When I talked to iKeda on Halloween, she told me she planned to dress up as a werewolf. She also told me had no costume prepared. "I actually am a big Halloween person. It's just really annoying." After our interview, she plans to “hit the shops” in West Hollywood to see what she can pull together on a single day’s notice. But you really can’t blame iKeda for her last-minute costume arrangements. Since arriving in the US from her native London, the rising star has been jam packed.

At the end of October, she played her first American headlining shows, selling out Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn and The Echo in LA. She's hard at work on new music, and she's in sessions with producers like atlgrandma, who recently worked on Kim Petras’s “Autobahn” and Rebecca Black’s “Corsetry.”

And the hectic schedule shows no sign of letting up. In 2027, she’ll open up for the US leg of Ninajirachi’s I Love My Computer tour. 

It’s been a period of flux for the artist ever since her career kicked into high gear earlier this year. At the beginning of the summer, iKeda opened for PinkPantheress’s European tour, suddenly performing for huge crowds of locked-in pop fans. Then, she put out Bangs N Braces, an all-killer, no-filler EP of electroclash-meets-dancehall she self-described as “bubble riddim.” The EP found its audience, generating buzz among pop obsessives, garnering critical acclaim, and leading to a co-sign from Addison Rae.

I chatted with iKeda about her first American headlining shows, staying in control of her career, and what 2027 might hold. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Andy @ TND: How have you felt like life has changed since putting out Bangs N Braces? 

iKeda: I've definitely met a lot more people. I’ve always been very sociable. I go out quite a lot. But before, the music thing was very private, just between me and my really close friends. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more confident since Bangs N Braces came out. For a very long time, I didn't want to call myself an artist. I'd always known I was an artist, but I felt really weird about calling myself a musician. I was just like, this is actually just fun for now, but who knows if it’s gonna even take off? I think that was a way of protecting myself a little bit so I didn’t get my hopes up. But now, I’ve just really embraced the idea of being a musician and valuing my own opinions. I trust my intuition about decisions with my music and the people who I choose to work with. 

It’s hard to be like, I'm an artist or I'm a writer. You have to take yourself seriously first before anyone else does. Do you feel like the attention you've gotten from opening for PinkPantheress or putting out the EP, has that been scary? Has that been challenging at all? Or is it feeling natural? 

When I did the PinkPantheress tour, on the first couple stops, there were little TikToks and stuff like that. I hadn’t really had that before. I was a little bit like, “Oh god. I'm scared.” I wouldn’t even say it was anything like, “Oh my god, people are being so mean.” It was more the idea of being perceived. People are like, “Oh, she’s just like this or that.” People started having opinions, which I haven’t really had from strangers before. I would usually see stuff like, “Oh I like your music.” But it wasn’t really how Twitter stans speak about music. That was a bit scary. But I find it really intriguing. People really have their own perceptions of influences. People be putting me on to a lot of stuff that they feel like is an influence. 

It’s crazy when people perceive you in a way that’s different from how you see yourself. I have kind of a morbid fascination with stan Twitter. Just because it’s become so weirdly critical to the music industry and how it works. You can’t really be in music media and not think about it. They’ve really embraced you from what I’ve seen. 

I do feel quite lucky because I do feel like I’ve been embraced. But at the same time, I don’t really trust it fully. Because people really be switching up. People have switched up on my friends and people who I actually know in real life who I really admire. People pick their days. But I am happy because it is nice. Everyone’s been quite positive. And it’s definitely helped my music quite a lot, the stuff on Twitter. There were a couple viral sort of tweets. It definitely helped push my music. So I’m so grateful to people for doing that for me. I wonder how it would’ve been if it wasn’t for that, how things would be different. 

You had your first American headlining shows. Tell me how that felt. That must’ve been crazy. 

It was really crazy. I've never performed where everyone is obviously buying tickets to come see you. It was so cool. I'll never forget the feeling I got in New York. I'm always spiraling during the soundcheck. I'm always spiraling like, “Oh my god, I sound fucking shit.” I'm really a negative Nancy during soundchecks. And then, as soon as the show came around, everything mellowed away. I was just really amazed people were singing along, especially my song “Mapz” because all of the references are so British coded. It was really fun hearing everyone singing my songs in an American accent as well. I thought it was really cute. Like, [singing in an American accent] “Bethel Green and you’re on the Jubilee!”

That was me. I guess you heard me singing in my American accent. 

Really? Did you like the show? 

Yeah, it was great. I also feel like there’s something really compelling to me about putting on a pop show in a small space. Tell me about bringing on dancers and what your vision for the show is. 

Sophia’s my main dancer. She choreographs everything. But she's really cool because she's not just a dancer, she's an artist as well. When she choreographs, she really thinks about the lyrics and the story and tells that in a cool contemporary way with the way she dances. I love everyone’s shows and the dancing, but I do think we’re in this era of… [Sophia] put me onto this saying of TikTok iPhone dancing. Everything’s meant to fit into an iPhone. What I like about my sort of dances is they take up space on the stage. I think there's a lot of people that don't want to have people performing with them because they think maybe it will take away attention.

