FKA twigs' Martial Arts TV show for FX

There's a vid and a gallery if you follow the link.

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Kristen Stewart forgets all about Robert Pattinson by finding love with a woman - and her mum is made up
22:04, 13 JUNE 2015
BY SHARON FEINSTEIN
The Twilight star's mum, Jules, said: "“I’ve met Kristen’s new girlfriend, I like her. What’s not to accept? She’s a lovely girl”

Twilight actress Kristen Stewart has found new love – with her personal assistant Alicia Cargile.

The star’s mum Jules Stewart has given her blessing to the relationship, which comes two years after Kristen, 25, split from long-term love Robert Pattinson, 29.

Jules, 55, told the Sunday Mirror she has met Alicia and that the couple are very happy together.

She added: “What’s not to be accepting about her now having a girlfriend? She’s happy.

“She’s my daughter, I’m just her mom so she knows I would accept her choices.

“I’ve met Kristen’s new girlfriend, I like her. What’s not to accept? She’s a lovely girl.”

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Barcroft
New love: Kristen is happy with Alicia Cargile (l), says her mum Jules

Jules, who also has a Hollywood career as a script supervisor, added: “I feel like people need to be free to love whoever they want. I accept my daughter loves women and men. It’s OK to be who you are in my world. We all choose our friends so we should be free to choose our lovers.

“People are good to do whatever they like as long as they’re not hurting people or breaking the law.

“I have gay friends, family members, I’m accepting of people, we are all free to choose who we want to love.”

Martial arts nut Kristen’s relationship with Twilight co-star R-Patz ended after she was seen kissing married Rupert Sanders, 44, who directed her in Snow White and the Huntsman.

Since then she has kept her love life under wraps.

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REUTERS
Catalyst: Kristen split with Robert Pattinson after she was snapped kissing Rupert Sanders

Meanwhile Pattinson is now said to be engaged to singer FKA twigs, 27 – and it was claimed this week he
will even invite Kristen to his wedding.

Jules said of Kristen’s new love: “They were a great couple, but she’s 25 years old and I’d like to see her have a lot more life experience before she chooses someone to settle down with.

“I’m very sad that Kristen and Robert didn’t have a chance to be alone together, they had to have the whole world with them and all the public stuff ruined everything, life became overwhelming.

“But Kristen has learnt to handle her emotions and deal with her problems through the martial arts.”

Kristen has previously talked of her increasingly close relationship with Alicia as speculation grew.

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Romance: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were together for a number of years

Asked about it by US chat show host Conan O’Brien in April, she said: “There’s so much isolation and protection that has to happen. So then you end up, kind of like, hiring a buddy, a confidante, like, somebody to organise your schedule, but in addition to that, like kind of like, live with you essentially.

“So yeah, it’s definitely more complicated than, ‘Go buy me tampons because I’m embarrassed to do it myself’.”

It certainly sounds easier than dating one of the world’s biggest teen idols.

R-Patz’s new love FKA twigs recently told of the abuse hurled at her since she began dating the British actor.

The singer-songwriter said messages sent to her online have even included racist slurs – but she claimed the relationship is worth putting up with the online onslaught.

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Close bond: Kristen Stewart and her mum Jules

She said: “It’s really hard - I can’t begin to explain how awful it is.

“It makes you want to just stop everything sometimes. It makes you want to smash your face into the mirror.

“It’s relentless. There’s no amount of songs I can sing or dances I can dance that will prove to them I’m not a monkey.

“But I’m so happy. I didn’t see my life going this way at all, but it’s worth it.”

Kristen is currently working on several film projects, including one with Woody Allen, while Robert is starting work on epic adventure The Lost City of Z, based on the life of British explorer Percy Fawcett.

Yet despite Kristen’s wealth and success, mum Jules admitted she still worries about her daughter’s career.

Jules, who directed the 2012 film K-11, tackling sex discrimination, and is currently involved in an art installation in support of The Wolf Charity, said: “I think it’s great that Kristen has so much money because you worry about how your children are going to survive.

“Kristen is a multi-millionairess but I always worry. I knew she’d be successful – and it makes me giggle just how successful she is.

“No one ever thought she’d be off the charts like this. We all knew she was unique and had ‘it’, she’s always been very intelligent, intuitive and observant so she’s the perfect actress.”

And she denied claims Kristen is “miserable and angry”, insisting: “She’s not unhappy at all. She’s thrilled to death that she’s working, she’s still friends with her ex-boyfriend and she’s moving forward.

“There is nothing I can do about her relationships – in the end you just hope she’s happy.”

Twlight star Kristen was raised by wolves

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Getty
Raised by wolves: Kristen's mum says she kept the animals as pets

Kristen Stewart was raised with wolves.

Mum Jules kept them as pets when Kristen was a child and still has four now.

She says Kristen visits them often at her ranch in Santa Monica, California – where they have the run of the house.

Jules, a patron of charity wolfconnection.org, said: “I live up in the mountain with my mutts. I moved there for them, it’s a getaway.

