Kae Tempest on words, music, and feeling in touch with the world

 Kae Tempest is a person of deep feeling, with a rare ability to channel life's beauty, pain, and mysteries into moving works of art.From his roots as an MC and spoken word artist on the London scene, he rose to critical acclaim in 2013 by winning the coveted Ted Hughes Prize for Poetry for the work Brand New Ancients. The following year, he was named the Next Generation Poet by the Poetry Book Society, a once in a decade honor. To go with his eight poetry collections, he's published four plays, one nonfiction essay, and released five albums, two of which have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. In 2026, his track I Stand on the Line from a 2025 album, Self-Titled, won the Best Contemporary Song at the Ivor Novello Awards. In the same year he published his second novel, Having Spent Life Seeking. The story follows Rothco Taylor, who returns to their hometown after 15 years away, determined to find atonement and connection with the turbulent past they left behind. It's a story that explores gender identity, desire, and addiction, themes that overlap in some ways with Tempest's own life journey.This conversation, recorded on the eve of Kae's Australian tour, explores what went into his recent novel and album, where inspiration comes from, and what it's like to be in touch with the world."My relationship with my work is so beautiful. To be creative is so necessary for all of us. We all have it. We all have this capacity to express ourselves and meet ourselves there in that place of creativity.  It's so abundantly powerful.If I didn't have my writing, I couldn't imagine having got through life. Creativity has given me my life, and now I give my life to creativity. Music saved my life, now I give my life to music.”