But I actually think it really centers you, and it really grounds me. It makes me feel very grounded and involved in the stories behind my music. I have a tendency to sometimes disassociate on stage. I really struggle with disassociating. So dancing and even doing stuff with my hands is really helpful in grounding me in the music. I love the way Addison Rae dances on stage. She takes up that space and uses the negative space and just fills it. I really love that type of dancing. 

Yeah, Addison’s show is so spectacular. I can’t believe I’m going to quote something Lorde commented on Addison’s Instagram, but she commented “It’s so yummy seeing someone so in their body” about her dancing. But that’s literally exactly it. 

It's so true. It's very primal. There's something very primal about the way she dances, and I'm really inspired by people like that. Sophia — my friend who choreographs the show — she has that same very feminine primal energy. It’s very animalistic, and it's just so cool. It’s really therapeutic for me because I sometimes in the past have struggled with the dissociating thing and this disconnect I can have with myself. So it's actually just helped me really just come into that. It’s just cool. 

Does learning choreo come naturally to you? 

Yeah, definitely. I used to dance when I was younger. I was more into ballet and stuff, but I'm not flexible anymore. I'm definitely finding it again. The choreo definitely can be a challenge while singing. But it is something that I'm interested in because I see it as bettering myself and my body and my mental by learning something that makes you feel very sexy and confident and in control and challenging your memory. Sometimes my memory does fail me. It’s one thing when you feel really confident in the rehearsal studios, you're like, “I know everything.” And then you get in front of people and it's like, you forget stuff. But I think I’m quite good at improving. 

So you’ve got the Ninajirachi tour next year. What else is on the docket for 2027? Is there an album? 

I wanna do a mixtape next year. I’m going back to London for my show. And I’m gonna stay there for November and December. Then, I want to come back to LA, and I’m gonna bring Tailtsu [who produced Bangs N Braces]. I want to make a little mixtape camp sort of vibe. Nothing with too many people. I like the idea of having a house and working in that way. I want to work with Oscar Sheller more on our songs. I love him so much. I really like atlgrandma. I met atlgrandma out here and he’s so cool. I find it really fun when producers also have their own artist project because they’re really interested in the songwriting side. I don’t really like having sessions with producers where there’s a disconnect on the writing side. I feel a bit lonely sometimes. Like, I need you to understand what I’m talking about.

Yeah, mixtape for sure. I’ve got a lot of music I’m sitting on right now. It’s kind of all being made whilst out here and back in London a couple of weeks ago. I’m on a bit of a roll. It’s gonna be a concept. It’s like a concept mixtape. It’s a secret. 

Okay, I won’t pry too much. But why mixtape? What appeals about the mixtape as a format? 

I really love [the experimental side] of a mixtape. I still feel like I’m not really ready for an album right now. Maybe later on next year? Who knows. Because I’m into so many different types of genres as well. It’s all gonna be in the same world. But I just want to show people just how playful I am with my music. And I feel like that’s what mixtapes are notoriously for. And I love PinkPantheress’s mixtape which was Fancy That. That was bigger than a lot of people’s albums. So I think it can be done with mixtapes. You can make it impactful. Sometimes it feels like mixtapes are the new album. 

Yeah. There’s something freeing about it – not that it’s low stakes, because you’re putting out your music and your art. The album is so formal. Like, we need the vinyl pressing and we need the lead single. Obviously there might be those things for the mixtape too, but the word just lowers the stakes. 

Agreed. That’s so true. But yeah, it is definitely way more forgiving. I feel like at the point I’m at in my career right now, I still want to be able to play around. I also want to be able to have a budget for an album. I want to create really super crazy music videos and promote my music properly. So I’m like, let’s do a crazy, fun scrappy mixtape while I can just do whatever I want. Once an album comes around, it’s a bit more… fingers in the pie. I know what the vibe’s gonna be. So I want to be able to situate myself with a mixtape where it’s really impressive. So when I have to work on the album, I’m left alone a bit more because it’s like, okay. Well she did that. 

You’re very keenly aware of where you are as an artist and also all the business dynamics at play. 

I’m very self-aware. That’s my thing. Sometimes I’m a little too self aware. But I’m a Capricorn. I really think about these things. Humble crumble, and all that. I just want to have longevity as an artist. I don’t want to burn out way too early on when there’s literally no need. I’m just very laid back about things. 

It’s also like, enjoy it when you can be playful and get your friends together in a house. It’s very grounded. 

Yeah. It’s very grounded. In the music world, everything moves so quickly. I feel like I can see around lots of people. Everyone’s going a thousand miles per hour trying to keep up. But I’m just like, literally covering my ears and closing my eyes. I’m just thinking about what’s right for me right now. I am looking at what other people are doing of course, because I’m a music fan and there’s so many people I support. But I’m just like, what’s good for Keda? I don’t get influenced or pressured by what people are doing. I don’t really think about it that much. I try not to, anyway. 

That’s the way to do it.

That’s the way to do it! I like the idea that I’m still in this era where where making music is just so fun. And the possibilities are just so limitless. I’m changing and growing every single time I go into a session. I’m just surprising myself all the time. What I didn’t think I could do, I actually can.