Dee is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and a vibrant force in Irish music for over three decades. Best known as the fiddle player with the iconic band Kila since 1991, she brings an electrifying energy to every performance. Coming from a deeply musical family, Dee has inherited a legacy that resonates through the generations. This influence is unmistakably present in both her solo work and collaborative projects. Her children โ Tiggy, Diarmuid, Lughaidh and Rosie continue this family tradition. Check out the exclusive Interview below:
1. Your roots can often shape your journey. Can you share a story or moment from your early life that had a significant impact on your path into music?
DEE ARMSTRONG: I just wanted to dance as a kid, so I would dance to anything on the radio, records on in the house. I spent a lot of time spinning in a circle. I just loved dancing to music. I come from a family of musicians so it was always around, but my first response was to dance to it. I didnโt want to play it! I remember I had to write a story when I was about 8 or 9, and there was this amazing solo tin whistle playing. I just jumped inside this tune and the story wrote itself. It was all sound and pictures ..very vivid and it had this amazing joyful feeling. Transported away.
2. Did your musical journey begin with formal training, or was it more of a personal exploration? How has that shaped your unique approach to your craft?
DEE ARMSTRONG: I didnโt really have any formal training. I was dead stubborn and I refused to learn music as a kid. I started picking up the fiddle when I was 16, and had a few lessons, taught myself vibrato by shoving the end of the fiddle up against the bed so it wouldnโt move and wiggling my hand till I got the hang of it. I got some woeful sounds out of it! I had a baby at 18 and only after that did I start seriously learning tunes, which I loved. I learned traditional Irish tunes by ear and that suited me as reading music was a bit formal for me. I got by by asking other musicians for a wee lesson here and there and I just tipped away myself. I always wrote little bits and pieces on guitar or fiddle as I was learning tooโฆthen I just kept going. I joined Kila when I was 21. I was still learning technique, but I had the music in me and a head for arranging, so they kept me. I have been in the band for 34 years.
3. Who were some of the most influential figures in your early musical life, and how did they inspire your sound?
DEE ARMSTRONG: I loved heavy metal, rock, funk, disco, anything to make you dance, as a teenager. I LOVED Queen and David Bowie and saw them both in Slane! Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, Sinead O Connor, Dolores O Riordainโฆthe list is massive to be honest. Irish traditional music, Irish Traveller music, Bothy Band, Planxty, Moving Hearts. I love Roma Gypsy music, middle eastern music, nomadic music, Jewish Klezmer, West African Blues, Old American Blues, Soul, Gospel , Swing, Jazz. My grandmother Maggie Armstrong was a singer and storyteller and she sang gospel songs and traditional Irish songs. She was full of mischief and fun, but had the hard life. She was one of the first people I heard singing. I love a lonesome voice, a powerful voice, singing their heart out. I try and do a bit of that with the fiddle as I wouldnโt be the best singer.
4. What do you believe sets your music apart? How would you describe your sound to someone discovering you for the first time, and what emotions or experiences do you hope to evoke in your listeners?
DEE ARMSTRONG: Thatโs up to the listener to figure out. Whatever way it hits them is how it affects them. Everyone will experience it slightly differently.
5. Music often transcends entertainment. Whatโs your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles โ and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
DEE ARMSTRONG: I am an activist. Music has always played a massive role in speaking to power and challenging injustice, for example, Nina Simone and the civil rights movement in America. I believe music and art are life changing for peopleโฆself expression, community, solidarity, joy all come from having the freedom to sing, dance and create. I included an old Jewish dance tune, a โfrailachโ on the album. Im a huge fan of Roma gypsy and Irish Traveller music, also Middle Eastern and Jewish Music. Nomadic people carry the music with them, absorbing everything they hear and turning it into their own versions of gold. Often the most powerful music comes from the most oppressed. Look at the history of the Blues. The experiences of the people live in the music. Music is the lifelineโฆit canโt be taken away, and then it speaks to us down through the generations. We are witnessing the attempted obliteration of Palestine and the Palestinian people currently. So many Jewish people have spoken out against this genocide as it is a repeat of their own suffering. This tune is for them and the people of Palestine and their children, who suffer occupation, death, starvation and destruction every day.
6. Do you feel the rewards of your musical career match the energy and passion you invest in it, or are there different kinds of fulfillment youโre still seeking?
DEE ARMSTRONG: I have never made much money from music. The most I ever got paid regularly with Kila was 250 euro per gig! The odd time I would get 300 euro, or at Christmas, 500 euro. I had to apply for social welfare to raise my kids, as what I was being paid was not nearly enough. I loved composing and performing music however.. it was my lifeline in that sense. My former partner Ger, died in a car crash in 2006, so it was a rough ride for a while.
Music got us through, and I started a Rockschool with Bobby Lee who plays guitar on my album, for kids aged 10 to 18. This has been running for 17 years now and it has given us all some wonderful memories and a musical community. I believe in music and its power. So I will always be playing it. Id like to learn a bit more tech!!!
7. Can you walk us through your creative process? From the first spark of an idea to the finished track, whatโs the most essential part of your process, and how do collaboration or external influences shape your work?
DEE ARMSTRONG: Tunes often just pop in. I try to stay back and let them arrive. Then, depends on what the feeling is with that tune where it goes. I use the recording process to build up layers of tracks, string sections, atmosphere. I have collaborated on so many pieces, ..its important to have musicians that you click with to do that.
8. Whatโs been the most challenging hurdle in either your personal life or music career, and how has it shaped you as an artist?
DEE ARMSTRONG: Probably the death of my former partner Ger and trying to bring the kids up on my own. It was incredibly difficult to keep gigging and manage grieving kids, and keep my own head together. A place id not like to return to. Still we brought each other through.
9. On the flip side, what moment or achievement in your career so far has made you feel the proudest, and why? And letโs talk about your latest release and future plans.
DEE ARMSTRONG: Im proud of a lot of moments. A full big top at Electric Picnicโฆ crowd going wild.. dancing like at a rave.
The premiere of Secret Of Kells, first animated feature by Cartoon Saloon, and listening to a tune I had written for the movie in the big cinema. It just worked so well.
Very proud of my first solo album. I am finally freer to tour it and itโs been fantastic so far, the Irish tour. We have got a standing ovation every night. See my website deearmstrong.ie for future plans!
10. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?
DEE ARMSTRONG: They are two totally different processes and I love both. It is so creative to mix music, edit, create soundscapes, with todays technology there are so many options. Live โฆyou get to rock out. Brilliant!
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