At first blush, Richmond singer-songwriter Natalie Prass might seem to have appeared out of nowhere. In late January, the 29-year-old released her debut self-titled album to muted fanfare but widespread acclaim. This rich and elegant nine-song collection is a bit of a marvel, with ornate string arrangements by Trey Pollard and horn arrangements by Matthew E. White of Richmond’s Spacebomb Studios and Records. In addressing the album’s development, what’s perhaps most striking about this collection is that Prass penned its songs between 2009 and 2011.
Numerous career-challenging factors contributed to the delays of the album’s release, most chiefly producer White’s own personal success as a solo artist with the release of his debut Big Inner in 2012. Since Prass took a job last year playing in Jenny Lewis’s touring band, the pace of her solo career has dramatically increased. Since January, in addition to finally seeing her debut’s release as well as its significant appreciation from a world audience, Prass has moved from Nashville to Richmond and spent just about the entire past four months on the road, touring Europe and the U.S. both with Ryan Adams and in a headlining role.
Using her brand-new international phone plan, Prass spoke to me from Montreal, where she and her band were performing before making their entrance back into the U.S. after their third European tour of 2015.
What were you last in Madison for?
“I was playing guitar as part of Rayland Baxter and we were opening for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, which is how I met the guy who’s playing bass for me now. Crazy!”
That’s a good connection. I saw you in March at South by Southwest and I was really blown away by the band. Do you always play with the same band or do the members of your touring ensemble change?
“Well, that was crazy. I love that you saw that Austin set. Scott [Clark], the drummer, had played with me in January, since we started playing, and Michael [“Libra” Libramento], who played bass in the Nocturnals, started playing with us in February. And then, that was the first time I ever met Colin [Killalea], the guy that was playing guitar with us.
“And we’d never met — we all flew in from Europe and Colin flew in from Virginia and then we played a show without rehearsing or anything! And it was strange, but I knew he was really good — Colin is this amazing jazz saxophone player that just started playing guitar a few years ago. I’ve heard nothing but good things about him from all of my crazy, insane musician friends so I wasn’t worried at all. I really couldn’t be worried — I had no time to be worried. I was just like, well, we’ll play something. Something will happen. (laughs) And I think he did a great job. It took us a few shows to get all connected, but that’s South by. Things are supposed to be loose and bad. There’s supposed to be a hint of “bad” in there.” (laughs)
Well, not too much that I noticed, at least. They were great shows. Now that everyone’s together, is that who you’ve been touring with?
“No, we had to just get Colin for South By and a few shows after that to sit in for Trey Pollard, who co-produced the record and did the string arrangements. He usually plays guitar, but he had done all these string arrangements for this Helado Negro show and they were doing this big symphony hall concert and he had had that in his calendar for over a year. He didn’t want to miss out on that and I didn’t want him to miss out on that so I said, ‘Just go do it and we’ll get Colin to fill in.’ But Trey, he’s been touring with us except for that one run that you saw.”
You mentioned the people from your band coming together through all these different connections. How long have you known them?
“Trey and I officially met in 2011, but he’s from Virginia Beach as well. He’s older than me, but he’s kind of like a music legend — not in the underground world, but in the music nerd world. He’s always been this guitar virtuoso kind of guy that everybody knew about. So it was really exciting for me to meet him and to work with him. Scott I’d met in Nashville — he’s from Richmond as well — but he was playing drums for a mutual friend of mine who’s the one that actually got Matt and I back in touch with each other. It’s really incestuous, this whole thing — my friend James from Nashville, who’s from Richmond, got me back in touch with my whole Virginia crew. I had left Virginia when I was 18 and I never went back. I’ve known Scott since 2010 or 2011, and Libra and I met on that tour when he was playing with Grace Potter. He was also playing bass in one of my other favorite bands, Floating Action. All these guys I’ve known and there’s a great chemistry between us. We all know how to listen and play together really and we’re all really good friends.”
The Richmond scene sounds fantastic.
“It’s pretty natural and we know how to deal with each other’s quirks and keep things positive. We’re at this awkward level where we’re playing good shows, but still have to drive in a van and stay at crappy hotels. It’s tough on everybody. But we all love music and playing and we love what we’re doing and that’s enough to keep us all motivated and positive and keep each other in check.”
You moved from Nashville to Richmond early this year, right?
“I officially got my apartment in January. I booked a ticket right after our last show with Jenny [Lewis]. After our last show on Jimmy Kimmel together I got a plane ticket to Virginia with just a suitcase and my gear. I was sleeping on couches for a long time. It was the holidays, so I was with my friends and family, driving around and looking for apartments and stuff. I officially found a spot in January and then I immediately left on tour.”
