OUTWITH Festival has commenced.

A six-day celebration of film, art, comedy, theatre and music, the annual event sees local talents in the spotlight as well as names and faces from afar.

Art in all its forms takes centre stage in venues small and large, and it’s arguably the most anticipated period of the year for the city. Saturday’s trademark day of live music is the highlight, with more than 35 acts on the bill and seven different spaces ready to play host.

After recent and ongoing uncertainty surrounding funding for artists in Scotland, it could serve as a vital reminder of why the arts must be protected and supported and given a platform to create, perform and thrive.

After paying your way and securing your wristband granting access to all, you may decide to either settle on one venue’s offerings or roll the dice and make trails through the city centre to other spots over the course of the day.

Stick or twist, you’re going to sample a range of styles and sounds. At the very worst, you’ve had a day out listening to live music. At best, you hear a voice, a song, a lyric that connects and resonates with you.

We all need the arts. Whether you are creating or consuming it, art is everything you need it to be. For Rachel Alice Johnson, it’s her life.

An interdisciplinary artist known as Kohla, her music is intimate, with Fire Station Creative the perfect setting for a 30-minute set this weekend.

(Image: Rhianonne Stone)

Her songs are like silk on skin, sensual and sultry, exploring “love, self-love, heartbreak, healing and everything beautiful within that,” she told the Press.

These love letters are luxurious in execution with her arrangements meticulous and the lyrics beautiful. A classic feel with a soft, modern touch, it is passionate in every sense.

A self-described perfectionist who would rather be in the studio making music than present at her own birthday party, no corners are cut in the process, and the outcome is a natural, authentic sound.

Kohla is no persona, as to have the “intimate connection” with her listeners she hopes for, no feelings or moments are forced for the benefit of others.

Her debut album, Romance, encapsulates this. Sunday will mark a year since its release with the seven-track record promoted through different media with Johnson utilising her own artwork for its singles, as well as vintage fashion, lines of poetry, shots on 35mm film, and other visuals to create a unique space for Romance to cast a golden glow within.

“I’ve always felt very visual. I’ve not just focused on the sound, but I have made (the music) its own world,” Johnson explained.

“I do love styling and fashion and making things feel bigger. This project, like all the projects I do, is really for me. I love it feeling personal. I love shooting on film, it reminds me of when I was young, and I have all these photos of me as a kid in photo albums. The quality, colours and softness of it; incorporating that delicacy into every part of the project was key. Whether that was writing the poetry then typing it up on the typewriter or other aspects; it’s all connected regardless of what media they are.

"It gives the fans depth to read into as well. It’s not just a great song (to listen to), it’s part of this deep world of poetry, fashion and film. I’ve always loved artists like Lana Del Rey and Frank Ocean who take you out of your own head and place you in a world with them that you can feel everything around them and have this deeper level of connection.”

Johnson - a self-taught producer based in Edinburgh and the co-founder of the Popgirlz Scotland collective in 2019 - is very confident within both herself and indeed her art, and she now claims to have “found my people” as her music reaches a newly devoted following on her TikTok.

They have christened themselves the ‘Kohla Cult’, and routinely send Johnson adoration through lip syncs of her songs and in kind words.

This feedback from her “angels”, she feels, has given her further belief and lifted some pressure.

“I always knew my work would connect with a certain demographic of people,” she commented.

“I knew the Lana Del Rey fans would love it (for example), but I just couldn’t get it in front of them. If I think of myself as a Lana fan when I was 17, I wasn’t reading music magazines or going to King Tut’s, but I was watching YouTube, and I was into online art and design.

"I think TikTok is a really good way to find that audience who perhaps have never heard of me in the past 10 years that I’ve been going. It’s nice for them to now find me and looking into my back catalogue and there’s so much art there for them to discover. It’s an exciting time for them. It makes me feel like I’ve found my people. I feel more relaxed with what I’m doing.”

Gone are the days of wondering whether her debut album would be “pop enough” for radio plays. She says intrusive thoughts like that have “gone out the window” with the body of work she’s now producing.

“I’m making whatever I find emotive, and I know that people who are like me will enjoy that as well”, Johnson said.

“It’s giving me more space to enjoy making art and I know they are going to love it.”

(Image: Rhianonne Stone)

There are no targets for what’s ahead and any urge to create is organic and free from outside influence.

“I don’t set goals because when I make art or music, it’s always at a time when I have something to get off my chest. I’ve never been an artist to go into song-writing sessions to make a song in a day.

"I don’t do this for fun, really, it’s more about having something to say and just having to say and do it. It’s about connection and emotion more than anything.

“The music industry is so up and down. You don’t have any control over it. Even the best art isn’t given the most publicity. In that sense, there’s not much point in having goals like that. If your goal is to make art that you love and means a lot to you, perhaps that’s healthier?

“There’s always room for improvement, but I’ve always stayed very true to myself. I’ve always done what’s right for me. I’ve had that inner gut feeling and purpose as to why I’m doing this.

"I’ve not had the big budgets of major labels to do what I would love to do, like cool music videos and more investment into costuming, make-up and scenery, but from what I’ve had I’ve done well enough to be proud of.”

Romance, building from the foundations of her EP Flux in 2020, is an album any artist should be proud of not just musically, but for how successful it proved to be in the face of an industry with deep-rooted misogyny at its core.

Admitting her frustration, she commented: “I felt the release, at times, was a bit difficult on my mental health because I put so much in. Even thinking from a social perspective; making an album full of female session players, videographers, industry press, radio; it feels ahead of its time. Not everyone realised that.

"We did well with the press, but a lot wouldn’t come back and open the doors. I learned so much about the industry. It humbled me in a way knowing that you could make the best art (you can) and do so much for feminism, and still the doors aren’t going to be open.

"The people who get it though, they really get it. It’s better to have a dedicated and engaging fanbase.”

A new album is being worked on for Johnson’s fanbase to hear and although it’s a work in progress with no timescale set, it is “so emotional that I have no idea how I’m going to perform this”, she laughed.

Until then, Outwith is first on the agenda - a festival she has always wanted to play at - and her performance at Fire Station Creative is slated in for 8.30pm.

Tickets for the all-day music event are available online now.