Lawi Anywar

Resident Artist – 2026/27

A person wearing a camouflage print jacket, yellow beanie and black, thick-rimmed glasses leans on a black railing in front of a stained-glass window. — Photo: Kayleigh Bricknell

A multi-instrumentalist and producer renowned for his relentless DIY ethos and groove-laden combination of funk, psychedelia and shoegaze.

Born in the USA to a Ugandan father and White British mother and raised in the South West of England, multi-Instrumentalist songwriter and producer Lawi Anywar’s identity – in music and reality – is an exploration of duality, pluralism, and in-between spaces.

Anywar’s influences are vast – covering everything from Grace Jones and Sade all the way to Steve Reich, The Mars Volta and Bad Brains – with his sonic palette being equally expansive, but the throughline being a groove-driven intersection between psychedelia, funk and shoegaze.

His second album, Centenarian, self-released in September 2025, marked an evolution in his songwriting – covering themes of regret, thanatophobia and healing from past mistakes, as well as a deeper exploration of tension and groove. Though he plays everything on his recordings in the studio, for his live shows, Anywar is joined by luminaries of Bristol’s experimental and jazz scenes – culminating in a gripping, groove-laden tapestry of shoegaze-tinged indie funk.

@lawianywar

Motifs of keyboards, funky bass lines, live drums and soulful vocals that illuminate and instruct. It’s a celebration of life that bursts into life-affirming grooves…it’s gospel, it’s soul, it’s glorious.

God is in the TV (Tracks of the week)