Curator Spotlight: R.kitt

Up next in our guest curation series is dublin’s prodigal prince of nightlife R.kitt, who has selected three of dublin’s finest party starters to contribute to the joyride mix series.

R.Kitt is the artist name of Robbie Kitt. He is a producer, DJ and party starter who has been deeply involved in DIY cultural communities for the past decade. He has played in every weird corner of the island of Ireland, extensively on the festival circuit, and in London and Berlin, including an unforgettable show show at Joyride in 2024.

We sat down and spoke about irish nightlife, robbie’s creative process and how, in his own words, he is ‘cuckolded by the dancefloor’. Read below for more….

Hi Robbie! <3

You’ve selected 3 queer Irish artists to be featured in the Joyride mix series. Can you tell us why you chose these 3 particular djs?

I think all 3 of these DJs are fighting to keep it alive in the city and I’ve so much time and respect for the work they all do bringing joy to the place. Dublin is a crazy expensive dystopia in many ways, and to try and cultivate queer DIY culture in the different ways that each of these 3 DJs do is no mean feat. All my love to anyone who’s giving time to bring people together on the dancefloor, with particular regard on this occasion to these 3. 

When I saw Lúnasa play all night in Tengu in December last year, I got the sense that she has a utopian vision of what the dancefloor could be. Her productions take me deeper in that that utopian world. I really like when I feel a DJ is trying to go deeper with it, and I always get that sense from Pauline’s sets. She provides the space for other underrepresented DJs to go deep with all night longs through her club night Stretch. She also runs events at Daylight, a members funded social centre providing an important space for alternative culture and DIY happenings in the city. On top of all that, she’s also a resident at Honeypot, a really fun queer party run by Emma Murphy and Kerry Mahoney. 

Emma is also in the mix for this series, also known as Rhyzine. The space that they’ve created with Honeypot is special and important in Dublin. They run a party that’s meant to be fun, flirty and not to serious, but it’s also really considered. I get the same buzz when I listen to their sets. Emma also works as a designer and her club poster work can be seen across Dublin city most months. They also did the artwork for Lúnasa’s sick Saor EP.

Bull Horris is Bill Harris. Along with Megan, Andrew and James, he runs Tender, a simply excellent party for queers and allies. It’s my fave. I get such spirit, love and energy from his sets, he’s a wonderful DJ. I’m also a big fan of his art practice. His recent pick-a-path sound walk piece, Assessor, that happened as part of Dublin Fringe was incredible. Guided through the city by Bill’s voice, alongside original music, you become activated as an agent of change against the corporate degeneration of the city around you. It was both deeply moving, but also felt practical in a very necessary way. I can’t wait to see more things that he conceives.

Tadgh Kelly is such an important and valuable part of the scene in Dublin. He contributes so much! He’s the founder of Dublin Modular, a queer artist-run community that hosts some of the most inventive and diversely multi-disciplinary club nights and electronic music gigs in the country. What started out as a meet for modular synth enthusiasts is now one of the most important and inclusive communities in the city. I really think Dublin would be lost without it. As a DJ, Tadgh is the ultimate party starter. No matter what the setting, if Tadgh is behind the decks, the dancefloor will be in conniptions. His productions and sound work are deep and steeped in emotion, and his multi-disciplinary work shows that same depth through different lenses.

All 4, certified legends.

Tell us about nightlife in Ireland; how has it been evolving? Why do you think that is?

I’ve been involved with this campaign, Give Us the Night, for the past 7 years, so it’s informed my view on this a lot. In essence, the campaign is trying to reform restrictive rules around what kind of venues can stay open, how late they can stay open and archaic rules around dancing in Ireland. We have some of the earliest closing times in Europe and incredibly costly, archaic systems by which places can even open in the first place. In 1935, the Public Dancehalls Act was introduced which required anyone organising a dance open to the public to secure a licence to do so in response to a moral panic from the church regarding sexual behaviours of young people. That law still exists. The licence doesn’t relate to safety concerns or anything like that, it’s about treating dancing as if it is an activity that itself requires regulation because of the moral degeneracy it might produce. As much as we like to make out the country has modernised, there’s still a lot of deeply conservative laws at the core of the Irish state. 

Clubs are closing everywhere it seems, but in Ireland it’s particularly pronounced. There’s about 80 something clubs left in the entire country. Many of these aren’t even open every week. Most are commercial dance spaces. Very few are kitted out as dedicated nightclubs, certainly less than 15. 

There’s a bunch of reasons why the laws aren’t changing. Honestly don’t get me started. If you are reading this and you’re interested to find out the nuanced details, shoot me a DM. I’m always happy to detail things a bit more. But at the heart of it, Ireland is still a really conservative country. While I really believe the people are ready and waiting for the future, the Government and the State are dragging their heels in no urgency to catch up. 

This is why I have so much respect for the 3 DJs in this series. They’re really doing it in the face of so many obstacles, alongside so many other legends in the city. One of the things I am proud of with the Give Us the Night campaign is that we’ve been able to shift the perception of club culture with bodies like the Arts Council. It’s heartening to see communities like Dublin Modular getting arts funding. I hope that when young queer artists get paid through events supported by the Arts Council, they can see that themselves in those funding streams and they feel empowered to go and apply in the future. 

