Kae Tempest
Kae Tempest started out when they were 16, rapping at strangers on night busses and pestering mc’s to let them on the mic at raves. Ten years later they have published playwright, novelist, poet and respected recording artist. Their work includes ‘Balance’ (Domino Publishing) , their first album with band Sound of Rum; Everything Speaks in its Own Way their first collection of poems, the critically acclaimed plays Wasted, Glasshouse and Hopelessly Devoted. Brand New Ancients, their se...
Kae Tempest started out when they were 16, rapping at strangers on night busses and pestering mc’s to let them on the mic at raves. Ten years later they have published playwright, novelist, poet and respected recording artist. Their work includes ‘Balance’ (Domino Publishing) , their first album with band Sound of Rum; Everything Speaks in its Own Way their first collection of poems, the critically acclaimed plays Wasted, Glasshouse and Hopelessly Devoted. Brand New Ancients, their self-performed epic poem to a live score, won the Ted Hughes prize 2013 and the Herald Angel at Edinburgh Fringe. It has sold out tours in the UK and New York and is published by Picador. Kae’s second collection of poetry, Hold Your Own, was published by Picador in October 2014. Their debut novel, The Bricks That Built The Houses, sold in a highly competitive auction to Bloomsbury and will be published in territories including the UK, US, France, Holland and Brazil in Spring 2015. Excitingly, each track on the record correlates with a chapter in the novel, in a groundbreaking cross-genre experience.
The single ‘Our Town’, with producers letthemusicplay was released on Greco-Roman records. Kae has featured on songs with Sinead O Connor, Bastille, the King Blues, Damien Dempsey and Landslide. They have toured extensively, supporting Billy Bragg on his UK tour, as well as supporting Scroobius Pip, Femi Kuti, Saul Williams and John Cooper Clarke. Kae is 2 x slam winner at the prestigious Nu-Yorican poetry cafe in New York and has played all the major UK and European music festivals either solo or with Sound of Rum.
Kae’s recent, critically acclaimed album ‘Everybody Down’ was released in May 2014 on Big Dada records. It was produced by Dan Carey who is one of the UK’s best known and most highly-rated producers. When the two met, Carey invited Tempest to come through to his South London studio to muck about on a track or two. In a burst of intense creativity, they put down the whole twelve track album in a fortnight having spent almost a year developing the characters and story.