Robbie Kitt is a DJ and producer who makes music with real, deep feeling.

The Dubliner draws influence from the futuristic sounds of Detroit Techno pioneers and the euphoric melodies of mid-90s trance and tech tracks. 

He plays Haunted Dancehall in the National Concert Hall on October 1st alongside 25 other Irish and international electronic/experimental artists such as Oneohtrix Point Never, Caterina Barbieri, Coby Sey, Blackhaine, Sunil Sharpe, Elaine Howley and more. 

1. What’s the music that you listened to growing up, that you still listen to today? 
I've been very lucky in the fact that I have siblings a good bit older than myself, so I was filled full of good stuff at a very early age. I don't really think of my taste as a kid as distinct from my taste today. I like to see the lineage of it. I was really into hip-hop as a young teenager. I got interested in the samples used in the tracks and that led me to soul and disco. Through that, I learned about the origins of house music and techno and then got really deep into the world of electronic music. And there's loads more routes my musical taste took over those years which has led me to all different types of music that I love. I suppose that's what I love about music, that you can find a thread and start pulling on it and see where it takes you. And there's always another thread! 

2. In three words, describe the minute before you walk on stage. 
Let's go please. 

3. How do you wind down after a gig? 
Whether I'm DJing or performing live, I'm usually playing in front of a dancefloor. For me, there's no better place to unwind than the dancefloor, and if it's right there I would typically just try and melt into that! 

4. What’s the one song (by another artist) you wish you’d written or recorded first? 
I don't really feel like that about music. But there are some songs that resonate deeply with me even though I didn't write them. I've got a couple of all-time greats. For the dancefloor, it's ‘Transition’ by Underground Resistance. The vocal is deeply inspiring: "Point yourself in the direction of your dreams, find your strength in the sound and make your transition". 

5. What is your pet peeve? 
Queue skipping. I hate queuing and avoid it as much as I can, but when I'm in one, I consider being skipped to be the greatest insult. They've been in the news lately with the truly demented folk across the water queuing for all hours, but unfortunately not every queue has the resources available to a royal funeral. So when I queue myself, I do so in a state of extreme vigilance. 

6. Name one record, one book and one film that everyone should hear / read / see. 
One record: ‘All My People’ by Maria Somerville. Maria's music is original and innovative in a way that is quintessentially Irish. This record makes me proud of the place and makes me think about the future. 

One book: ‘Sins of the Father’ by Conor McCabe. A crushingly brilliant economic history of Ireland. A meticulous breakdown of the history of agriculture, housing, industry, finance and the 2008 crash. This book made me realise what Ireland is really about. 

One film: ‘Rocky Road to Dublin’. A brilliant documentary which displays the cultural suppression and societal repression in Ireland in the late 1960s. 

7. Pick the director and lead actor(s) for a biopic about your life. 
Honestly, I'm shite at watching films so my director knowledge is very poor. This will come across awfully vain in print I'm sure, but I've been told I look a bit like that Oscar Isaac fella, so maybe he'd do a job. 

8. You’re ordering take-away, what do you get? 
Aobaba, an amazing Vietnamese spot in Dublin that do the best pho around. 

9. Describe your perfect day off. 
The last dedicated holiday I had was in 2014. I'm truly terrible at finding time away from working on something or other. So maybe something simple, just a day in which I don't look at any technology and focus entirely on what I'm cooking for dinner. 

10. Tell us, in one sentence, why we should come to your next gig (whenever it may be.) 
I'm interested in dancing, the only behaviour I know of where you can individually and collectively express yourself in the same moment, and I make and play music to get you there, so if you're interested in dancing too, stall it! 

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Robbie Kitt plays the Haunted Dancehall festival, which runs at Dublin's NCH this weekend, October 1st and 2nd. See nch.ie for more.