AK Patterson
“The best new music I’ve heard” – GUY GARVEY, BBC RADIO 6
“The best new music I’ve heard” – GUY GARVEY, BBC RADIO 6
“The best new music I’ve heard” – GUY GARVEY, BBC RADIO 6
“Sounds the way a David Lynch film looks and feels”– LOUDER THAN WAR
AK PATTERSON is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in London. She writes
gritty and honest songs that delve into deep subjects such as loneliness, grief and heartbreak to
find the beauty and hope within them. Her songs tell the stories of the underdog or characters on
the fringes of society such as factory workers or prisoners. At the heart of every performance is
her dynamic voice and emotional intensity with which she sings, earning her the reputation of ‘a
soulful torch singer’ and ‘having sold her soul to the devil back at the crossroads’.
Having grown up first learning to play music in the back of an Irish pub, she is a master of
commanding a room, through her gripping story telling and a powerful vocal delivery. The
acclaimed actor and musician, Johnny Flynn, named Patterson in his cultural highlights of 2023 in
the Guardian, after attending her gig at the Brunel Museum alongside other members of ‘The
Circle’, Londons underground songwriters network.
She recorded her debut EP ‘Shadows’ predominantly in pitch black with the Mercury Prize winning
producer Charlie Andrew (alt-J, Marika Hackman, Nick Mulvey) and following its release, was
invited by the band alt-J, to support them around the UK and European dates, culminating in two
shows at the Royal Albert Hall. Patterson has also gained notoriety from her collaborations and high intensity performances withdrummer Adam Betts, AKA Colossal Squid (drummer for Squarepusher, Goldie and Jarvis Cocker).
The pair released the ferocious song ‘Kick Punch’ which caught the attention of John Kennedy on
Radio X and was featured in the Netflix film The Courier.
She is currently in the studio recording her next body of work set for release in 2024. The new
songs are inspired by her recent move to London, exploring its dark underbelly to tell tales of
organised crime, her time spent in prison and personal struggles of isolation and loneliness in the
big city. She comments that “although they may seem darker than ever before, these new songs
are all about survival, determination and above all hope”.