'I'm just really proud of what I'm putting out there'

David Kitt will be making a welcome return to Mullingar this May Bank Holiday Weekend for two performances in one night as part of the new Bailiú community arts festival.

His first gig will be in Platform 5 at Clarke's on Friday evening, May 5, while a few hours later in Smiddy's he will showcase his talents as an electronic producer with a set of his New Jackson material.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner from his Kerry base, David said that while he has often performed his singer-songwriter and electro material at festivals, this will be the first time that he will do it “back to back” on the same night. He's looking forward to the shows and catching up some old friends, too.

“I would have had lots of amazing gigs in The Stables over the years. I've always loved playing there. Ali (Ali Morris, one of the main organisers of the Bailiú festival) is one of many friends I've made from Mullingar through music. There seems to be a healthy number of hardcore music fans in the town.”

With eight David Kitt studio albums to his name and two New Jackson LPs, including his latest offering Opps!...Pop, which was released last Friday to rave reviews; he has a rich body of work to fall back on for his two shows.

When it comes to his gig in Platform 5, David says that most of his set will be made up of tracks from past few years with a couple of tracks from his earlier albums, as well.

“I mean, for better or worse, I've always kind of leaned towards my more recent material. I guess my last two records, Idiot Check and Yous, they're probably my favourite two records I've made. I think it's a testament to the quality of the work on those two records that I tend to lean mostly on those. They've really kind of held their ground in the last kind of five, six years, those two records. “But recently, in the last while, I've noticed myself going back to The Big Romance, which is probably my most popular record. So there's quite a few songs, like three or four songs from that. But yeah, mainly leaning on the last two records.”

After nearly 30 years as a recording artist, David says he is enjoying making music and performing more than ever. At the start of his career he experienced the ups and downs of signing with a big label, but for over 15 years he has been practically a one man show. The non creative side of things can be tough work at times, but he is enjoying where he is as an artist, both in the studio and on stage.

“I'm at a point now where I can stand on stage and I'm just really proud of what I'm putting out there and there's a lot of work that goes into it to kind of make it sound right. I think between all the variety of the different projects that I work on, I'm not relying on one thing so much. I get to express my creativity in a pretty full way.”