French Kiwi Juice, or FKJ for short, is the moniker of Vincent Fenton, a no… Read Full Bio ↴French Kiwi Juice, or FKJ for short, is the moniker of Vincent Fenton, a nod to his Gallic mother and New Zealander father. He grew up in a small French village outside of Tours, isolated from his friends, and so he turned to music for company. He got hooked on his parents’ records by Pink Floyd, Billie Holliday, Nina Simone and Queen, and took up guitar; then, aged seven, the saxophone. “I would play with whatever toys were around, and that helped develop my imagination, and then that evolved into making instruments – I found whatever I could and started putting it together,” he said of his rudimentary one-man bands.

That one-man-band mentality has persisted, collecting instruments as he goes, though he’s never been formally trained; instead developing his own ear. Prestigious music colleges were too expensive and so he eventually moved to Paris to study the sound and film, which helped give him grounding in cinematic arrangements. He fell into the city’s nightlife scene, playing live instruments in clubs in Paris, and became known as a Soundcloud producer who blended house and jazz, as on his vibey 2013 Time For A Change EP.

But then in 2015, he played a festival in the Philippines that changed everything. There he met June, who performs as ((( O )))) and who he’d remixed a track for. Eventually they got married and moved in together on an island off the country’s south coast, where they have created a tropical studio idyll that looks out onto lush rainforest. You can see it in the live session FKJ recorded there in 2019 (over 19m views on YouTube), as he flits between piano, singing and sax.

The seeds for his more introspective sound were sown with his 2017 self-titled debut, while the track that he did with Masego that same year, ‘Tadow’, further evidenced his effortless ear for intriguing rhythms – the pair made the hip-hop-speared jazz jam out of a day-long improvisation in Paris, duelling on their saxophones, their keyboards and drums interlocking effortlessly. There’s an ease to his collaborations – nothing forced; artists who are like-minded about being guided by groove – see the meeting of minds on the track “Risk’ with the American rapper Bas or his latest remix for PinkPantheress.

But in 2019, FKJ started drawing more from within. He released the Ylang Ylang EP, the result of a tumultuous and devastating year when June miscarried. The couple cancelled their commitments and holed up together to recuperate and make music. The sweepingly romantic jazz of the title track is the EP’s centrepiece, encircled by crisp R&B beats, acoustic guitar flourishes and ambitious sax instrumentals on the other songs. The making of it soothed them as much as it did his growing international fanbase. “With music, I feel safe,” he says. “So when I hear that my music is healing for people, it’s the best compliment.”

Back in the Philippines, with no wifi and an impending global lockdown, FKJ was quite literally cut off from the world, able to explore music’s endless possibilities. “Sometimes I would get into it for the whole night and go to bed when the sun came up.” Out of this freedom comes an expressionistic, touching album that’s impossible to pin down. There’s no more hiding behind a branch of leaves, as he did on the cover of his 2017 debut: V I N C E N T marks FKJ out as a crucial new voice. He’s redefining chillout music with his bursts of late-night jazz sax and piano, coupled with his wood-cabin whispery vocals, recalling Bon Iver’s early work, and those Santana-styled guitar flourishes.

V I N C E N T is a marvel – and testament to the magic that can happen when you dig deep. “This was a challenging record,” he says. “I’m a perfectionist and it’s hard to shake that off. But once I did, and I let the music take over, I felt totally free.”

Go Back Home
FKJ Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna go back home

I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna go back home

I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go back alone
I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go back alone
I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go back alone
I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go back alone

I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go back alone
I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go back alone
I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go back alone
I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna, I don't wanna go back alone

I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna go back home

I don't wanna go back home
I don't wanna go back home

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to FKJ's song "Go Back Home" are minimalistic, repeating the same phrases over and over again. The song seems to express a strong desire to avoid returning to a place considered home, suggesting that it may not be a desirable or fulfilling environment. The repetition of the phrase "I don't wanna go back home" reinforces this longing to escape the mundane or unsatisfying aspects of home life.

The repetition in the lyrics also evokes a sense of anxiety or fear, as if the singer is trying to convince themselves that they don't want to go back home in order to avoid confronting whatever awaits them there. This could be interpreted as a fear of responsibility, a fear of stagnation, or a fear of confronting personal issues that may be present in the singer's home environment. The use of the word "alone" towards the end of the song adds to this sense of unease, suggesting that the singer feels isolated or disconnected from their former home.

Overall, "Go Back Home" seems to speak to a universal experience of restlessness and a desire for change. The lyrics tap into the idea that sometimes we need to break away from the familiar in order to grow and find fulfillment, even if that means leaving behind the safety and comfort of home.

Line by Line Meaning

I don't wanna go back home
The singer is expressing their reluctance to return to their place of residence

I don't wanna, I don't wanna go back alone
The singer doesn't want to go back to an empty home, without companionship

Contributed by Aaron T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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