About
Kiki Deirdre discovered her passion for music and storytelling at a young age. Growing up, she was introduced to the music of artists like Leonard Cohen, The Pogues, Melanie, The Doors, and The Waterboys. At the age of twelve she discovered Mahogany & Cardinal Sessions, leading to contemporary folk music influences such as Rachel Sermanni, Lisa Hannigan, Villagers, and Johnny Flynn. By listening to these artists and reading the works of writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Rainer Maria Rilke, she developed a fascination for intimate, personal music, and poem-like lyrics that inspired her to start playing guitar and writing her own songs.
At thirteen, she recorded her first song in a small classroom at her high school. After that, most of the songs she wrote were poems set to music — simple, personal, cryptic, but full of potential. She often wrote about her confusion and struggle to find her place in a world she couldn't understand. This confusion manifested directly in her music and writing; often oddly structured, very long or short songs, poems, or stories played on a stratocaster or steel-string guitar.
Throughout her teenage years, her passion for music and language was fuelled even further by performing at small, local venues and open mic nights. In her early twenties, she started to find more structure in her songwriting, and her songs also started to touch upon more universal themes. Around that same time she felt a need to develop her artistic skills further, so she started studying at the Conservatory of Utrecht. During that time, she played with Americana folk band Het Volk for a few years and busked around in The Netherlands. The stratocaster was swapped for a nylon string guitar, and currently her repertoire mainly consists of songs appreciating the sound of the acoustic guitar. Her current music and writing is a mix of her old and new songwriting styles — both cryptic and painfully direct, with a critical perspective on today's society.
"Performing live is incredibly intimate. And as a private person, stepping onto the stage always feels surreal. But it’s a mutual exchange: I share, the listener receives, and we connect over the song's message. After every performance, I always realise it's not about me — it's about the song, the story, and the connection with the audience, creating a feeling of togetherness."