About
Kiki Deirdre is a Netherlands-based musician and writer drawn to the the beauty, fragility, and complexity of life. Her songs and writing explore themes of loss, longing, and the often-absurd nature of human experience. Her music combines a traditional storytelling approach with modern, progressive themes, characterised by lyrical depth and nuance. Accompanied by her Shruti Box and acoustic guitars often tuned to open tunings, Kiki Deirdre’s earthy sound draws on the folk tradition while pushing the boundaries of the genre.
She grew up in a small coastal village in Zeeland, the Netherlands. From a young age, she developed a passion for storytelling and loved listening to anyone with a good tale to tell. Her early musical influences include artists such as Leonard Cohen, The Waterboys, and many notable Dutch musicians, such as Maarten van Roozendaal. At the age of twelve, she discovered Mahogany and Cardinal Sessions on YouTube. This platform introduced her to contemporary folk influences like Rachel Sermanni, Will Varley, and Johnny Flynn. After school, she would spend hours scrolling through hundreds of videos, watching artists showcase their craft. By discovering some of her all-time favourite artists through these platforms and reading the works of writers like Allen Ginsberg and Rainer Maria Rilke, she developed a deep appreciation for acoustic music, intimate storytelling and poetic lyricism. This led her to pick up the guitar and begin writing her own songs, blending music and poetry to express her thoughts and emotions.
Early life
As a teenager she travelled the country by train; watching landscapes and people go by while scribbling down poems in notebooks. These journeys sparked her imagination and a curiosity about life that still fuels her writing today. Encouraged by a friend who was a photographer at a music venue, she began sharing her songs and words with the world in 2014. Her first time on stage with original material was a terrifying yet natural experience, marking the start of her love-hate relationship with performing. Her passion for songwriting, music, and language continued to grow as she performed at local venues and travelled across the country by train, taking her poems and songs with her to share wherever she went.
With a thirst for life and new experiences, always in search of adventures and stories, it was only natural that she wanted to leave the village where she grew up. So, in 2017 she left Zeeland to pursue her passion for writing and music. After spending some time in Nijmegen, wandering and searching for her direction, she moved to Utrecht in 2019 to study Music Performance Art (Musician 3.0) at the Utrecht Conservatory. It was during these formative years that her songwriting really began to take shape. She formed the Americana folk band Het Volk in 2020, together with musician friends Noah Eamon Hassler-Forest, Wouter Torringa, Yuri Heiligers and Nemo Arends. This marked the start of a new musical chapter. For a couple of years, they shared the stage and enjoyed themselves like never before, busking around and sharing their passion for storytelling and music with countless wonderful audiences. In 2022, they released a live album featuring original Bluegrass and Folk songs. However, shortly after releasing their debut album, the band chose to take a break from performing together in order to focus on their solo projects. For Kiki Deirdre, this meant following a deep-rooted urge to create music with lyrics and narrative at the forefront, and so she began shaping her solo work. Her aim was to shape a richer acoustic sound, rooted in the folk tradition, breathing new life into the old while bringing forward the timeless qualities of the music. Since graduating from the Utrecht Conservatory in 2024, she has focused entirely on her music and writing, building on the foundation of her studies to develop a distinct approach and style in which music and writing inspire and support each other.
Present-day
To this day Kiki Deirdre's music repertoire still mainly consists of songs appreciating the sound of the acoustic guitar. Her current music and writing are heavily influenced by mundane experiences and observations of the world around her. The tone of her songwriting has become cryptic yet painfully direct, often offering a critical perspective on today's society. Live performances, whether with a band or solo, feel intimate, drawing the audience in as if part of a personal conversation. With a powerful voice, she invites listeners to experience the layered emotions in her music. Her songs resonate with those unafraid to feel and reflect, who seek genuineness, and who appreciate music born from deep emotion and a love for life.
