At sixteen-years-old, Dermot Kennedy frequently travelled from his hometown on the outskirts of Dublin into the city to busk. Armed with nothing more than his guitar and homemade CD mixtapes, these were the beginnings of one of Ireland's most promising musical voices. A decade later and fresh off the back of a home show with Mumford and Sons, he’s about to release his debut album, Without Fear. Ahead of his set at the Isle of Wight Festival, Dermot Kennedy talks to Issy Aldridge about his successes so far and the impacts of streaming culture for new artists.
I: First year at Isle of Wight Festival, how are you finding it?
D: Great, well this is my first part. We flew in super early to Heathrow and then got the bus and I’ve just been asleep on the bus.
I: Yeah, you flew in from Ireland didn’t you? How was that?
D: It was fine, I was asleep. I think it’s illegal [on the ferry] but I was. There’s that mad thing where if you’re asleep you have to stay asleep, cos if you’re caught it’s a super big deal – just a note to any other musicians.
I: Has there been a standout moment of your career so far?
D: Probably, I mean potentially last night. We played a gig last night with Mumford and Sons at Malahide Castle in Dublin, it was like 25,000 people and I was playing support but everyone was singing my songs back to me and I kinda really rinsed it. I did that annoying support act thing where I acted like it was my gig but I just kinda went for it. But that was like a standout moment for sure because when you play Dublin all your mates are there and all your family and everything. I would say apart from that, Brixton Academy what was it like a month ago now. It’s like 5000 people but it feels like just way more. It’s huge.
I: You describe yourself as a singer-songwriter, but where does your inspiration come from when writing? Does it all flow quite naturally or is there a process you like to follow?
D: I feel like I used to hide behind the music a little bit and I used to like, say if I’m in these scenarios now where I’m going into these beautiful studios and like starting from scratch, often times I would have tried to develop a musical idea and get a loop going and see about writing to that but I think I’m getting better. We had a session one day in LA where something wasn’t working, basically, we couldn’t get the computers working so we were forced to sit there with guitars and write the way people would have done in the past. It was really freeing and a nice challenge and I think it’s the way to do it. A couple of friends who I work with have worked quite a bit with Julia Michaels and they said she’s a dream to work with because when she’s singing in the studio, she literally wants barely anything. She just wants a bassline to sing to. Whereas I was in a position where I wanted a big developed loop and I’d waste time on production and writing sessions so I’m getting better at just like focusing. It can happen either way. It can happen with a lyrical idea that kicks off a song. It can happen with a musical idea that starts everything. You never know.
I: So looking at your set tonight, is it any different to what you normally perform at shows?
D: Timewise it’s always different at festivals right, so we’re at fifty minutes tonight. It’s always tough when you have to cancel certain songs. It’s also not tough on certain songs that are very hard to sing you know.
I: How did you decide which ones to cut?
D: I just try and balance it between things that I enjoy and things that I know people might wanna hear. There are certain ones that you just can't kill and then there are certain songs that are sort of selfish and I want to do them.
I: So the new single Outnumbered came out on Thursday, what’s the story behind it?
D: That song to me is a song of reassurance and I just wanted it to be comforting to someone. If someone is struggling, whatever that might be, just that there is somebody that cares and that if anybody is finding anything difficult that someone is there for you. That’s what it means to me so I hope that it was a broad enough message that a lot of people could feel too.
I: Is it on the set tonight?
D: Yes of course! You can’t kill that! You get in trouble if you do that.
I: Power Over Me was such a success last year. What was it like to watch that blow-up?
D: It was great because it was at that point where we had done loads and toured quite a bit and it was at a certain level. That song came along and it just felt as though that song took it to the next level. Yeah, it’s done so much for me and obviously, creatively you can never compromise and I never would, but you know when certain songs show up that do certain things, that’s what that was. I’ve got certain songs that are five of six minutes and those are for me and for my fans who will be into it regardless and they’ll give it the time. I heard someone recently talking about albums and apparently what a lot of people do these days is go into an album, go into a track and skip to a minute and a half in and see if they like it and then go back to the start which is heart-breaking.
I: It’s the whole streaming culture now, isn’t it?
D: Oh my god yeah. Sometimes I’m grateful that I exist at a time when people still care you know because God knows where it’s going. It’s sad. I read an article about how many great songs wouldn’t be part of music if they had stuck to those streaming rules. Like Stairway to Heaven with its super long intro. It’s kinda sad.
I: And finally, the album is out this coming September, what can we expect?
D: I want it to be a perfect storm of everything I do in terms of wanting it to have songs that are accessible and that people can relate to on a grand scale and then I want songs where if certain fans of like Bon Iver and Sigur Ross listen to they’d be into it. I want to basically do everything that inspires me and everything that I think I need to do on my first project. I wanna draw from every genre in terms of how it sounds. I want to draw on the fact that I listen to a lot of hip-hop but I want to also focus on the fact that I write songs on a guitar and it’s acoustic. I want to get the balance right between everything that’s started since I was eighteen to now. It needs to have that cohesion through it but I want it to be the journey so far.
Without Fear is due for release on October 4, 2019.
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