When Krystle Warren talks about the recording of her second album, Love Songs, she’s pretty succinct about her aim.
“I wanted to flip the bird to the s*** that passes off as music these days,” she says while on a break from her European tour with Rufus Wainwright.
“I wanted to record it like the legends I really admire have done it.”
The double album, which is being released in the UK in two parts, was recorded live over an intense 13 days with her band The Faculty.
“These songs wouldn’t have had the strength they have if we were overdubbing everything,” she says. “When I’m saying: ‘I’m going to present you a bunch of love songs’, it’s important they should be as genuine and sympathetic to the music as possible. It should always be about capturing the moment.”
Love Songs grew from the music Warren had written after the release of her debut album Circles, which was recorded five years ago.
“I wanted it to be a cycle,” she says.
“About two years ago I started going through a list of songs to create a strong narrative. It feels like a musical, instead of a collection of songs, about this couple from the get-go.
“The last puzzle piece came when I realised the onlyway to capture this bunch of songs would be to record them live.”
The album sessions began with five days of rehearsals in a Manhattan loft with her band, before Warren went to Kansas to meet arranger Brad Cox.
The band came together to record 25 songs in 13 days, 24 of which ended up on the two records.
“For most of them I came in and said, ‘This is how the song goes’ and would just play it,” says Warren. “I don’t know a lot of the names of chords I’m using, so I would just play it through and they would jump in.
“I was in the dark about a lot of the things I wanted to do with the songs. Some just worked with me and guitar.”
Anyone who remembers Warren’s bravura performance at the Nick Drake tribute concert Way To Blue at Brighton Dome can imagine how powerful those stripped-down arrangements sound.
Warren stole the showwhen she played the concert back in 2010 performing memorable versions of Time Has Told Me and Pink Moon, both of which showcased the amazing power and emotion of her voice. Her talents have seen her working with both Rufus Wainwright and Teddy Thompson on recent tours.
She has also taken control of her own output, putting out Love Songs on her own label Parlour Door Music as two separate albums.
“I ended up splitting up the album because I was thinking about the industry and how people consume – I realised everyone has the attention span of a gnat,” she says.
“I wanted people to fully recognise this music I had worked very hard on, so didn’t want to just give them both sides at once.
“I need to have creative control because it’s the only thing I know how to do.
“I’ve had to establish the label, look into distribution and get my head around the business part of it. I’m stronger at coming up with ideas and executing them, but I didn’t want any suits sitting around a table telling me I needed to work with Beck or whatever.”
For now she’s enjoying being back on the road.
“I haven’t been this excited in a long time,” she says. “When I was performing Circles it was tough, I didn’t have my band with me, I was having to pick up musicians on the way.
“I recorded it many years before it was released, so it was like reading a five-year-old newspaper to a different city every night.
“With this album I’m still extremely excited about playing the songs.”
All Saints’ Church, The Drive, Hove, Thursday, May 24, 8pm, £12.50/£10, 01273 709709
duncan.hall@theargus.co.uk
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