Written by:
Jaime Roca
Photographer:
Johanna Hetherington
» Order
this Issue of Curve:
Vol. 17#5
Rhode Island-based singer, songwriter, composer and pianist Kristi Martel dives into an emotional abyss and lives to tell about it on Ravengirl, her fifth full-length release on Sealed Lip Records. Martel has shared the stage with Melissa Ferrick and Jason Mraz, has played in venues from Kimo’s in San Francisco to New York’s famed Knitting Factory, and has spent the spring touring both solo and with the Kristi Martel Trio.
Tell me the story behind Ravengirl.
In 2003 my former life partner [Amy “Littlebird” Nuara] died by suicide in San Francisco and it was such a traumatic experience and it was so painful everyday. … A lot of the songs on Ravengirl, maybe half of them, ... very much deal with my partner’s death, but even more so deal with my healing and my transformation after her death.
How did it feel to record this album?
Fear isn’t really the right word, but just a recognition that this is such a big project. [I] felt very sacred. A lot of joy. A lot of grief. A lot of power in the community developed to record this album, and I guess love and joy in that community and sort of a freedom: a feeling like the culmination of the album has opened up so much for me, and there is that special, sparkly, on the edge of that freedom feeling.
How would your describe its sound?
I can never really talk in terms of genre. It just doesn’t work for my songwriting. I write from the inside of the song. The emotion or story of the song determines the sound. Sometimes it’s alternative rock. Sometimes it’s blues or jazz. Sometimes it’s very avant-garde and experimental. It’s always soulful. It’s always real.
How would you say Nisha’s percussion adds to your sound?
Because of her background in traditional Afro-Caribbean percussion, Nisha has this fantastic ability to hear and manifest the polyrhythm in my music.
What about Kurt Meyer’s fretless bass work?
I realized that the bass sounds in the arrangements that I was creating in my head were fretless and upright bass lines. They were more melodic, more like Peter Gabriel or Kate Bush bass lines than like standard rock bass lines. And I knew that a fretless bass player would have a more developed ear because of the nature of the instrument, and that that suited my songs well, since they really demand sensitive listening.
Tell me about this song “Give”. That piece has traveled from CD to CD—kind of evolving.
I had just broken up [in 1998] with a girlfriend, and it was every other day she was breaking up with me and in two weeks I wrote four songs and my friend Bob was like: “Give you a little heartache and you start writing songs” … When I go through hard stuff, what I do is I transform it into something [with] some potential for healing and understanding and transformation.
Who are your biggest influences?
My biggest influence is probably Prince. I started listening to him when I was 11, and I saw him live for the first time when I was 12. Kate Bush’s music was the first I had ever heard that sounded anything like the music in my head. I started listening to her and Throwing Muses when I was about 14. The Muses’ main writer, Kristin Hersh, has continued to be a huge influence on me.
Looking back now that you’ve finished your album, what has the jouney been like?
I love the album so much and I love performing a lot of the work on that album. The audiences are loving it and all of that has been very exciting, and it’s getting good reviews. Its been featured on NPR in January. Its just been a very powerful experience to find that going that deeply into something so painful is brining so much love and support out in the world like it’s just like a remarkable process.
And you still have more?
[Laughs] I still have more. I have so much more. In fact I have five brand new songs already and I love the new songs. I am so excited about the new direction that my music is going. I feel so uninhibited. It feels almost like I can do anything right now.
For more information on Kristi Martel visit http://www.kristimartel.com.
|
