Kae Tempest
Kae Tempest | |
---|---|
hip-hop | |
Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Labels | American Recordings, Fiction, Big Dada, Ninja Tune, Lex |
Website | www |
Kae Tempest[3][4] (formerly Kate Tempest)[5][6] is an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist and playwright.
At the age of 16, Tempest was accepted into the
Personal life
Kae Tempest grew up in
In August 2020, Tempest came out as non-binary, began using they/them pronouns, and changed their name to Kae.[15]
Career
In 2013, Tempest released their first poetry book Everything Speaks in its Own Way, a limited edition run on their own imprint, Zingaro. At 26, they launched the theatrical spoken word piece Brand New Ancients at the
In September 2013, their play Hopelessly Devoted was produced by Paines Plough and premiered at Birmingham Rep Theatre.[20]
In 2014, they released the album Everybody Down (Big Dada, Ninja Tune), which was produced by Dan Carey and was nominated for the 2014 Mercury Prize.[21]
Since the release of Everybody Down, Tempest has increased touring as a musician,[22] playing at festivals and headlining shows with their live band which consists of Kwake Bass on drums,[23] Dan Carey on synths and Clare Uchima on keyboards.[24]
In October 2014, their first poetry collection for Picador, Hold Your Own, was published. The collection was a commercial and critical success and its release coincided with Tempest being named a Next Generation Poet.
Tempest was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2015.[25]
In April 2016, their debut novel The Bricks That Built The Houses was published by
In September 2016, it was announced that Tempest would curate the 2017 Brighton Festival. They released the album Let Them Eat Chaos on 7 October 2016.[26] It debuted at no. 28 on the UK Albums Chart, and was also released in book format (Picador).[27] The album was also nominated for the Mercury Prize, this time in 2017.[28] They were nominated for Best British Female Solo Performer at the 2018 Brit Awards.[12]
Tempest's song "People's Faces" was used for the Facebook commercial "We're Never Lost If We Can Find Each Other", created by the agency Droga5, and released on 9 April 2020.[29]
Paradise, Tempest's modern adaptation of Sophocles' Greek Classic, Philoctetes, premiered at the National Theatre from 4 August - 11 September 2021. The all-female cast, featuring Lesley Sharp, was directed by Ian Rickson and performed in the Olivier Theatre.[30]
Politics
In November 2019, along with other public figures, Tempest signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world" and endorsed him in the 2019 UK general election.[31] In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, they signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few."[32][33]
Reception
[They are] one of the brightest talents around. [Their] spoken-word performances have the metre and craft of traditional poetry, the kinetic agitation of hip-hop and the intimacy of a whispered heart-to-heart... Tempest deals bravely with poverty, class and consumerism. [They do] so in a way that not only avoids the pitfalls of sounding trite, but manages to be beautiful too, drawing on ancient mythology and sermonic cadence to tell stories of the everyday.[36]
In 2013, aged 28, they won the
Tempest has received wide critical acclaim for their written and live work.[34] A performance of Brand New Ancients prompted the New York Times to say "As gorgeous streams of words flow out, [they conjure] a story so vivid it’s as if you had a state-of-the-art Blu-ray player stuffed into your brain, projecting image after image that sears itself into your consciousness"[19] while a review by Michiko Kakutani of their poetry collections in the same paper explored their written style: “While [their] intense performances on stage add a fierce urgency to the words, these text versions of [their] work stand powerfully on their own on the page...using [their] pictorial imagination to sear specific images into the reader's mind".[21]
They have been published in nine languages.
Everybody Down was nominated for the 2015 Mercury Music Prize and Let Them Eat Chaos have been nominated for the 2017 Mercury Music Prize. Their accompanying poetry book Let Them Eat Chaos was nominated for the Costa Book of the Year in the Poetry Category in 2016. They were nominated as Best Female Solo Performer at the 2018 Brit Awards.
Publications
Poetry collections
- 2012: Everything Speaks in its Own Way
- 2013: Brand New Ancients
- 2014: Hold Your Own
- 2016: Let Them Eat Chaos
- 2016: Pictures on a Screen
- 2018: Running Upon The Wires
- 2023: Divisible By Itself and One
Spoken word performance
- 2012: Brand New Ancients – Ted Hughes Award 2013 (2014 released as CD)
Plays
- 2013: Wasted
- 2014: Glasshouse
- 2014: Hopelessly Devoted
- 2021: Paradise
Novel
- 2016: The Bricks That Built the Houses, Bloomsbury Circus, London
Non-fiction book
- 2020: On Connection, Faber & Faber, London
Discography
Studio albums
- 2011: Balance (with "Sound of Rum")
- 2014: Everybody Down – nominated for Mercury Prize 2014
- 2016: Let Them Eat Chaos – nominated for Mercury Prize 2017[39]
- 2019: The Book of Traps and Lessons
- 2022: The Line Is a Curve
Singles
- 2014: "Our Town"
- 2014: "Hot Night Cold Spaceship"
- 2015: "Bad Place for a Good Time"
- 2016: "Guts (with Loyle Carner)"
- 2016: "Truth Is Telling (with Blasco Says)"
As featured artist
- 2008: "I Got Love (remix)" (The King Blues featuring Kae Tempest)
- 2010: "Drum Song (brentonLABS Remix)" (The Temper Trap featuring Kae Tempest)
- 2011: "Can't Take Another Earthquake - (Beans On Toast - featuring Kae Tempest)
- 2012: "Forever Ever" (Bastille featuring Kae Tempest & Jay Brown)
- 2014: "Our Town" (letthemusicplay featuring Kae Tempest)
- 2014: "Rain" (Rag'n'Bone Man featuring Kae Tempest)
- 2014: "Summer" (letthemusicplay featuring Kae Tempest)
- 2018: "Kairos" (Warsnare featuring Kae Tempest)
- 2018: "A Child Is an Open Book" (Damien Dempsey featuring Kae Tempest)
- 2018: "Usubscribe" (Jam Baxter featuring Kae Tempest)
- 2018: "6 Millions Stories" (Foreign Beggars featuring Kae Tempest, Bangzy, Scott Garcia & Bionic)
- 2019: "Blood of the Past" (The Comet is Comingfeaturing Kae Tempest)
- 2020: "Time Is Hardcore" (High Contrast featuring Kae Tempest & Anita Blay)
- 2023: "We Were We Still Are" (Fraser T. Smith featuring Kae Tempest)[40]
- 2023: "Geronimo Blues" (Speakers Corner Quartet with Kae Tempest)
References
- ^ Tempest, Kae (2020). On Connection. London: Faber & Faber. Bio inside back cover.
