Ones To Watch #Croydon is a series created to showcase all the up and coming talents throughout the borough!
Shivon Kane is a singer/songwriter from Croydon who appeared on The Voice UK back in 2019, we interviewed her last month to talk all things The Voice and her single ‘Gravity’!
SDS: How have you been and how has lockdown been treating you?
Shivon: It hasn’t been too bad! I guess it's just been a time to get more creative, we've a lot more time than usual. I'm getting a bit too used to it now, I'm not ready to go back to work haha.
SDS: Tell us who Shivon and whereabouts are you from?
Shivon: Well I'm Shivon or Shivon Kane as some people know me, I'm a singer songwriter from South East London. I've been doing music all my life, basically since I was about the age of five when I could start singing and start talking - it might have been jiggerish singing but you know it was something haha. Some people may know me from The Voice, when I was on The Voice back in 2019. So a lot of people like recently new supporters know me from there but if not then you should know me from networking events, like I know a lot of people in the music industry. So yeah, that's me.
SDS: What was it that got you into music?
Shivon: Music is actually in my blood, my dad was in a famous Irish skiffle band. Yeah, nothing I'd listen to now but yeah he was quite poppin back then. So I think I got my musical abilities from him.
SDS: How would you describe the music that you typically create?
Shivon: Well, I feel like my music genre has changed a lot, but I like dibble and dabble into a lot of things. I mostly started off with R&B but once I went to college (I went to a music college), my singing teacher brought me into more ballads and indie pop music. Recently I started doing house songs, so I dabble into a lot of things.
SDS: Talk us through your single 'Gravity'
Shivon: It was actually a very unexpected release, I was going to release something different to that but that tune was ready. It was basically a song I'd done with another artist called Ages Ago. We co-wrote it together and it started off as a slow kind of R&B tune but it ended up becoming a poppy R&B. We changed the beat, kept the lyrics and changed the tempo. We then did the video and that was actually my first ever music video I've ever done - it’s out on YouTube now haha. For one of my first releases ever, I thought why not just release something fun, not too serious because I feel like with a lot of my songs (once you get to hear them) you're gonna notice that they’re really serious, it's like, “oh heartbreak dah dah dah” haha but this one was just like fun just letting go.
SDS: What was it like being on The Voice, how did that all start out?
Shivon: So with The Voice, like I mentioned earlier, I was in a music college and they actually came to our college to do auditions for the show. I think quite a few of us auditioned, I'd say about half the college? I was the only one that actually got through to the TV stage, which was sick! The whole experience was crazy. It literally feels like a dream, I feel like it didn't happen, like it didn't feel real! It was just really amazing to meet all the coaches and be surrounded by so many talented people, because I've done things like X Factor and obviously people there aren't all talented but here it was literally like if you've got through you’re talented. Everyone was just amazing, supportive, the team was so good, The Voice team were so kind, they were family at the time. It's just a really supportive place and a really good place to grow. It was nice to experience being on TV, being around people of higher significance, having a vocal coach, it was really good!
SDS: What's the best advice you've been given so far?
Shivon: That's a really hard question. I'd probably say, I don't remember how they worded it but I'm going to try my best. It was basically, keep working and keep doing what you love, because you never know who's watching. It's just so true, especially in this day and age of social media, you literally don't know who's watching. I've had so many times where I just feel like giving up and then I'll have someone from a record label email me saying we've been watching your profile on Instagram and seeing your activity at shows and I'm like, what? I didn't even think anyone from record labels was even watching me but they were. Even with The Voice before they picked me they were like yeah we've been looking for you, scouting for you. So people are always watching. Just keep doing what you love and keep grinding.
SDS: If you could be any member of any TV sitcom family, who would it be and why?
Shivon: This is easy for me. I don't know if it's a sitcom actually but I watch it all the time. I would be a member of Modern Family, I absolutely love Modern Family, it's just joke! They've just got a mixture of everything, I love it and they're hilarious! I'd probably want to be in Cam and Mitch's family, I'd want to be their daughter like their adopted daughter, they're just hilarious. I love them two.
SDS: What is next from you, what more should we be expecting to see from you?
Just a lot more releases because before Gravity I spent years saying “I’m gonna release, I'm gonna release” I had a lot of supporters but I just didn't release and obviously people got tired of waiting. So while I still got the little pieces of supporters I have left, I'm gonna release as much material as possible but I'm such a perfectionist. If somethings not right I won't release it but I think after releasing Gravity, which I literally thought was not good enough to release, I thought let's just do it and see what people think, see what people like and what they don't like. You'll be hearing me on radios and in clubs when this Corona is finished and at a lot more shows. My name is going to be heard a lot more louder and a lot further than just London city you know what I mean!
SDS: Can you stop Croydon in three words?
Family because I've got a lot of family and friends who grew up down here. Alive, because it's always alive day or night, there's always someone about in Croydon. And growth, there's been a lot of growth like people that have come from Croydon and are now living it up.
Make sure you check out Gravity here!