We often listen to playlists at Kai, our restaurant. We'd have music all the time except during service, when you need to concentrate to get plates out at the same time. Music and restaurants are yin and yang, especially as a lot of waiting staff are in bands as well. I've included Roll Down Your Window by The Whileaways in the playlist – Nicola Joyce of The Whileaways worked at Kai for five years. I love their music because I know it's such a reflection of her.
The Róisín Dubh is around the corner from the restaurant. I can't go to gigs there on the spur of the moment, but if there's someone special playing I'd do my best to get the night off. I love the fact they can have Gogol Bordello playing there one evening and the next day they'll have the West Cork Ukulele Orchestra. I love its eccentricity.
I grew up in the 1980s, so I'm all about the power ballads. If you're feeling down and low in confidence, you put on a power ballad and it feels like it gives you a superpower
I grew up in New Zealand, and ours was a music-heavy household. My dad was the first person in the street to own a CD player, and my family are big singers, so there would always be music playing. I was coming of age when dub was having its moment, so I listened to a lot of New Zealand acts like Salmonella Dub and Fat Freddy's Drop.
I grew up in the 1980s, so I’m all about the power ballads. If you’re feeling down and low in confidence, you put on a power ballad and it feels like it gives you a superpower. Toto are probably my favourite band of all time. Their lyrics are so bad they’re good; they crack me up all the time. Nothing makes sense, but they’re brilliant.
Glen Campbell's song Wichita Lineman was used in one of my favourite TV ads in New Zealand. It was a Marmite ad which showed guys fixing power lines. I somehow got addicted to the song.
I left New Zealand in 1999, and much of the playlist is a journey about where I lived since. I moved to Brixton, in London, and that's where I heard Toots & the Maytals. Even now I always put class reggae on a soundtrack when I'm travelling to London.
My husband [David Murphy, who is also co-owner of Kai] is half-Welsh. I lived in Wales for four years, so I spent a lot of time listening to the Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia and Stereophonics – lots of husky Welsh voices. A Thousand Trees is our song. The lyrics are dark, but that choice is more about its rhythm.
I recently discovered The Royston Club, who are an amazing band from north Wales. My nephew, who's their roadie, recommended them because he knows that I like that kind of music – we'd listen to The Kooks, Razorlight and that type of music. The Royston Club have taken that baton now. I love the lead singer's voice, and the fact that it comes across that they're a working-class band.
I've got Tracy Bruen in there too. She was my next-door neighbour last year. I didn't know she was a musician, but once I heard her music I realised how talented she was. I listen to her all the time now.
I’ve also been listening a lot to Benee’s track Supalonely. I’ve always loved New Zealand acts like Lorde and Gin Wigmore, so when I heard that Benee was from New Zealand it all made sense – they’ve a similar Kiwi style. Listening to New Zealand music helps keep the bond strong. God knows when I’ll be able to go back and visit, so when you have new music to remind you that life is still continuing in New Zealand, it’s amazing.
Etta James’s I’d Rather Go Blind is another sentimental song – it’s a song to play at home drinking Chardonnay in your slippers.
I saw Tolü Makay perform N17 and I fell in love with her, because there's so much soul behind it. That's another sentimental song for me – it's all about going home to Galway: "I wish I was on the N17." Then I started listening to her other songs, like Aye, and it was all amazing. The fusing of cultures in Irish music at the moment is exciting. It's similar to what's happening in food in Ireland; the reinvention is brilliant.
Jess Murphy appears at Taste of Dublin, September 1st-5th
