Dermot Kennedy wants to “reach a lot of people” with his debut album Without Fear

Dermot Kennedy hopes to “reach a lot of people” with his debut album, released next month.

The singer-songwriter from Rathcoole spoke to Access Hollywood about Without Fear, released via Island Records on digital, CD, vinyl and cassette on September 27. He spoke about not being selfish in his writing, wanting his music to be as interpretative and relatable to as many people as possible.

“When you write about love and loss and things with broad meaning like that, I think you can reach a lot of people, Dermot explained. "For me, it’s important to write in such a way that people aren’t going to be like ‘oh it’s that guy writing that song about that person again’.

“I don’t necessarily want to write in a selfish way and everybody feels closed off from what I’m feeling; [I] want to help a lot of people. I do think about specific things relative to just me but I like writing so that other people can make it their own.”

Dermot also said that the fleeting nature of time and fragility of life are running themes through his first LP. He stated: “It’s about how fragile everything is and how you need to live a certain way because life is so short. Tell people that you care about them, live spontaneously and say everything you want to say. One thing that dominates my thoughts more than anything is the passing of time and how everything is super finite.”

Dermot is resonating with plenty of the Irish public at the moment; his latest single Outnumbered has topped the Official Irish Homegrown Chart for 10 weeks, becoming the joint-highest domestic track on the Official Irish Singles Chart of 2019, topping out at Number 2. His previous self-titled ‘collection’ of songs peaked at Number 5 on the Official Irish Albums Chart.

© IRMA