She remains active as a musician though live performances have been temporarily put on hold as she recovers from nerve damage in one of her fingers. Since this break, she has been working on a new Dutch literary project, (potentially taking the form of a novella, novel, or short story collection) and an English poetry bundle with complementary instrumental compositions
2021-2024: How's Life?
Between 2021 and 2024, Kiki Deirdre developed her first large-scale interdisciplinary project, working simultaneously on a novel and its accompanying album. Both works inspired one another throughout the process, with the music directly inspired by the novel’s storyline and written from the perspective of its main character, Suzie Saol. Lyrically dense, the songs explore themes such as the complexities of human existence, the search for meaning, and interpersonal relationships.
For this project, she brought together talented musicians from Utrecht and Amsterdam and collaborated with Greek producer, bass player, and recording artist Minas Vakaloudis. The music for the album was recorded at Touchstone, an intimate stage and community place within a historic Wharf Cellar in Utrecht. Both album and novel came to life thanks to the creativity, skills and contributions of many artists, team members, and collaborators, making it a truly shared effort. The project was supported by a successful crowdfunding campaign and additional funding from Cultuurfonds Utrecht, KF Hein Fonds, the Keep an Eye Foundation, and Gemeente Utrecht. This support made it possible to produce the album and novel, and to celebrate their release at EKKO in Utrecht on 27 June 2024. A pre-release of the novel took place on 12 June at De Utrechtse Boekenbar, where visitors could get an early copy of the novel and and participate in a Q&A, discussion, and interview with Kiki Deirdre, as well as enjoy readings and live music.
The novel and album were self-published and officially released through her independent label, Strange Sea Publishing & Records, on 28 June 2024. In the run-up to the release, she released two singles, Be Ears and How’s Life, both of which were well received by audiences. Be Ears has since been described by Kiki Deirdre as one of her all-time personal favourites. Due to concerns about fair compensation for artists on streaming services, only 5 of the 10 tracks were released on major streaming platforms. The complete album was made available exclusively on vinyl and as MP3 downloads via Bandcamp. If you'd like to support her art, you can listen or purchase it on Bandcamp, or visit her shop to buy her novel and vinyl.
Reflecting on the project, Kiki Deirdre stated:
“I like to feel deeply and intensely, because it reminds me that I'm alive.This project allowed me to experience all of it - the depths of love, highs of happiness, many moments of reflection, and waves of intense confusion.
Picture by Daan Kamerman
2024-2025: Over Zeeland
Kiki Deirdre initially wrote primarily in English, but her most recent project explores the Dutch language. She draws on childhood memories from the Dutch polders, transforming them into stories rooted in the landscape of her upbringing, characterised by muddy boots, the smell of the mudflats, biting winds, long bike rides along the dykes, and steaming plates of stamppot.
She worked in a non-attached style, with self-imposed limitations, in a small studio at De Nijverheid in Utrecht, which she sublet for three and a half months. Over this period, she wrote and recorded 7 tracks, resulting in a raw and candid extended play (EP), Over Zeeland, consisting of 6 nostalgic, humorous, and honest songs, along with 1 interlude. The recordings capture the ambience of the space, including squeaking wooden floorboards and the sounds of the surrounding city.
She celebrated the release and creative process with a live performance at De Nijverheid.
Only one of the seven tracks, Zeeland, sneeuwwit, has been made available online. In February 2025, 25 exclusive copies of the EP were released, though the official release date for Over Zeeland has not yet been announced, and it remains unclear whether the EP will be re-recorded or made more widely available online.
Picture by Cristina Kirstein
Full Discography
Single Zeeland, sneeuwwit (2025)
EP Over Zeeland (2025), exclusively available on CD.
Novel How's Life? (2024), exclusively available as softcover.
Album How's Life? (2024), full album exclusively available on Bandcamp and vinyl.
Album Childish Old Souls (2022), collaboration with Het Volk.
EP Entwined (2017), exclusively available on CD.
