Ahead of an Irish tour kicking off in Belfast this Sunday, Dani Larkin reflects on a remarkable 2024. From a headline tour across Canada and collaborations with Crash Ensemble to sold-out shows with Lisa Hannigan and a venture into folk horror filmmaking, it’s been a year defined by creativity and exploration for the Belfast-based artist.
It’s been a delight watching Dani’s journey unfold over the years and their work continues to challenge, inspire and evolve. With the new single ‘David’ and bold projects on the horizon, 2025 is shaping up to be another significant chapter.
‘David’ by Dani Larkin is released on 30th January
2024 began as most things do, in darkness. New Year’s morning was a walk to the top of the Sperrins from dark into light, and that slow, heavy-footed theme characterised the rest of 2024.
I began preparing for a headline tour of Canada, from the West Coast to the East – Canada is very, very big. We took trains, planes and automobiles, just the two of us (George Sloan of HalfBap Studios and I) carrying all our gear. From the warmth of Vancouver, 24 degrees, to subzero Montreal in a mere ten days in March. It really was quite epic and the audiences were really very gorgeous. Canada certainly feels different from other colonised countries that I’ve played in. There’s a different kind of awareness around land and people. I can’t quite put my finger on it but perhaps something like a general awareness that white people are not, in fact, the people who own the land.
When touring, I’m always quite struck by the notion of Irishness when outside of the island. It’s almost as if we, the artists who tour there, bring a sense of home to people and all of what that might mean to any given person on any given day. It’s a never-ending question for me, how do we move beyond or uphold the stereotypes of Irishness and culture that we’ve been associated with throughout the world?
In Montreal, we had a half day to ourselves and I managed to find a rally in solidarity with Palestine in the centre of the city. The outpouring of solidarity from people throughout the world is a reminder that despite government actions the will of the people is resounding.
Some other things in 2024, I built a studio, learned about analogue music production, worked on my first composition commissioned by Crash Ensemble, wrote new music, a lot of new music, started songwriting sessions with some folk and got a dog (Róise). I had some wonderful touring times with pals Ye Vagabonds and a gorgeous tour with Lisa Hannigan. Some sold-out shows in London + Brighton were nice additions alongside Cambridge Folk Fest + Moseley Folk. I started a Substack, Feather & Flint, which has allowed me to step into the world of writing in a way that I really enjoy. In truth, writing the newsletter is one of my favourite things to do alongside writing songs and radio chats. The cool thing about Substack is that I’ve also created a space for my political science mind and I’m looking forward to sharing more on that this year. I also starred in a folk horror film that saw me spend a day and night in Omagh – more on that another time.
As an independent artist I’ve learned some hard lessons too. We’re living in a continued cost-of-living crisis, alongside a culture of global streaming as opposed to buying music. These things make it more difficult to sustain a living as an artist. I rely heavily on the folks who buy tickets to my shows and perhaps even heavier on those who buy merch. It can all disappear so fast and I take none of it for granted.
All in all, in 2024, I had the opportunity to actually listen to and learn about myself and music in a way that I haven’t since things took off with Notes For A Maiden Warrior. I am really very excited about the new things coming in 2025 and ‘David’ is but one aspect of that. It draws on themes of childhood memory and the playfulness of a space-age future. At a time when it feels like the world is collapsing around us ‘David’ suggests how the curiosity of childhood could be an almost antidote to a present so seemingly bound to AI.
Lead photo by Rosie Dawson
‘David’ artwork
