Wine and Cheese: Patti Smith and FKA Twigs
Patti Smith and FKA twigs’ ability to transcend genres with vulnerable music is a result of their continual growth and experimentation across art’s many spectrums.
It’s your dream collab. The artists you add back-to-back to the queue. The pairing you can’t get enough of. You know they sound good together, but why? Welcome to Wine and Cheese, a series investigating the why and telling you all about it.
Written by Katie Karp
Photos courtesy of Getty Images and FKA twigs
Content Warning: This article contains discussions of sexual harassment and assault.
Because of their large age gap, radically different sounds, and clashing aesthetics, Patti Smith and FKA twigs are not typically correlated with one another. The punk rock poet’s black, shaggy hair has grown long and silver, but she still embraces the simplicity and ambiguity in religiously wearing white-collared shirts and black blazers, a style that contrasts the “Video Girl”’s ever-changing, eccentric wardrobe and dramatic makeup. Despite their surface-level differences, the musicians’ artistic natures are profoundly similar. Both Smith and twigs use their unconventional, honest music as one of many avenues for self-expression, turning them into iconic musicians and symbols of female empowerment.
Patti Smith and FKA twigs emerged as musicians from their pursuits in other art forms. In 1967, Smith's aspiration to become an artist brought her from New Jersey to the creative hub of New York City. From poetry to pop art, and jazz to rock and roll, Smith immersed herself in many realms of NYC's diverse art scene, making her debut as a poet in 1972. Inspired by folk singers like Bob Dylan, jazz artists like Nina Simone, and emerging rock and roll bands like the Rolling Stones, Smith began to sing her poems and coupled them with guitars. As musicians began backing her vocals with electric guitar and drums, the rock and roll influences of Smith’s music were ever-present. The combination of rock sounds and lyrics that emphasized her literary intellect ultimately forged incredibly thoughtful and powerful music.Years later, with many studio albums, poetry books, and novels under her belt, the ‘punk poet laureate’ continues blending multiple expressive mediums.
Photo courtesy of The New York Times
Halfway across the globe and over a quadricentennial later, in 2005, then 17-year-old FKA twigs (born Tahliah Barnett) moved to the city from a market town on the outskirts of London, pursuing a career as a dancer. After appearing in some of the most popular ‘00s artists’ music videos, she further immersed herself in the music world by forming the short-lived punk band Delirium Tremens. In 2012, she self-released her first project, EP1, choosing the stage name FKA twigs after her childhood nickname. The enigmatic artist’s project was aptly named, as her work reflects an unlikely mix of influences. In weaving electronic sounds, an operatic voice, remarkable dancing, and emotional videography, twigs set the tone for many breathtaking projects to come.
While Smith's writing skills enhance her music, twigs melds dance and music to express herself. The former’s touch of musical poetry is evident through her carefully curated lyrics, perhaps best exemplified in her 1987 anthem for hope and change, "People Have The Power." Over the loud sounds of guitar chords and the energetic drum beat, the poet sings, "I awakened to the cry / That the people have the power / To redeem the work of fools / From the meek the graces shower / It's decreed the people rule."
Smith's dexterity with words parallels twigs’ ability to couple her athleticism and dancing skills with her music. In her music video for "cellophane" from her 2019 album, MAGDALENE, twigs climbs and dances on an unending pole in nothing but silver high heels and lingerie. Watching the performer’s graceful and emotional choreography, while hearing her delicate voice sing as slow, warbling piano and synths drag in and out highlight the strength, vulnerability, and pain twigs shared in the track’s lyricism.
Photo courtesy of Object & Animal
Smith's scratchy crooning and raw acoustics are drastically different from twigs' delicate soprano vocals and electronic instrumentation, but both artists produce experimental, genre-bending music. ‘Rock and roll poet’ seems like an oxymoronic title, but Smith's thought-provoking juxtaposition is exceptionally smooth. By pairing soft, introspective poems with loud, bashful cries, she bridges two ideals that usually clash as she screams for peace. Likewise, twigs' blend of classically trained vocals, futuristic production, and jaw-dropping music videos featuring her hypnotizing dance sequences amplify the beauty and originality of her artistic experimentation.
Through their willingness to break boundaries, both musicians’ artistry has inspired women for as long as they’ve been creating it. At a time when rock music was even more male-dominated than it is today, Smith still took center stage. With men playing instruments behind her, she cultivated respect and excitement as a rare female figure in the rock scene through her punk poetry. Her 1974 album, Horses, made her the ‘queen of punk,’ through its bold, declarative lyrics and loud, gripping instrumentals. In the opening track, "Gloria: In Excelsis Deo," Smith crosses her poem “Oath,” in which she takes ownership of her “sins,” with the Van Morrison classic “Gloria.” "'Gloria' gave me the opportunity to acknowledge and disclaim our musical and spiritual heritage … The right to create, without apology, from a stance beyond gender or social definition, but not beyond the responsibility to create something of worth," said Smith.
Likewise, twigs' music is also a symbol for gender empowerment. Through MAGDALENE, twigs admires biblical figure Mary Magdalene's sense of strength, poise, and freedom, traits she practices and reflects. In 2020, she demonstrated her bravery and strength by revealing on social media that she was in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship. Sharing such painful and personal information is incredibly difficult, but it empowers other victims of sexual harassment to speak up for themselves and know that they are not alone in their experience.
Patti Smith and FKA twigs break boundaries, and, in turn, better themselves, their work, and their fans. Due to their wildly different sounds, styles, and audiences, the two seem like an unlikely match on the surface. However, both share a lack of loyalty to any one genre, title, or even artistic form, and this ambiguity brings them together — making them the perfect pair.