They were born in London in 1985 where they still live.
- ^ "Phrased & Confused". The Hub. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
- ^ Murray, Robin (6 August 2020). "Kate Tempest Changes Name To Kae Tempest". Clash. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ Kae Tempest [@kaetempest] (6 August 2020). "kae tempest on Twitter" (Tweet). Retrieved 7 August 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ a b Hogan, Michael (14 September 2014). "Kate Tempest: a winning wielder of words". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
- ^ New York Times. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
- ^ a b c "'Mercury nominees 2014: Kate Tempest". Guardian Music Blog. London. 22 October 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Flood, Alison (11 September 2014). "'Next Generation' of 20 hotly-tipped poets announced by Poetry Book Society". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ a b "Kate Tempest – 'Let Them Eat Chaos'". mercuryprize.com. Mercury Prize. 2 August 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ "Costa shortlists" (PDF).
- ^ a b Cain, Sian (22 November 2016). "Costa book award 2016 shortlists dominated by female writers". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ a b c d "British Female Solo Artist Nominees Announced". Brit Awards. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (6 August 2020). "Kate Tempest announces they are non-binary, changes name to Kae". The Guardian.
- ^ a b c Mahoney, Elisabeth (27 March 2012). "Wasted – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (6 August 2020). "Kate Tempest announces they are non-binary, changes name to Kae". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ a b "Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2017 sponsored by National Book Tokens". National Book Tokens. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Kae Tempest [@kaetempest] (29 January 2013). "Christopher Logue is my favourite poet" (Tweet). Retrieved 17 February 2023 – via Twitter.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
- ^ a b Isherwood, Charles (14 January 2014). "'Brand New Ancients' Stars Kate Tempest in a Tragic Tale – The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Brennan, Clare (23 September 2013). "Hopelessly Devoted – review – Stage – The Guardian". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ a b Kakutani, Michiko (18 March 2015). "Review – Kate Tempest, a Young Poet Conjuring Ancient Gods – The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
- ^ Farand, Chloe (23 June 2017). "Kate Tempest 'moves people to tears' with powerful Glastonbury set". The Independent. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
- ^ Tripney, Natasha (4 May 2017). "Kate Tempest: 'Everything is defined in monetary terms'". The Stage. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
- ^ "Let Them Eat Chaos Kate Tempest06.10. Tempelhof Hangar 5". volksbuehne.berlin. Retrieved 19 June 2018.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Kate Tempest". The Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ "2017:The Year of the Wolf". Press Reader. 19 October 2016.
- ^ Alexis Petridis (27 July 2017). "2017 Mercury shortlist fails to spotlight truly exciting British music". The Guardian.
- ^ "Facebook TV Commercial, 'We're Never Lost If We Can Find Each Other' Song by Kate Tempest". iSpot.tv. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- ^ "Paradise". National Theatre. 10 February 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
- ^ Neale, Matthew (16 November 2019). "Exclusive: New letter supporting Jeremy Corbyn signed by Roger Waters, Robert Del Naja and more". NME. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ^ "Vote for hope and a decent future". The Guardian. 3 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ Proctor, Kate (3 December 2019). "Coogan and Klein lead cultural figures backing Corbyn and Labour". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ a b "William Shakespeare: A digital reinvention". The Economist. 28 August 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
- ^ Gardner, Lyn (10 September 2012). "Brand New Ancients – review BAC, London". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
- ^ "Kate Tempest: the performance poet who can't be ignored" 10 April 2013, The Guardian.
- ^ Michael Hogan (14 September 2014). "Kate Tempest: a winning wielder of words". The Guardian.
- ^ Alison Flood (11 September 2014). "'Next Generation' of 20 hotly-tipped poets announced by Poetry Book Society". The Guardian.
- ^ "Kate Tempest shortlisted for Mercury Prize 2017". Panmacmillan.com. Archived from the original on 3 August 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- ^ Geraghty, Hollie (20 January 2023). "Fraser T Smith shares new single 'We Were We Still Are' with Kae Tempest". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 20 January 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
External links
- Kae Tempest – official site
- Kae Tempest discography at Discogs
- Kate Tempest interview with Huey Morgan, BBC, 29 January 2012 (video, 7 mins)
- Kate Tempest "Shelf Life" interview, The Spectator, 12 September 2012
- Kate Tempest on "Writing your own protest song", The Guardian Teacher Network