Michael Kiwanuka Recovering From Stroke, Readies New LP

U.K. singer/songwriter Michael Kiwanuka is announcing his fifth album, FUDGE, while revealing that a serious stroke has put his touring plans on hold and left him facing what he describes as “a long tough journey” back to health. The album, due Oct. 23 via Polydor, has been waiting nearly a year for release — and now arrives as Kiwanuka recovers from a brain injury he says was “quite severe.”

In an Instagram post, Kiwanuka said he was happy to be announcing the new album “because the last few months I’ve been battling some health problems which would heavily hinder and get in the way of me making music for the foreseeable future. A few months ago, I suffered a stroke brought on by a bleed in my brain brought on by high blood pressure. It’s a long journey recovering from a stroke, which is why I missed some gigs recently out in the U.S., but I look forward to seeing you all soon.”

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Kiwanuka said he isn’t sure “when I’ll be back out on the road or what that will look like,” described the past few months as “difficult” and thanked the “incredible” NHS staff who have cared for him.

FUDGE, recorded with Kiwanuka’s live band in Southampton, marks a major shift behind the glass. For the first time since his 2012 debut, Home Again, Kiwanuka took the reins as producer, stepping away from the trusted production partnerships with Danger Mouse and Inflo. He subsequently brought the recordings to producer Dom Monks (Laura Marling, Big Thief) and longtime strings collaborator Rosie Danvers to complete the album.

The record was created in parallel with 2024’s Small Changes, but its origins were decidedly more homespun. Kiwanuka built a one-room studio near his Southampton home out of rough organic material, dubbed it Dreamers and began making music there with multi-instrumentalist Joe Connell and members of his touring band. “I needed a creative ecosystem, so I could pop in and do an hour here and there and keep my creative brain awake,” he says.

The experiment clicked when Kiwanuka and the band returned after dinner to jam on material they had been struggling with. The result was “Love in My Heart,” a seven-minute track that convinced him there was an album in the works. “It felt moving to me,” he says. “I wanted to share it with other people. That was the eureka moment. It sounds like we’re in Capitol Studios on Vine Street, but we’re actually huddled in this shack outside Southampton.”

That looseness became the animating force behind FUDGE, which is said to take inspiration from the Beatles’ Rubber Soul, Neil Young’s On the Beach, Frank Ocean’s Blonde and Shuggie Otis’ Inspiration Information, among other touchstones. The album also gave Kiwanuka a chance to revisit older material, including “Stars,” first recorded as he was emerging from the crisis of confidence that followed Home Again.

“I remember in school, music always seemed to make sense,” he says. “And then suddenly when it became a job, it wasn’t making sense. My love for playing guitar disappeared for a while. It means a lot to me, that song.” The title FUDGE captures the record’s guiding philosophy: less pressure, more instinct. “When I think of fudge, it’s playful and childlike, which is good for creativity,” Kiwanuka explains. “But also it’s a polite way to say I’m just going to do it.”

For now, the music will have to travel without him. “This has definitely been one of the toughest challenges I’ve faced,” he wrote. “I’ll be happy to be on the other side of it when the time comes. Until then I wish you all well and look forward to seeing you further down the road.”

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