What is the Sound of the Northside?

The Kabin Crew are a force of nature. Based in Knocknaheeny in a small studio space in a repurposed metal container, the group comprises local young musicians, principally interested in hip-hop, who write and perform together. The Kabin’s junior group have enjoyed success this summer with their major viral hit ‘The Spark’ which has been seen more than 1.5 billion times online since it was released, but this is the tip of iceberg of the Kabin’s excellent output.

I first visited the Kabin Studio in 2019 and immediately felt what a special place it was. Their enthusiasm for making music is infectious and their support for one another is inspiring. After a small-scale collaboration with the group through our Open Foyer initiative, I felt there was a way both organisations could work together to achieve something more ambitious.

Irish National Opera, first and foremost, is a company which knows how to produce great opera. We know what it takes to put music into a theatre and give audiences the very best experience. By teaming up with the Kabin, we could create something neither organisation could produce on its own: a realisation of the Kabin’s energy and great music, built for the stage, and this is where ‘The Sound of the Northside’ began.

To direct this show, we turned to directing duo, Maud Lee and Zoe Ní Riordáin of One Two One Two, who have had success in writing their own music and bringing it to the stage, with projects such as Éist Liom (listen to me) and Everything I Do. From here we recruited a broader team of artists and technicians who would help us realise this show as well as enlisting members of the INO orchestra to perform orchestrated version of the Kabin’s music arranged by Áine Delaney.

The process of rehearsing Sound of the Northside was unlike anything I’d worked on before. Typically, when INO produces an opera, we’re creating a new world with a director and design team, explaining this concept to the performers and building the story through this. With ‘the Sound of the Northside’, the world was already there in front of us: a group of proud, talented young artists who wanted to celebrate who they were. The task instead was for the rest of us to play catch up and shape their energy into something that made sense for the stage.

The process of rehearsing ‘The Sound of the Northside’ was unlike anything I’d worked on before. Typically, when INO produces an opera, we are creating a new world with a director and design team, explaining this concept to the performers and building the story through this. With ‘The Sound of the Northside’, the world was already there in front of us: a group of proud, talented young artists who wanted to celebrate who they were. The task instead was for the rest of us to play catch up and shape their energy into something that made sense for the stage.

Through the process of creating ‘The Sound of the Northside’, the work ethic of the Kabin was amazing. Despite the group already having a conviction in their performance before this collaboration began, their willingness to work with voices from outside the Kabin was really humbling. The show itself was a huge success, with Hot Press describing the performance as ‘OUT OF THIS WORLD!’ in front a of a packed raucous audience at the Everyman Theatre.

Projects like these don’t happen all that often, but they make a great contribution to the development of culture in Ireland. In many ways, opera isn’t all that different to hip-hop: both genres have, for a long time, been dogged with unhelpful stereotypes but both are enjoying a real renaissance in modern day Ireland. No culture ever exists in a vacuum. When different art forms enter a creative dialogue, and truly listen to each other, then interesting new ideas can emerge.

‘The Sound of the Northside’ was a collaboration between the Kabin Studio and INO and is facilitated and supported by The Everyman. The concert is a Young Ensemble Scheme project supported by the Arts Council. A huge thank you to everyone involved.