Other Voices is thrilled to announce six incredible new headliners added to the St James’ Church bill for #OV2023, this December 1st-3rd. Kae Tempest, Griff, The Murder Capital, Villagers, BC Camplight, Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain will join CMAT, ØXN, Gurriers, Mick Flannery, Julie Byrne and The Joy in beautiful West Kerry next month.
On top of that thrilling news, we’re delighted to announce that the artists set to perform live and online in the IMRO Other Room are Irish homegrown talents KhakiKid, Qbanaa, Niamh Bury and Lucy McWilliams! All Church and IMRO Other Room performances will be streamed to the world via the Other Voices YouTube over the weekend.
A prolific poet, author and recording artist, South London artist KAE TEMPEST has spent the best part of a decade touring the globe. Returning in April 2022 to unveil their latest album The Line is a Curve, which earned rave reviews from critics and fans alike, Tempest’s astonishing empathy and storytelling prowess beamed through every song – one of which featured a spectacular verse from Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten. In May 2023, Kae unveiled Divisible By Itself and One, a collection covering punchy rhyming poetry that nods to Tempest’s prowess as a performer to experimental, playful works exploring climate, love, queerness and the body as a boundary. Their Dingle debut has been a long time coming – we’re honoured to welcome them to the Church.
BRIT Rising Star award winner GRIFF is one of the UK’s brightest young artists in contemporary pop. Born in Kings Langley, the multi-faceted talent shot to fame upon the release of her lockdown mixtape One Foot In Front of The Other – which has since earned Griff a top-five charts spot and over 660 million streams. This month saw the release of an intimate, deeply personal set of songs in the form of her vert1go vol.1 EP, seeing Griff more unguarded than ever. Embracing the rollercoaster of your twenties, the star has perfected the art of nostalgia in adolescence in her infectiously catchy body of work. Touring with Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Florence + The Machine, Ed Sheeran was only the beginning!
Dublin-formed rockers THE MURDER CAPITAL are no strangers to Other Voices, having delivered a powerful set at OV Home 2022 in the Guinness Storehouse. It’s high time they performed in St James’ Church, a sonic lighthouse in the heart of Dingle. The band’s dark but beautiful debut album When I Have Fears had all its songs written and recorded within the first nine months of the band knowing each other. With this year’s Irish No.1 sophomore album Gigi’s Recovery, the band had to learn to navigate their personal relationships while embracing the inevitable evolution of their own sound. The results are epic!
Another favourite of ours, VILLAGERS first performed on the seventh series of Other Voices back in 2009. The rest is history. Led by Conor O’Brien, Villagers’ most recent work, Fever Dreams, followed The Art Of Pretending To Swim, Darling Arithmetic, {Awayland} and Becoming A Jackal. Conor O’Brien has a string of accolades under his belt, including two Ivor Novello Awards, two Mercury Music Prize nominations and is a previous winner of the Choice Music Prize. Expect the band’s vulnerable charm, blistering instrumentals and eerie pop sensibilities – and previously unheard material! – in Dingle next month.
Brian ‘BC CAMPLIGHT’ Christinzio is the New Jersey native who began releasing records in 2005, backed by members who would eventually join The War On Drugs, and guest-starring on Sharon Van Etten’s Epic album. Later relocating to Manchester, Christinzio’s latest album The Last Rotation of Earth, was written after the breakup of his nine-year relationship and arrived in May this year. His deeply personal music has also explored the UK immigration system (2018’s Deportation Blues), alongside struggles with depression and substance abuse.
Welsh-Irish duo CATRIN FINCH & AOIFE NÍ BHRIAIN have already graced the stage of St Mary’s Church as part of OV Cardigan in 2022, but we’re delighted to have them in our home of St James’ Church this winter. Dubliner Aoife Ní Bhriain is one of her generation’s most versatile and gifted violinists, a dazzling musician who commands both the classical world and her Irish traditional heritage. From across the Irish Sea on the west coast of Wales, harpist Catrin Finch has also built a formidable classical career through her award-winning collaboration with Seckou Keita. Together, Aoife and Catrin form a fearless virtuoso duo diving into a musical world of creative discovery.
