Californian born musician Alela Diane is at her home in Portland, Oregon. “It’s a grey morning“, she tells us, “and I am drinking tea in an effort to wake up, although coffee may have been a wiser choice!” That old phrase ‘home is where the heart is’ definitely rings true with this artist. There is a homegrown quality to the work she produces, “I’d say we make ‘American Music’,” she states. “Our sound is definitely of the place we’re from, and incorporates many elements from the tradition of music in this country – it’s nostalgic yet modern.” In fact she confesses to not being too hot on her contemporaries, perhaps why her music is so evocative of the Laurel Canyon set: “I’ve been on a Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Townes Van Zandt kick [recently], and my Mom’s suggested I get ‘Surrealistic Pillow’ by Jefferson Airplane. Grace Slick’s voice is a gem. For the first time in a long while though, I’ve been checking out some music of right now, and I’ve been digging Beach House, Kurt Vile, and Dylan LeBlanc. I find that I’m mostly out of touch with my contemporaries, but it’s nice to check in with what’s going on from time to time, and to be pleasantly surprised.”
From her debut release The Pirate’s Gospel back in 2007 to 2009’s follow up To Be Still, Alela Diane has become a key figure in the nu-folk scene, with a distinctive voice and naturalistic songwriting ability, likening her perhaps to a less eccentric Joanna Newsom. Her latest release, Alela Diane and Wild Divine, however, has taken a huge turn, her voice is the focus, and a classic Americana band the sound into which she channels this. Here she and the players excel; her voice possessing all the bombast of Neko Case’s passionate country tones.
The collection of songs presented on this eponymous of sorts recording, which was released on Rough Trade Records on 4th April, were written in 2009 and completed in 2010: half in the midst of touring and then finished at home with the freedom to “sit around the house and work on the craft of song writing”. She certainly appears a homebody kind of gal. “I like making house,” she states. Herself and husband have “a beautiful old Victorian [house] and [her] pastimes besides music are narrowed down to breakfast, sitting by the woodstove, walks up the hill, collecting old things to arrange in the house, seeing friends and recently, making soup. Oh and eggs! Any kind but raw.”
The recording comprises Diane’s husband, Tom Bevitori on acoustic Guitar, dad, Tom Menig, on electric guitar and mandolin, Jonas Haskins on bass & Jason Merculief on the drums. What began as a ‘girl with a guitar genre’ stirring, dark folk gained her much critical acclaim, but is something she confesses to having “wanted to step away from” was certainly the aim of the third album. “[I wanted] to become more of a frontwoman in a band, so that’s what we did for this record. Allowing my husband to take over most of the acoustic guitar, and getting a very strong group of musicians together for the band enabled me to fully release vocally, to just sing, because that’s the part I love, and it is what I do best.” There’s a humbleness in working so closely with her kin: “I write songs with my husband and father who have a healthier relationship with their guitars…My relationship with the guitar is at a stalemate for the moment. So instead I use the old piano downstairs, I can sometimes stumble upon a song with clumsy fingers that way.”
Recorded at the home studio of Scott Litt, in California, Diane states, “It was the first time I’d worked with a producer, and the first time we’d worked as a proper band throughout the whole project. I went into this thing with a number of songs I’d put quite a lot of myself into, and it was really nice to go in there prepared and ready to make a sound. I wanted to make a record with a cohesive band, and I wanted to focus on the song writing and on my vocals. We went into the studio prepared, and I was able to do what I intended to do.” It’s the vocals that shine through on this recording, a true country inflection to tracks like ‘Elijah’, a voice Diane states “is on its own journey. [A voice] begins in one place, takes some dirt roads for a while, maybe takes the high road down town, and then it’s on a five-lane freeway, changing lanes with grace. My voice has been growing and changing and ebbing and flowing since I started singing. It’s an amazing thing to continue discovering myself vocally. It surprises me sometimes! I think that over the years, I’ve explored my voice quite a lot and I do feel like I’ve finally settled into a nice place with it. I’ve learned to let go, and to let this voice fly out of me like it has a life of its own. I’m curious to see what route it takes next!”
And what’s next for Alela Diane and the Wild Divine: “I’ll be touring with a full band for the upcoming tour. For this record, it wasn’t really an option to tour without the band, because the songs were very much a collaboration. So I’m really looking forward to settling into a groove with this group of players. We’ve got about a month of sitting around before we hit the road – and then we’ll be all over the place, overseas and in the US… I’m excited to be on the highway again, as much as I love being home, it’s time to get back.”
Interview by Melanie McGovern
Behind the Scenes of Alela Diane & Wild Divine
Folk Radio UK is playing a track from Alela Diane & Wild Divine every hour from today for a week.
Tour Dates
29 April 2011 – Bergenfest, Bergen
1 May 2011 – Flex, Vienna
3 May 2011 – Kampnagel, Hamburg
4 May 2011 – Paradiso, Amsterdam
5 May 2011 – Babylon, Berlin
7 May 2011 – Les Docks, Lausanne
8 May 2011 – Laterie, Strasbourg
9 May 2011 – La Cigalle, Paris
10 May 2011 – Le Splendid, Lille
12 May 2011 – Scala, London
13 May 2011 – Band On The Wall, Manchester