“Kristen loves the wolves. She grew up with them, the animals are family to her.”

Jules first fell for the animals when she was 17 and given a wolf cub by her zoo keeper boyfriend.

She said: “There were no rules about owning wild animals. I got a little white wolf cub for my birthday, had him till he was 15.”

She then adopted four more later in life. She said: “They chew my shoes and open the fridge and help themselves. They start howling and jumping around when they see me.

“The neighbours are OK – but friends usually don’t come to my house.”

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Maybe I should have posted this in Successful-Street-Applications instead. ;)

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‘Mary Magdalene’: How FKA twigs Made Her ‘Most Complex Song Ever’
It took months for the singer, songwriter and dancer FKA twigs to perfect the title track for her critically acclaimed new album. See how she got it right in the latest episode of Diary of a Song.

Video TRANSCRIPT
0:11/6:57
The Unexpected Inspiration Behind FKA twigs’ Most Complex Song
It took months for the singer, songwriter and dancer FKA twigs to perfect “Mary Magdalene,” the title track and centerpiece to her critically acclaimed new album. This is how she got it right.
Singing: “A woman’s touch.” “Hi, twigs.” “Hi.” Singing: “A sacred geometry.” “‘Mary Magdalene’ was a bit of a pain in the ass to make.” Singing: “I know where you start, where you end, how to please, how to curse.” “I think it’s like the most complex song I’ve ever made.” “She’s the perfect person who could out me for not doing anything, because she does everything. She’s like tap dancing, on a pole, swinging swords. It’s crazy.” “What was it like the first day you guys actually sat down to work?” “She’s unlike any other artist you work with. She’ll bring a little potions and, like, readings. And she was like, do you know about Mary Magdalene?” “The original story is that she was a prostitute, and she was filled with sin. But then it came out that she had a really amazing and extensive knowledge on oils, and she was a healer, and she was in many ways what we call a doctor now. I think that that duality really excited me. That is my archetype.” “She was talking about using the story about Mary Magdalene for her music. She was very determined to go down this path.” “I’d just had some surgery. I had fibroids in my uterus. I was in a period of deep healing and rediscovering my sexuality. Mary Magdalene helped me ground myself in who I am.” “Before I knew it, we were drinking the Kool-Aid. I was believing whatever she said.” “And I think she just started singing with no beat or anything.” Singing: “A woman’s work. A woman’s prerogative.” “Cashmere, I think he laid a harmonizer behind it.” “She wanted it to sound very Gothic, but also very futuristic at the same time.” “I just thought of this melody. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I was like, ‘That’s crazy.’ Like ‘Mary Magdalene’ actually fits into that.” Singing: “Mary Magdalene, creature of desire. Come just a little bit closer to me.” “With her, a lot of the things we used are, like, little clicks in her voice.” “Harmonies.” “Drawn-out notes that are tuned down.” “She’ll be like, it should be like, ‘Wah, wah, brrr-rum-pum-pah.’ You know, she’ll do [expletive], and you’ll just be like, whoa, and you’re just trying to program it quick enough.” Singing: “I fever for the fire. True as Mary Magdalene, creature of desire.” “I just remember really loving this song, being at Benny’s house, realizing in that session that the name of my album was ‘Magdalene.’ And then I was working in this other house in L.A. that was haunted and quite stressful, actually.” “We just spent, like, two weeks ripping the song apart, and rebuilding it, and it not really working, and then ripping it apart again, rebuilding it again and again.” “I think I broke a lot of songs in that haunted house.” “There’s so many versions, man.” “Do you have any of those early versions you could show us?” Singing: “Yes, I heard.” “Where Benny’s version was very clear and very focused, we really cluttered it.” “Was she frustrated throughout this process or was she exhilarated by it?” “Oh, no, she’s just excited. She’s like a kid — ‘I want to try that, can we do that, can we do this?’” “I love practicing stuff. How many different ways can you do a cartwheel? You know, like can you do a slow one? Can you do it on your elbows? Can you do it fast? Can you do it with no hands?” “We sat down once and she was like, I want the sound of witches burning at a pyre. And I was like, right, O.K.“ “Do you think because it was the title track and the centerpiece of the album, you were overthinking it?” “I wasn’t overthinking it, I just don’t think I was treating it with enough sensitivity in the beginning.” “Did that end up on the record anywhere?” “No.” “Then there was another stage with Nico.” “So what did Nico do to fix this song?” “A lot.” “He did a lot.” “Is it a strange thing, like you’re coming into someone else’s house and rearranging the furniture?” “It is strange. But you know, I come from dance music. And I did so many remixes. And it’s just the same thing.” “We were in Electric Lady. It was like 3 o’clock in the morning. And we went down into the big studio, and it was where Prince had recorded all this stuff. And it had a purple board. So it felt really special.” “There’s just definitely some spirits in there, speaking through.” “With ‘Mary Magdalene,’ every other session had always been, like, a full-day session of ‘O.K., no. Mute that, O.K., no. Take it out, O.K. Put that in, O.K. Let’s try a guitar,’ you know, all this stuff. Whereas the end of ‘Mary Magdalene’ was the opposite. It was complete calm, and there was just this magic kind of like 30 minutes to an hour when Nico just, like — his energy just grew in the space.” “I remember redoing the chords. Then I started feeling a bit more like that there was a direction or something.” “As soon as it had a darker feeling, that’s when it actually came to life. He just went on his computer, and he just made all these incredible stretchy sounds.” “I had coffee, and I don’t drink caffeine. So maybe I was a little crazy.” “I just had this idea that I wanted it to bounce. It’s just like the wrath of Mary.” “He found a hardness in air. And that felt truly like evoking her spirit.” “Do you dance, do you jump around when something finally hits?” “No, I don’t think I did on that, because I didn’t want to — you know when something’s happening in front of you, and you’re just like, just nobody move, everyone stay really still, no one change anything, no one even put the air con on. Everything has to stay exactly the same. It was kind of one of those moments.” Singing: “Creature of desire. Come just a little bit closer till we collide.” “Can we kill the cat?” “Nope.” “For a little while, please?” “I just don’t know if there’s a way for me to do this and be comfortable without the cat.” “Really?” “Yeah. Yeah, I’m a little shy.” “You look so good, though.”

