Kynsy - Utopia Kynsy

For a long while, Kynsy - the confident on stage performer - and Ciara Lindsey, the off stage songwriter behind it all, were two quite different people. Having gained swift praise from the likes of NME, DIY and Dork for her first singles ‘Cold Blue Light’ and ‘Happiness Isn’t A Fixed State’ back in 2020, the Dublin-raised, London-based musician soon found herself being heralded as a thrilling new voice in guitar music; upon the release of 2021 debut EP ‘Things That Don’t Exist’, reviews comparing her fizzing, earwormy indie-rock to luminaries such as The Strokes and St. Vincent came flooding in. But while Kynsy was immediately finding her place in the scene, Ciara was still trying to work out hers.

“On those first EPs, I was trying to be more of a character; I was escaping through being this confident frontwoman,” she says. “I was trying to tick every box and write great songs but also look cool and have a fashion eye and everything. I was so obsessed with doing well I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was always working, not going out, not letting myself breathe - it was that young, early twenties neuroticism of trying to get where I wanted to go and constantly thinking about the future but making myself a bit sick with it.”

Having lived in Dublin since the age of four, she speaks of the city as a place where “all you can do is dream, so you dream bigger”. For decades, it’s been a place that’s cultivated writers and artists; in recent years, of course, Dublin’s music scene has been prolific, with Ciara’s old college mates Fontaines D.C and The Murder Capital among those breaking out into huge success. “You create your own world to avoid the groundhog day-ness of the city,” she continues. “So many creative people have come from there, and there’s this feeling that we can make poetry out of it and do more.”