Singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka is coming to the Fillmore.
When Michael Kiwanuka released his second studio album, “Love & Hate,” in July, music connoisseurs with eclectic tastes were already tweeting that it was one of 2016’s best recordings. So it was no surprise that Bay Area fans were eager to catch his mid-December headlining date at the Fillmore, excited to see how material from the Danger Mouse-co-produced album would translate in a live setting.
To their dismay, the singer-songwriter had to postpone that San Francisco show and all other performances set for the end of the year due to tonsillitis and prescribed vocal rest.
Now Kiwanuka is ready to make it up to his fans Friday, May 19. By phone from London, he sounded good — literally — and ready for his rescheduled 10-date North American tour.
“It’s much better now,” he said of his voice. “I take it less for granted, as it was a bit of a scare.”
A lesson learned: If there’s a show the next night, he now knows its best to go straight to the tour bus or hotel. “And if I have a day off, I can have a pint,” he added, with a chuckle. But he’s hydrating constantly and drinking more hot beverages and adding honey.
“I warm up, too. I never used to,” he admitted. “If you are a singer and you think it’s long-term damage, you wonder, ‘Whoa, what am I going to do? I’m just getting started.’ So it was scary.”
The London native broke through with his debut, “Home Again,” which came out in March 2012, showcasing a classic sound that reflects the R&B and soul aesthetic of the 1960s and ’70s. It’s a blend of styles he honed while studying jazz at the Royal Academy of Music and then pop at Westminster University.
“I like jazz chords, and I like the freedom of jazz in the rhythm. But I found when I was studying it, the more complicated it got, the more I’d switch off,” he said. “So I like having jazz elements within songs that have a simple melody or a simple chorus. There’s just something satisfying about that.”
“Home Again” featured woodwinds, brass, violin and Fender Rhodes in addition to a more typical organ/electric guitar/bass guitar/ drums foundation. “I really get into putting more exotic instruments with basic songs,” he said. On the percussion front alone, shaker, cabasa, wood blocks, timpani and vibraslap can be heard throughout the album.
With a nearly fouryear gap between “Home Again” and “Love & Hate,” Kiwanuka had considerable internal and external expectations for his sophomore effort.
“I wanted to move my sound forward and to change people’s perception of me because you can be put in a box quite quickly,” he said.
So it’s an understatement to say Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton was an inspired choice to bring aboard as co-producer (“Executive producer, really. He’s got such a good ear and vision,” said Kiwanuka). Working with everyone from U2, Gorillaz and Norah Jones to the Shins’ James Mercer as the duo Broken Bells and CeeLo Green as half of Gnarls Barkley, the superstar multi-instrumentalist allowed Kiwanuka and co-producers Paul Butler and Inflo to lay down the basic tracks before he’d come in at 11 p.m. to offer suggestions and additional instrumental layers.
The collaboration resulted in the hip-swaying and sociopolitically relevant “Black Man in a White World,” which is driven by crisp handclaps and accented by sweeping disco strings, as well as “Rule the World” and its reverse call-and-response choir that delves into reflective troubadour territory.
“Love & Hate” also features a 12-piece string section on its two longest songs — the leadoff number “Cold Little Heart” and the title track. Instead of recording in a studio, an abandoned church in North London was used for the sessions, which Kiwanuka described as more like a “concert or an event than a typical day at the office for these (studio) musicians.”
Kiwanuka will only revisit that experience once, a performance at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall on May 5. During his stop in San Francisco, he apologetically explains, “it will be a six-piece band including me.”
“There’s percussion, a drum kit, bass, keyboards and another, lead guitar. So we do the best we can,” he said. “I guess we can’t do everything, but I think it still sounds beautiful.”