The IMRO Other Room is an incredibly special stand of Other Voices Dingle, inviting artists blazing a trail on Irish soil to perform live and online. The only other livestreamed sets aside from St James’ Church, this year will emphasise the breakout stars of 2023: KhakiKid, Qbanaa, Niamh Bury and Lucy McWilliams!
In addition to their livestreamed performances, all four acts will also perform live sets along the Dingle Distillery Music Trail as part of this year’s Festival.
One of the most talked about rising acts on the Irish folk scene, over the past six months alone, NIAMH BURY has collaborated and shared the stage with acts like Ye Vagabonds, Martin Hayes, Myles O’Reilly and Niamh Regan. Captivating audiences with stirring vocals, adept lyricism, and striking interpretations of old songs; Bury’s anticipated debut album of self-penned material, recorded and produced by Brían Mac Gloinn (Ye Vagabonds), is due for release next year through Ireland’s most iconic record label, Claddagh Records.
Dublin-born singer-songwriter LUCY MCWILLIAMS makes music steeped in candour. Armed with over 16 million streams on Spotify alone – her songs flow between genres, from expansive indie, slinky R&B and swaying acoustic pop to ‘90s-rom-com-style rock. What unites the London-based musician’s work is a knack for heart-on-sleeve dissection of her thoughts; be it singing about loneliness, relationships or mental health. McWilliams cites her first interest in songwriting as an experience when she was 11 years old, watching a televised recording of Amy Winehouse performing at Other Voices festival. Now, Lucy’s own romantic work swirls with the possibility and ache of love.
Irish alt-rapper Abdi Huss, aka KHAKIKID, grew up in Crumlin. His 2020 debut single ‘Late’ introduced an artist with a penchant for jazz-fuelled hip-hop. By 2021, a cult following was building at home in Ireland. His six-track debut EP, ‘Elevator Music’, arrived in September 2022 to critical acclaim: influenced by early Eric B. & Rakim with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and his usual boisterous rap flare.
If you haven’t heard of Irish-Cuban sensation QBANAA by now, you certainly will after her IMRO Other Room debut in Dingle. In the year since she released her debut single ‘Truth and Desire’, Qbanaa has established herself as a force for incorporating new influences, cultures and sounds. Q spent her early years travelling back and forth to Cuba, where music and salsa dancing were integral parts of her childhood. She later sang in school choirs and with her grandmother in Spanish Mass in D1. Influenced by a blend of soul, jazz, Latin and contemporary genres, her singles make an immediate impact.
Earlier this week, Other Voices also shared details of a series of exciting specialist happenings that will take place as part of this year’s Festival this December 1st-3rd. Banter, our fireside chats series curated by Jim Carroll, will feature brilliant guests: Aisling Bea, Dónal Fallon, Mark O’Connell, Brianna Parkins, Emma Warren, Richard Malone, Claddagh Records James Morrissey, Colum McCann, Colm Mac Con Iomaire and more.
Our Irish language strand Cogar is also returning, and zero Dingle Distillery Music Trail tickets are needed to attend the micro-festival! Taking place in Díseart Gardens across the weekend there will be a series of art and light installations, music performances, sculpture, pop-up gigs and more all curated by the brilliant Dingle creative Áine Ní Chíobháin. There will be some exciting Cogar x Dingle Distillery Music Trail performances by Sláine Ní Chathalláin, Kyle Macaulay, Jeremy Spencer and Sean Leahy.
Plus – a brand new trio of street operas presented by Dumbworld and the Irish National Opera. Attendees can immerse themselves in these satirical operas, projected on large walls and experienced via the innovative Isolde app.
Earlier this week, Other Voices kicked off the Road to Dingle with a special Other Voices Home at the Guinness Storehouse livestream featuring performances from The Streets, Mahalia, FIZZ, Morgana, Dagogo Hart and The Bonny Men.
Follow @othervoiceslive for all the latest on this year’s Other Voices Dingle.
Other Voices 2023 is made possible with the support and partnership of the Reed, Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Tourism Ireland, RTÉ, Dingle Distillery, Kerry County Council & IMRO.
@OtherVoicesLive / #OV2023
