The Big Romance
Biography
David Kitt (born in 1975 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician who crosses multiple genres. He has released six solo albums to date. Since mid-2007 Kitt has been making house music with his brother, Robbie, under the psuedonym Spilly Walker. He has also been a member of Tindersticks since their 2010 Falling Down a Mountain album and tour. When Kitt was young his father and uncles formed a successful touring folk group so Kitt grew up surrounded by music, and he himself began performing liv...
David Kitt (born in 1975 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician who crosses multiple genres. He has released six solo albums to date. Since mid-2007 Kitt has been making house music with his brother, Robbie, under the psuedonym Spilly Walker. He has also been a member of Tindersticks since their 2010 Falling Down a Mountain album and tour.
When Kitt was young his father and uncles formed a successful touring folk group so Kitt grew up surrounded by music, and he himself began performing live sets while studying music technology at Trinity College, Dublin. He recorded and mixed the eight tracks of his debut release in his bedroom and this debut LP, the quietly magnetic Small Moments (Rough Trade) which was followed by the expansive ambient textures and looping pop mantras of The Big Romance (Blanco y Negro, 2001); his biggest selling record.
During this period Kitt concentrated on touring Britain and mainland Europe and graced the stage with record collection heroes such as Television, Yo La Tengo, Arab Strap and Tindersticks, discovered harmony-pop lovelies The Magic Numbers were his biggest fans and was invited by David Bowie to perform at the Bowie curated Meltdown Festival at Royal Festival Hall in 2002.
Then came Square One (WEA) in 2003; the soundtrack to falling in love, and The Black & Red Notebook (Rough Trade, 2005) which was, quite simply, a covers album. A snapshot tribute to a record collection, with fascinating gimmick-free Kitt-style workovers of Sonic Youth, Thin Lizzy, JJ Cale et al. 2006’s return to original material, Not Fade Away (Rough Trade) captured an artist dealing with the post-relationship whirlwind of excess and contemplation.
Kitt's most recent album is The Nightsaver, his sixth LP. The result of two years of late-night experimentation, caught in the reverie of writing and recording in a home studio at the top of a winding staircase somewhere along Dublin’s Grand Canal. Without any of the baggage of collaboration or record company influence he allowed his natural influences to filter through this collection of, what are essentially, concise songs. The free-flowing nuances of disco, Kraftwerk, 90’s house music, hip-hop of all eras and the evolving legacy of crafted synth-pop from Hall & Oates to Junior Boys can be heard throughout.
Perhaps The Nightsaver’s most significant breakthrough is that of Kitt’s role as producer, an evolving process in which he learned to trust his instincts, his skills and his own ears. He embraced the spontaneity of these early hours sessions, capturing moments of loose musicianship or slightly out of tune singing, marrying unlikely electronic rhythms with classic pop-crafted melodies. The only guest is the apparitional voice of Waterford artist Katie Kim on Beat A Retreat and Don't Wake Me Up. Otherwise it’s all David.
From the dreamy chimes of opener Move It On, through the clipped disco swagger of It’s Yours and the breathtaking mantra-style vocals and spitting electronic distrotion of Learning To Say Goodbye right through to the creaky folk-blues hip-hop of No Truth in Your Eyes, The Nightsaver is very much David Kitt’s clean slate record.
Since mid-2007 Kitt has been making house music with his brother, Robbie under the psuedonym Spilly Walker . He's also been a member of Tindersticks since their 2010 Falling Down a Mountain album and tour. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
