In the liner notes to her 2017 self-titled debut LP, Welsh electronic producer Kelly Lee Owens includes a quote from German author and scholar Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Whatever you dream you can do, start it. Boldness has within it genius, power and magic. Start it now.”
Released when she was 28 after a stint working in London record shops and as a palliative care nurse's aid, Kelly Lee Owens it was a culmination of years of absorbing music and beauty on her journey thus far. The dream of creating and producing her own music, something she had cherished since childhood, finally came true.
On her fourth album, DreamstateOwens is still thinking big. The new record, due for release on Friday (October 18), sees her team up with dance royalty The Chemical Brothers, as well as one of the biggest names on the circuit, Northern Irish techno duo Bicep.
He's also recently signed to Dirty Hit – home of The 1975, Bleachers and Beabadoobee – and their dance music-centric imprint DH2 as their inaugural release. The imprint was created by 1975 drummer George Daniel and Dirty Hit general manager Ed Blow. Daniel also appears on the record in a producer role.
“This feels like the beginning of a new phase,” says Owens Bulletin board of the move from Norwegian indie label Smalltown Supersound to DH2. “A new team felt right. I'm grateful for the past and the present, but I'm excited for the future because I really think DH2 will really show the world some great dance music.”
Where Owens' previous work was a sparse, sometimes experimental take on techno, house and pop, Dreamstate it is more euphoric and maximalist. Lead single “Love You Got” is as radio-friendly as her material has ever been, combining classic songwriting with powerful drums and cues. “Ballad (The End),” co-written with Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers, features a string arrangement by Owens and builds to an emotional crescendo. These were new avenues to explore.
decade of 2020 Inner songwhich reached No. 30 in the UK Dance Charts, showed hints of that direction. But in 2022 LP.8a collection of knots, left field, paid in this pure upward trajectory.
Even so, the collection and her previous work caught the ear of Depeche Mode, who recruited Owens to join them as a support act on the road for their mammoth Memento Mori tour. He talks about the awe of opening the band's shows in US arenas and Mexico City's Foro Sol stadium, where Mode headlined 195,000 fans over three sold-out nights.
“Without knowing it at the time, they really instilled confidence in me,” he says of the selection. The band's songwriter and keyboardist Martin Gore also provided critical feedback Dreamstate during its formation. As does Xavier de Rosnay of the French electro duo Justice, who met Owens a decade ago while she was still the bass player in the indie band The History of Apple Pie.
The conviction was coupled with Owens' role as executive producer Dreamstatea new challenge that involved recruiting partners heavily, but maintaining a singular vision. She points to her heroes Björk and Kate Bush as artists who have done it successfully. “It was something that at this point in my career I felt I wanted and, more than that, needed,” he says. “At first I thought that would mean giving up more control, but when you're creating with different people on different songs on an album, you have to be more confident than ever about your vision.”
Owens was born in rural North Wales and says this Dreamstate draws on some of these formative experiences growing up, even when creative industries, or simply taking time to dream and reflect, can feel out of reach for working-class artists in particular. “There's no separation between my personal life and what I do with music, and it's an all-encompassing thing,” he says. “There are a lot of sacrifices that a lot of people don't make [career] I don't want to hear about'.
Kelly Lee Owens
Samuel Bradley
He moved to London and started working in record shops such as Sister Ray in Soho and Pure Groove in Archway. There she met her future collaborators, DJs Daniel Avery and James Greenwood and began writing and recording her solo material. It was a story that has stepping stones, incremental increases rather than overly ambitious leaps. Now she's at a point in her life where monumental achievements – she first played Glastonbury Festival in June – mean even more to her.
“I actually didn't want to be a big, huge, hit on the first album because I saw a lot of my friends or people around me doing that and I found out they had nowhere to go,” he says. “I want to encourage artists to know that in your 30s you can reach a point with your inner confidence. You're going to get these absolutely epic firsts and you know you deserve to be there.”
Another first came via Charli XCX – who is engaged to Owens' partner and label boss Daniel – when she threw her party at the Boiler Room in Ibiza and tapped Owens to appear on the bill at Amnesia, her first appearance at Balearic superclub. She joined a stacked bill that includes Charli, Shygirl, Robyn, Romy from The xx and more.
He is a fan of Charli's Brat and loves that the lines between pop and club hits remain blurred. “We have so many sides to ourselves and as an artist, you have to be free to explore them all, as long as it's really authentic to you, people will feel that,” she says.
Dreamstate is that right? All that was needed, as Goethe wrote, was for Owens to be bold enough to start it.
