Kae Tempest on coming out as non-binary, and having Grian Chatten on their new album
Kae Tempest. Picture: Wolfgang Tillmans
Coming out as non-binary was one of the most challenging things poet and musician Kae Tempest has ever done. In August 2020, Tempest, a Mercury-nominated artist praised by Rolling Stone for their “visceral, rhythmically dizzying angst” announced they were gender-neutral were changing their pronouns to 'they' and 'them'. Kae would also replace the name Kate. It was, says Tempest, a difficult experience. But, with the dust having settled, the Londoner feels going public with something so personal was the correct course of action.
“In some ways, the publicness of my life, this job that I have as a performer, as an artist, stopped me from being able to be the person that I am. I was really terrified of living any kind of life for me,” says Tempest (36) over Zoom. “Of living for Kae. I had to live my life for Tempest. In the end, it wasn’t going to work. I hit a crisis point. I just had to square myself with the situation that I was in and accept that the stakes are too high to continue the way that I was going.”