How do you approach curating a set, or mix?

For live sets, hope for the best, prepare for the worst! I’ll always give careful thought to the setting. I’ll try and summon some visions of how things will go and chart a course from those. But when it comes to the gig, I’m a slave to the dancefloor. When the bodies are in front of me, they’re curating my choices really.

Forgive me for this tangent, but I have this idea of how the DJ is a cuckhold. It’s part of a wider project to try and challenge the use of the word cuck as a pejorative. I always find it interesting that, in the traditional pejorative use of the term, the cuckhold is a humiliated, emasculated figure. Forget that, let’s look to nature and the origin of the term. A cuckoo will go to another bird’s nest and destroy the eggs and leave its own eggs for the other bird to raise. That bird is the cuckhold and, in my opinion, they’re a legend. They’ve just had their eggs destroyed and they’re still selfless enough to raise the chicks of the bird that destroyed them. Massive respect from me. 

So in the interest of thinking more positively about cucks, I think of myself as a cuck DJ. I can’t participate like the dancers can, I’m essentially cuckholded by the dancefloor. 

How does your Irish roots influence your sound and creative process?

Oh god, probably in loads of ways I’m not even aware of!! The influences I’m most aware of are the ones derived from local communities I’ve been a part of. I volunteer with Dublin Digital Radio, which is an incredible alternative media platform connecting over 100 residents across the island of Ireland. Being involved with DDR has made me aware of so much interesting DIY stuff around me. It’s amazing how deep and diverse tiny alternative music communities there are in Ireland.  

Are there any Irish artists—past or present—who’ve had a big impact on your musical journey, queer or otherwise? 

Two of the biggest influences for me are Cáit Fahey and Enda Rowan. We started a party called Dip together back in 2014. We ran nights for years in this really special, now legendary, DIY space called Jigsaw. Those nights honestly radicalised me; they gave me an experience of a different world. I grew up with those two, god bless them, and they each opened up my world to the power of the dancefloor. Cáit is still my fav DJ in the world. 

Through those parties, we connected with Eoin DJ, who was running parties in Galway at the time. When Eoin moved up to Dublin, we spent a lot of time hanging out, eating food, DJing and listening to each other’s tracks. I think they were one of the first people that I had that relationship with. They also taught me how to make an incredibly tasty dahl and red onion pickle. Life changing impact honestly. 

Working with Sunil Sharpe on the Give Us the Night campaign is something that has definitely had a huge impact on my musical journey. Sunil founded the campaign in 2004 to advocate for nightlife and is still campaigning 21 years later. I’ve never come across someone who is so selfless and dedicated on behalf of club communities, and working alongside him on the campaign has been really inspiring. 

There’s honestly too many to mention. So much has come from the local communities I’m a part of.  

Which are your favourite parties, festivals or venues to play in Ireland?

Some of my favourite parties I’ve played have been the more DIY ones. Jigsaw is sadly gone now, but those parties were incredibly special. The space was unique, inclusive and wild. 

Recently, I’ve played at and run some interesting parties in a space called Brown Mountain Diamond. It’s an artist run space in rural Ireland run by Carl Giffney. He hosts artist residencies in his cottage and has a barn next door with a big sound system in it. 

Ar Ais Arís is a wonderful party happening in Galway that I absolutely loved playing at. 

My favourite festivals I’ve played are definitely AVA and Fuinneamh. AVA is just distilled Belfast madness. Fuinneamh is a dedicated electronic music festival outside of Dundalk and is one of the warmest festival atmospheres you can experience in Ireland. 

Can you tell us a little about your work or creative process outside of nightlife—how do you stay inspired day to day?

Until last year, I was working full time in music. A lot of that would be DJ gigs, live gigs and any aul nixer that would keep the show on the road. In the last few years, it’s also included composition work in theatre and contemporary dance. I composed the music to a play by Shaun Dunne in 2023 called This Solution, working with choreographer Jessie Thompson, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival which was about a man’s experience working in gay porn. I’m working with the two of them again, and Gemma Dunleavy, on a piece of work being developed by the Abbey Theatre at the moment which I’m really excited about.

It's a good example of the best way I’ve found to stay inspired day to day, which is by working with other people. I’ve always found myself inspired by collaborators. I find it much harder to summon that inspiration when I work in isolation. 

In April last year then, I got a job working outside of music altogether. I’m now employed as a policy advisor to 4 independent opposition Senators in the Oireachtas, the Irish Parliament. They are Lynn Ruane, Alice-Mary Higgins, Frances Black and Eileen Flynn. I’m a big fan of their politics and I feel I’m very lucky to work for people I respect. It’s been a really interesting insight to see how political decisions get made in detail, without the lens of the media or any vested political interest. Politics is so broken. If anything, working in it has made me believe more in the power of art and music to change the world we live in. 

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

I fear I’ve said too much ☺