastonbury last summer and DJed before Charli. I have to say, the best bit was after they finished Partygirl and Charli was like, “Do you want to go out? Do you want to come with us?” I've never been to Glastonbury before. There were like 25 of us, Tove Lo and Charli led the pack of us around. We went everywhere and came back all together at 6:30 in the morning. The sun was rising, and I was like, “I've had a true Glastonbury experience.”