It took months for the singer, songwriter and dancer FKA twigs to perfect “Mary Magdalene,” the title track and centerpiece to her critically acclaimed new album. This is how she got it right.CreditCredit...Maria Jose Govea/Red Bull Content Pool

By Joe Coscarelli
Dec. 10, 2019, 5:00 a.m. ET

The singer, songwriter and producer FKA twigs, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, is a polymath who keeps adding to her arsenal.

At 31, she has complicated her reputation as a whispery singer of sparse, deconstructed R&B songs by blowing out not only her sound but her broader creative practice: She has trained as a dancer in various underground styles (vogueing, krumping, pole work), while also working as an actor, director and even a student of wushu, a form of Chinese martial arts that can resemble sword fighting. Crucially, FKA twigs, known to collaborators for her dedication to practice and discipline, then brings all she’s learned back to her music and live performances.

The result, most recently, is “Magdalene,” her second full-length album, which was released last month and became one of the most critically acclaimed releases of the year. “In the voluptuously disorienting music she has been releasing since 2012, love has been pleasure and pain, sacrifice and self-realization, strife and comfort, public performance and private revelation,” wrote Jon Pareles in The New York Times. “Sounds materialize to destabilize the pulse, upend the harmony or just add disruptive noise; gaping silences open up, suddenly isolating her voice in midair.”

The album was named for the biblical figure Mary Magdalene, in whom FKA twigs found inspiration after undergoing surgery to remove six fibroid tumors from her uterus in late 2017. In the latest Diary of a Song episode, the singer and her fellow producers break down the intricate processes that led to writing and recording “Mary Magdalene,” the title track and centerpiece of the album. The song came together over many months in three phases, from initial bedroom sessions with the pop producers Benny Blanco and Cashmere Cat, to work in a haunted house with the British electronic producer Koreless, and finally, at the storied Electric Lady Studios in New York with the experimental composer Nicolas Jaar (and possibly with Prince’s purple spirit).

FKA twigs, who is credited along with Noah Goldstein as the executive producer of the “Magdalene” album, called the title track “the most complex song I’ve ever made.” Watch the video above to see how she did it.

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The NT video interview is embedded but here's Magdalene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUvJOZfdGQg

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FKA twigs Says She’s Making a Martial Arts TV Show for FX
The show will be based on the “deep connection” between “the Black community and the Chinese martial arts community,” twigs told Michaela Coel
By Jazz Monroe

February 24, 2021
https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/6.../FKA-twigs.jpg
FKA twigs, February 2020 (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Burberry)
FKA twigs has revealed that she is working on a martial arts TV show for FX. Interviewed by Michaela Coel for The Face, twigs said the show is based on the “deep connection” between “the Black community and the Chinese martial arts community.” Pitchfork has emailed representatives for twigs and FX for more details.

“It’s like a martial arts TV series which is very much centred around outsiders,” twigs said. “And the idea of wanting to fit in but not being able to. I’ve been putting a lot of research into the way that the Black community and the Chinese martial arts community have a really deep connection. It goes into music: the Wu-Tang Clan came together almost through martial arts.”

Of course, twigs herself ventured into the martial arts around her 2020 album MAGDALENE, performing spectacular swordplay and dance moves in her live show and videos. Elsewhere in the interview, twigs said she has a song on the way with the UK rap innovator Pa Salieu, of whom twigs and Coel express their fandom. “I feel like there’s a lot of love and joy in his music, but it still feels like he’s very truthful to his experience,” said twigs. “I think I’m really craving truth, which can be dark, but it’s not grim, it’s not heavy. He tells the truth and it’s got depth.”

Read the interview, called “Joyride: the renaissance of FKA twigs,” at The Face.

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I've copied some previous forum references to her work above. She's interesting.