David Kitt

Born in Dublin, Eire, the Irish singer-songwriter was immersed in music from childhood because his father and uncles had launched a thriving touring folk ensemble. Kitt launched his own live performances during his time at Trinity College, Dublin, where he finished a postgraduate program in music technology. Working from his bedroom, he captured and blended the tracks for his first release on a digital eight-track machine, lending the songs a haunting, low-fidelity texture. The revived Rough Trade Records label issued Small Moments in 1999, by which point Kitt had already started shaping his debut full-length album.

The Big Romance appeared on the Blanco y Negro imprint in June 2001, delivering a more expansive production while keeping the debut’s appeal intact, with ‘Song From Hope Street (Brooklyn, N.Y.)’ and ‘What I Ask’ standing out among its tracks. Square 1 moved at a gentler pace than the preceding record, trading electronic touches for brass and strings. In summer 2003 the album entered the Irish charts at number one.