When last I spoke to Katie Kim, she confessed to having a semi-serious preoccupation with the number 12, having chosen it as the title of her debut and picked 2012 as the year to release her haunting second album Cover & Flood. We’re now six months into the most exciting year in her career, and things could scarcely
be better.

Cover & Flood debuted to universally rave reviews; in April, Ms. Kim mesmerised a couple of hundred fans with a stunning launch show in Dublin’s Unitarian church and went on to make her British television debut, taking to the Later... With Jools Holland stage as part of her initiation into The Waterboys. Meanwhile, Cover & Flood has been catching the ears of all the right people, including alt. hip hop genius André 3000, who snapped up a copy during a Dublin shopping expedition.
“He picked up a couple of albums in Freebird,” Kim tells me. “It’s great that he’s even interested in what’s going on here. To be honest I’m under the radar with a lot of what’s going on musically, especially ‘cos a lot of the people in my band and a lot of my friends are making their own music. I tend to listen to stuff that’s really close to me so I’m a bit disconnected from the world. I should be listening to more. When I worked in a record shop, I used to listen to so much music, I feel very guilty about it.”
Kim has played a crucial part in shining a light on the fertile Irish underground, a scene that’s well represented at this year’s festival.
“It’s a great line-up,” she enthuses. “Matthew from 3epkano who’s involved has got great taste and put together a really diverse spectrum of people.”
With a few church gigs already under her belt, Kim will be right at home in Kilkenny’s 900-year-old St. Canice’s Cathedral, where she performs with American pianist Rachel Grimes.
“We’ve done a good few of those kinds of gigs now but Canice’s is kind of on a different level. It’s so ornate and intricate, every single corner of the building has something hand-carved, so it’s a completely different experience to being in a venue like the Unitarian.”
Kilkenny appearance wrapped up, it’s off to Perpignan to record the third Katie Kim album, with filmmaker Neil O’Driscoll in tow to capture the whole process for a documentary. Sounds like a fierce competitor for Katy Perry’s Part Of Me in 3D...
“I don’t know if it’s going to be that detailed,” Kim laughs. “It’s not going to be Behind The Music or anything. It’s going to be more about the visual aesthetic. Hopefully we’ll have fun doing it and we’ll be able to make things look beautiful.”
After that, we’ll be adding Kim to the list of artists lost to slightly-less-green pastures; yup, the Dublin resident is plotting a move to New York sometime in the next two years.
“Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be a musician and move to New York, that was my whole thing,” she confesses. “It’s historically an amazing place for arts and music. I’m hitting 30 soon so I feel I’m getting a bit long in the tooth for moving away and starting a new life!”