“There are various stories about how we met. At this stage I’m not even sure which one’s true,” Matthew Stone admits with a laugh. The visual artist and photographer is reflecting on his seven years of collaborating with FKA twigs, now a close friend, and the many misunderstandings about how they first came to be in touch. Last week, someone presumed they’d met on a bus. “I was like, ‘No, where did that come from?’”

Whichever way they met (most think it was in a club), their first official project together was an i-D cover story, back in 2012 when there was no FKA. They were working on the shoot with stylist and creative director Matthew Josephs, the third figure of their creative triangle. “I think that cover was interesting, because is in a weird way it was like that might be the last time a musician was introduced to the public via printed media, before the Internet,” Stone says. The same year, she went on to release EP1, her first body of work.

Since then, their creative relationship has shifted from twigs being brought on board for creative projects, to Stone and Josephs supporting her on her creative journey. “In the beginning it was kind of like Matthew [Josephs] and I were working on this project from i-D; we wanted to shoot her,” Stone remembers. “Whereas now, evidently we’re helping her realise something.”

Most recently, that something is Magdalene, twigs’ much anticipated sophomore album which she recently described to i-D as being “about every lover that I’ve ever had, and every lover that I’m going to have.” As the title would suggest, the album draws on biblical figure Mary Magdalene, who becomes woven into the fabric of the music.