Jess Kavanagh has been a force of nature for a minute now, trailblazing through the Irish Soul scene since long before the pairing of words was little more than an eyebrow raising neologism.
Fronting the criminally underrated agro-soul outfit BARQ until 2020, she has earned admiration for her overwhelming voice and deft lyricism. Her work in theater began in childhood, and has developed alongside a career that’s seen her onstage with the likes of The Waterboys, Hozier, Zaska, and as vocalist for the beautiful ‘Somewhere Out There You’ directed by Wayne Jordan last November. All of this while making magic with Sister Fenix, her ecstatic soul duo with Senita Appiakorang [Bantum, Shookrah].
‘Fermented Dreams’ is a multidisciplinary new work comprising an EP of astounding pianocentric soul wrapped within a one woman play, written, produced, and performed by Kav herself, and directed by Totally Dublin April cover star Laura Sheeran, coming to Dublin this September.
I’ve been reading about your exploits with the Dirty Laundry Collective. I was a huge fan of Kate Finegan’s ‘Gammy’, and Laura Sheeran’s work.
Isn’t it incredible! I worked with Eimear [Keating, actor and DJ] on ‘Somewhere Out There You’ in the Abbey in November.
It’s an incredible collective of talent, the three of you and [glass artist] Alison Lowry. I believe ‘Gammy’ was Kate’s first play, as ‘Fermented Dreams’ is your own debut.
It was! We had worked together on some bursary weeks, developing and writing together. It’s been amazing to watch her confidence grow as a writer over the last years.
I had written some poetry and some articles for the Irish Times, and we were working together and doing a bit of a skill swap. She was picking my brain about writing and singing, and working on movement with me. I was absolutely bollixed. That woman is an athlete. That was only in 2021, so to see the trajectory of her work go from picking my brain to ‘Gammy’ in three years is insane.
Can you talk to me about the genesis of ‘Fermented Dreams’, and how it became a theater piece? As somebody in the process of getting my shit together, I am your target audience for this play.
You’re not the first person to say that to me. I wrote this body of work with Geoff Warner-Clayton. We started writing music together in March 2023. At the end of that year I went into the Abbey show, then I felt kind of burnt out. Theatre is an amazing place to be, but it’s incredibly demanding so I decided to go on a retreat for a week in January.