Dani Larkin: "One of the most powerful things about music is that we can connect beyond words, because it’s in the realm of emotion and compassion"

Dani Larkin first had the idea for the title of her upcoming record, Next Of Kin, all the way back in 2021. But at the time, she didn’t understand the extent of what the title really meant.

“I woke up one morning at a festival,” the musician reminisces, “just after I’d released my first record, and I knew that my next work was going to be called Next Of Kin. Then, I had five years to really get to understand what the concept means to me. What does it mean to be able to show up for people in that way every day? Create that sense of community and togetherness over a lifetime?”

“It’s a companion to life, love and death,” she continues. “The concept of Next Of Kin is about me, as an artist, showing up for my audience. It’s like: I’m here. I really appreciate your support in the work that I’m doing, this record is a gift to you. I hope it’ll provide you with good company for many years to come.”

After settling on the album title, Larkin spent two years writing songs. Then, in 2024, accompanied by co-producer Ruth O’Mahony Brady – best known for her work with artists like Gorillaz and Sam Smith – the singer-songwriter popped into the studio to begin recording.

“With Ruth,” she explains, “it really flowed perfectly. It may sound quite naff to say it, but honestly, from the first time I walked in the door, it was as if I’d known Ruth my whole life. Very quickly we had the bones of the record, and this beautiful creative relationship and way of communicating.

“Ruth has worked with incredible people, travelled the world 10 times over and written with absolute heroes of mine. But when you walk in that room as an artist, we’re both just there as creative people.”

The record’s opening track, ‘Morning’, marks a major break from Larkin’s previous stripped-back, folky sound, through a shiver-inducing reimagining of Eleanor Farjeon’s 1931 hymn, ‘Morning Has Broken’.

“When I opened my studio for the first time,” the singer explains, “I just picked up my guitar and that arrangement of ‘Morning’ came out. I was like, where did that come from? That was it straight away – I knew that would be the first song on the record.”

With that first, almost accidental arrangement, Larkin ended up finding the foundation for the entirety of Next Of Kin.

“I arranged the delay on the vocals, which is a very big change for me as an artist compared to my previous LP, Notes For A Maiden Warrior,” she says. “With that record, I wanted people to feel I was in a sitting room singing the songs to them. But the idea with Next Of Kin is that, when people put it on, they’ve just walked into my studio.”

‘Morning’ serves as a commentary on the separation of church and state. That theme, mixed with the traditional elements of a hymn, was also a perfect representation of the rest of the record and its reflections on Irishness.

“It captures something within the Irish psyche,” Larkin agrees. “And ultimately beyond that as well, of this constant separation of church and state that we’ve been moving through for the last 50 years, and what that actually means to our psyche as Irish people.

“We’re moving through that process, and redefining what it means to be Irish every single day. It’s very exciting that we get to reimagine that concept. If you compare the hold the Church had on Ireland 50 years ago to where we are now, it’s very different. I suppose I wanted to pay homage to that journey.”

Another stand-out is a gorgeously haunting version of ‘She Moved Through The Fair’. Arranged when Larkin was asked to submit a traditional song for a project she was acting in, the singer notes that, initially, she struggled to make it fit with the rest of Next Of Kin.

“What I realised is that it’s a reckoning with my own sense of identity, in one way,” she says. “Of being someone from the border, someone from the North who didn’t grown up in an Irish tradition of tunes, but who wanted and felt a sense of connection beyond that.”

Most often performed with two verses, Larkin’s version of ‘She Moved Through The Fair’ also includes the third.

“It tells the story of someone who’s been struggling with their mental health, and how they’ve chosen to end their own life,” says Larkin. “We never talk about that, but it’s felt in our DNA, and in our culture and music – those are the subliminal messages.”

The track also contains field recordings Larkin made during her time in Palestine in 2016, where she worked as a music facilitator in conflict zones for three months.

“It’s the sound of the city of Nablus, which is in the West Bank – the fifth oldest city in the world,” she reflects. “I just knew that recording needed to go with that song. It was an incredibly transformative time in my life. I was very young when I went, and I learned a lot more than I could ever have shared with anyone.

“For three months, I was writing songs and singing them, but without a common language. One of the most powerful things about music is that we can connect beyond words, because it’s in the realm of emotion and compassion. That’s why I love it.”

The video for ‘She Moved Through The Fair’ was done in collaboration with artist Christopher McAuley, who managed to perfectly capture the aspects of queer lament, death and marriage. How central is the idea of queer form in Next Of Kin?

“Queerness is a sense of community, and showing up for each other as next of kin,” says Larkin. “For many people within the queer community, we don’t get the chance to think about what it’s like, either historically or in the present day. It’s not because he’s queer that I used Christopher’s art, it’s because his work is stunning.

“Queerness isn’t something that’s just in gender or sexuality, it’s something in those of us who are choosing to disrupt the system – who are choosing to change how we live in order to create a better, more inclusive and sustainable world.”

In the next few months, Larkin is set to embark on an extensive tour of Ireland and the UK to present her new album. She’s more than a little excited.

“What I’ve really been enjoying, for the little time I’ve been playing the record, is bringing that full, wide sound,” she enthuses. “It’s not just about being close to the sound of the album – it’s about being close to the feeling as well. When I’m playing with other people, I love for them to bring as much of themselves into that space as they can.

“The audience has a big part to play too. Because the more present they are, the more you can lean into the experimental side – that space of improvisation.”
Larkin offers a final reflection on the album.

“It’s a big process of trust, making a record,” she says. “From knowing the title was going to be Next Of Kin in 2021, to where we now – all of it is just trusting the record will find its way to the people who need to hear it.”

• Next Of Kin is out now. Dani Larkin kicks off her Irish tour in Coughlan’s, Cork on March 20, with dates in Belfast, Limerick, Dublin and more to follow.