The first album Japanese-raised, London-based musician Momoko Gill released was her 2025 collaboration with Matthew Herbert, Herbert & Momoko's Clay, a beloved work that was a RRR Album of the Week and one of my favourite albums of 2025.

"When he asked me, he thought it would be a kind of house record, where I'd do the songwriting and singing. I don't think he knew about my production as much," explains Gill.

"It's a really amazing collaboration, because we're both really interested in finding the sweet spot of creating something that doesn't sound like what either of us would do on our own, but we're both enjoying."

When Gill was working on that album, though, she'd largely finished her own solo debut, the just-released Momoko.

Writing much of the record on tour ("in very unfriendly conditions for writing") whilst playing drums for people like Alabaster de Plume, Tirzah and Coby Sey, the set finds the drummer, producer and vocalist finding her own voice.

Drawing on her scholastic history studying anthropology, sociology, religion and global politics, it's filled with lyrical explorations of "different tensions in relationality", touching on prejudice, conflict, and a Buddhist approach to life.

Talking on The International Pop Underground with Anthony Carew, Gill talks about her life and her music, from a basketball tour of Australian as a teenager in Japan, to finding her way into music, collaborating with Herbert, and her anthem When Palestine is Free.

Feature image: Manuel Vasquez