ONE of the many glowing reviews for Natalie Prass’s self-titled album got it just right by saying it “never feels retro, just timeless”. Prass has a stunning voice and worked with the Spacebomb collective (led by singer-songwriter Matthew E White), who added brass, strings, horns and flute to give the album a classic Burt Bacharach/Dusty Springfield/Scott Walker sound.
Born in Cleveland, brought up in Virginia Beach and a former resident of Boston and Nashville, Prass is back in Virginia now but has spent most of 2015 on the road. She played Dublin in January and then supported Ryan Adams in Dublin and Cork and is signed up to play the Body & Soul festival in Westmeath next month.
Do you enjoy touring and have you been to some interesting places?
I got to go to Scandinavia for the first time and I really loved Stockholm. I also got to visit Paris, which was nice because that's where my ancestors came from. At one point we had a 16-hour drive on the bus and I started to get cabin fever. I always thought it would be cool to be an astronaut, but I’d never survive in a space shuttle if I can’t spend 16 hours in a tour bus. On the bus you eat a lot of sour candy and watch documentaries. You’re like, `What is my life?’ It’s funny.
How did you find playing Dublin three times in a short space of time?
I loved Dublin. It was funny, because I went from doing the small room in Whelan’s to two nights in the Olympia [supporting Ryan Adams] a few weeks later. That was surreal. The Whelan’s show was our first show as a band, so it was pretty amazing.
Is it true that you were feeling under the weather at that Whelan’s gig?
Yeah. It was just before the record was released, so my nerves were really shot and I had no idea how people would respond to it. I wasn’t sleeping well, I did a bunch of interviews and was preparing for the tour and got really sick and could barely speak by the time the show came around, but I guess the adrenaline helped me out. I was able to get notes out of my mouth, but I had to completely rewrite my melodies.
Have you always been a Ryan Adams fan?
I bought Gold in high school and I loved it, but that was the only album I really knew. Then when I first saw him play live I was blown away. I just thought, `This guy is so freakishly talented’. So now I’m a super-fan. When he covered my set for me on tour [when Prass and the band missed a show after an airport mix-up], we were all amazed at how he can take any song and make it completely his own. The Ryan tour was so much fun. We’re both goofy people and have silly ideas all the time.
You also toured with Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) as her keyboard player. Would she be a big influence on you?
Jenny was the first female I ever saw playing electric guitar and I thought it was so cool; it changed my world. I got hired for the band and got sent 40 of her songs to learn in a week. When we did a tour with Ryan, I was like `I can’t believe this is my life: playing in Jenny’s band and getting to watch Ryan Adams’.
Congratulations with the album. Has it been a bit mad to see all the fantastic reviews it’s received and to see it taking on a life of its own?
It is pretty crazy. I feel like it all hasn’t sunk in. I’m a realistic person and I’m like `I’m happy that a lot of people love it but I know a lot of people don’t like it too’. I’m just focussed on coming up with ideas and writing and making good music.
My Baby Don’t Understand Me is an amazing song. Was that an obvious choice to open the album?
No, that was actually Matt (E White]’s call. It was hard for me to do the tracklisting, because it’s such a personal album, although I knew that It Is You had to be last. So when Matt said about putting that song first, it was hard for me because it’s definitely the most personal one and it just starts with my breath. So the whole album starts with me taking a breath. That song kind of prepares you for what’s to come.
:: Natalie Prass plays the Body & Soul festival at Ballinlough Castle, Co Westmeath, on Sunday June 21 (bodyandsoul.ie). Her self-titled album is out now on Spacebomb/Caroline.
