Features / Kae Tempest
Kae Tempest: letting go, opening up, and finding joy
It’s been an eventful couple of years for most of us, and poet Kae Tempest is no exception.
Alongside the pandemic induced changes and uncertainties that we’ve all faced, Kae has also been coming to terms with, and coming out about, their non-binary identity, writing a book, producing a stage performance for the National Theatre, and writing an album.
is needed now More than ever
But, speaking to me from their tour bus a little over halfway through their first tour in two years, there’s a joy and excitement that radiates out from them that makes it clear they’ve emerged from the past two years a more fulfilled person.
Kae Tempest will be playing The Marble Factory on May 6. Image credit: Wolfgang Tillmans.
They say “I’ve got to say there’s a kind of lightness to the experience now that I haven’t felt for a long time, and I’m just so so glad of it”
Their latest album, The Line Is A Curve, definitely carries the sense of lightness in parts-building and releasing tension in a way that is almost bewitching.
These moments of lightness are more frequent than any of Kae’s previous albums-and opening up to the quiet joys in amongst the tension and fear of day-to-day life.
It’s not the only thing that makes The Line Is A Curve different to Kae’s earlier albums; this time round, Kae has featured many collaborators, whereas previous records were an almost entirely solitary affair.
Lianne La Havas and Fontaines DC lead singer Grian Chatten feature on this record, among others, and while this may seem a new turn for fans, for Kae, it’s a joyful return to their earliest days creating music and poetry.
“I began making music collaboratively; my whole thing at the beginning was that I made music to affirm friendships and it was how I socialised and it’s how I enjoyed myself.” they remarked, before noting that some of the featured artists on the album are people they have played music with “for literally 20 years”.
The Line Is A Curve is Kae’s first album since coming out as non-binary in 2020. While none of the tracks on this record directly reference their transition- a theme for future works perhaps?- as a trans person myself, there are moments that do very specifically strike true in that manner.
“I’m sure that it will resonate differently with different people but that is what poetry does. That is what lyricism does.”
Kae Tempest is learning to find the joy in performance once again. Credit: Wolfgang Tillmans
Letting go- of expectations, of traumas, of shame around gender identity – is a key theme on The Line Is A Curve, and one that Kae very much holds dear in their own life and work; they have let go of expectations of perfectly resonating with everyone.
“I’ve got no idea how people take the work. But once the work is done, I kind of have no say in how it lives and manifests for people. It means whatever you think it means, and it does whatever it does to people.”
“That means that one person can hear it and say “this is exactly my experience. I feel so seen.” and someone else can be like, “This is absolute bullsh*t. This does nothing to me.” And both of those experiences are equally true and valid.”
Kae came out as non-binary in August 2020. Credit: Wolfgang Tillmans
For now at least, Kae is enjoying reconnecting with live audiences, without the debilitating mental health struggles that cast a shadow over previous tours.
In previous years, Kae would often suffer severe panic attacks while performing, something which they partially attribute to the emotional suffering they were wrestling with at the time.
“I was really struggling. And the thing about going on stage is that I go to a very real place- in some ways, the most real place that I that I can ever feel is in that mode of performance with the lyrics that go right to the core of things.”
“So if you’re in a difficult space, when you go to the most real arena, then that difficult space is magnified a hundredfold because you’re going into the place of the soul. And if the soul is in discomfort, then that’s what you’re going to be experiencing and feeling and kind of wrestling with each night. ”
“I don’t want to jinx it. But right now, I just feel like the luckiest person in the world. It’s been so magical to be out on stage in front of audiences again, and to be feeling good. I’m so happy that I’m feeling good on stage. Because for a little while, I wasn’t very well. And I wasn’t that happy up there.”
“And now I’m so happy up there.“
Main Image: Wolfgang Tillmans
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