About

 

Rob McGlade is a Dublin-born artist, musician, writer, and performer with over twenty years of practice spanning music, literature, theatre, and visual art. Based in the UK, he has performed internationally across Europe, North America, and Australia. His work is characterised by an obsessive commitment to creative process, literary interpretation, and ambitious long-form projects.

In 2011, as part of the duo Fathers of Western Thought, McGlade undertook Sons of Western Thought: The Art of Songwriting — writing and recording one song every day for a year, resulting in 365 songs showcased as a multimedia exhibition at Market Studios, Dublin in 2012. Song number 80, "Dublin", won the British Council OPENCities competition as the soundtrack to contemporary Dublin.

The following year, Fathers of Western Thought created Re:Joyce — a musical interpretation of James Joyce's four major works — performed at Bloomsday Festival Dublin (2013–2015) and Bloomsday Festival Trieste, Italy (2016 & 2022). The group also performed at Dublin Live Arts Festival in 2015.

McGlade has written musical interpretations of Franz Kafka (Kafka Society, Prague), John Keats (Keats House Museum, London), W.B. Yeats, Eavan Boland, John B. Keane, Lord Byron, and William Shakespeare — including Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo & Juliet. Over the past twelve years he has brought four shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, including Romeo & Juliet: One-Man Musical in 2019.

As Kassette Guitar Boy (KGB), he created an improvised song and video every day throughout 2021 — 365 in total.

He is the author of six books, including Vinegar (poetry), The Natural Evolution of a Thumbnail (art book), Bittor Basturd Battor Burgur (experimental novel), and three editions of The Official Dictionary of Modern Contemporary North American Irish English, co-written with Andrew Doyle.

Since 2022, he has opened for American humorist David Sedaris over forty times around the world, performing at the Royal Festival Hall London, the Kennedy Center Washington DC, and the Sydney Opera House.