About
Kiki Deirdre 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 included artists such as Leonard Cohen, The Waterboys, and many notable Dutch musicians, including 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.
With a thirst for life and new experiences, it was only natural that she eventually left the village where she grew up. Even before moving to the city, she would slip away after school in search of adventures and stories. 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. She began sharing her songs and words with the world in 2014, encouraged by a friend who told her her songs were worth sharing. 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. She eventually left Zeeland just before she turned eighteen to pursue her love for writing and music elsewhere. After living some time in Nijmegen, she moved to Utrecht to study Music Performance Art at the Utrecht Conservatory. It was during these formative years that her songwriting really began to take shape. She developed her artistic voice and followed a deep-rooted urge to create music built around words and storytelling. Her aim was to develop a richer acoustic sound, drawing from the folk tradition, reviving the old while highlighting the timeless qualities of the kind of music. Around this time, she formed the Americana folk band Het Volk, 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.
Over Zeeland ep release show
and exclusive, handmade cd's
To this day Kiki Deirdre's repertoire still mainly consists of songs appreciating the sound of the acoustic guitar. You can say that her current music is a mix of her old and new songwriting styles – both cryptic and painfully direct, with a critical perspective on today's society. Her live performances, whether with a band or solo, are intimate and draw you in as if you're part of a personal conversation. With a powerful voice, she invites her audience to experience the layered emotions in her music. Her songs resonate with those who aren't afraid to feel and reflect, who seek genuineness, and who appreciate music that comes from a place of deep emotion and love for life.
While Kiki Deirdre began by writing mostly in English, she now also writes and performs live in Dutch. In her latest project she breathes new life into childhood memories, pulling them from the muddy Dutch polders and turning them into stories that take you back to a time when dirty boots, the smell of the mudflats, biting winds, cycling along long dikes, and stamppot (a traditional Dutch dish) were the heart of it all. Over the course of 3 months, she wrote and recorded several songs inspired by her experiences in the coastal province where she was raised. This quick-fire writing and recording process led to a raw and candid EP, featuring 6 nostalgic, honest and humorous songs and 1 interlude. She celebrated the release and her creative process with a release show at De Nijverheid in Utrecht. Only 1 of the 7 tracks from her latest Dutch EP, Over Zeeland, is available online. Listen here to Zeeland, sneeuwwit. She released 25 exclusive EPs in February 2025, but the official release date for her first Dutch EP is yet to be announced.
Debut
In June 2024, she released her debut novel and album How's Life?, a project she worked on for two and a half years. The lyric dense music, inspired by the novel's storyline, explores themes such as the complexities of human existence, the search for meaning, and interpersonal relationships, all through the eyes of the main character, Suzie Saol.
Discography
Single Zeeland, sneeuwwit (2025)
EP Over Zeeland (2025), currently 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.
Singles Quick Luck and Roam (2021)
EP Entwined (2017), exclusively available on CD.
Novel pre-release at De Utrechtse Boekenbar