I was going to say that when I think of you moving and going on tour basically nonstop for the last year, I just picture a pile of moving boxes piled in your home just getting dusty.
“Well, I don’t even have that! I don’t have anything. Just a suitcase and gear. All my stuff is still in Nashville, so I’ve got stuff in their basement. I share a storage unit with them, so my stuff’s there, but pretty much, I had a week off or something — five days, that’s the longest time there I’ve had since I started — and I just went to IKEA in D.C. and I bought everything and set it all up in two days. My apartment just feels like a hotel that I pay for. (laughs) It’s still pretty barren. It’s good for coming home to. It’s really clean and open and small and cozy. It’s nice for my brain. I don’t mind it.”
How have things been for you on these tours? It really has been almost half a year. Is it tiring or do you feel like you belong out on the road?
“As far as the music goes, it’s been incredible. We just did our first headlining tour. Pretty much every show sold out and everyone had a really great time. It was insane. Berlin was the highlight for me. Everyone was so excited and singing along to a lot of the words out loud, really loudly. It was a party. We all just had so much fun. London was a highlight — that was an unbelievable show. We all felt really in our element.
“Some shows are better than others. With touring, it’s impossible to have this amazing otherworldly show every single night. It’s a balance. I think we’re just trying to get better at it. You have these insane days — like in London, I had interviews all day and running around and a crazy sound check because we had a lot of people coming in to guest with us, so that was crazy, just making sure everybody was OK. A lot of friends were coming in from everywhere. There was so much energy. We had more energy before the show, and then there was the show, and then you’re just giving your whole being and then afterwards there was this huge party because everyone was there, but then you don’t get home until 2 but you have to be up at 6 to be in a car all day to drive to the next gig. And then there was all this traffic, and you know, the next position after London was just, to me, a disaster. The sound system was horrible and we were exhausted. Touring, to me, we’re just trying to nail down. I think we almost have it, but there’s nothing that I love more than performing and singing and playing and being creative and playing a new set every night. That’s the joy of playing with such amazing musicians. I can just be like, we should try this tonight. Great! And we do it, and it’s amazing. We’re very open and locked in with each other now.”
You’ve toured through Europe a few times before. What’s the touring process like, playing these headlining shows compared to touring with an ensemble, as you did with Jenny Lewis, or in an opening role, like you did with Ryan Adams?
“All three of those are very different experiences for a musician. Playing for Jenny, of course, I learned so much. I’m a huge fan of her and her vision and everything, but I’m a songwriter and a player and there’s only so much that I can get into doing something like that. It starts to feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have my own shit to say and my own voice and the things I want to do with time on this planet.’ But I really believe in being a well-rounded artist and person. I learned so much from doing that. It’s also really scary. There’s a sense of, ‘I’m getting paid to do this and this is a job. This is really safe and I know I could do this if I wanted.’ There’s this huge risk when you want to do your own thing, of course.
“The record came out in January and I had no idea what would happen or even if people would like it. I just felt like I owed it to myself to do this. Luckily, we’ve been able to tour and, luckily, there’s been a lot of opportunities that have happened because people are liking the record. Not everybody, but that doesn’t matter. (laughs) We started doing this opening tour, which is amazing because also you’re learning a lot about how someone else’s tour functions and works and you’re in their machine and on their schedule. You have to learn how to go with the flow and work on the fly when you’re opening. You don’t always get a sound check and you don’t get a lot of time. You sound check quickly, if you get one, and then you have to eat dinner in a half hour and then you’re on stage. It’s a pretty crazy schedule, opening. But it’s a lot of fun and you get to play for people who don’t know who you are. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s not your show. You’re just there to warm everybody up, so you learn to hold your ground and do the best you can and play for all these people who don’t know who you are. It kicks you into gear really quickly, like, alright, you have to just get through this and do your best and play for forty minutes.
“Then, it’s been really good that we’ve done all these opening and festival gigs because now we’re doing these headlining shows and we’re nailing it. We’re really connected to each other. Now we’re playing easily every night and we have no problem playing an hour and a half on a nine-song record. Every day we get better and every day it’s more fun and it’s coming together. It’s going to be so amazing and I’m going to feel like I really did it when I can hire more people to be in my band. There’s just four of us and we’re doing a really great, but if we could have just one more person, we would go to different fucking galaxies, I think. (laughs) It’s cheesy to say. When we were playing with Ryan, our good friend [Daniel Clarke, who played on the record] from Richmond was in his band. Even when Daniel was a sit-in with us, the sound was a million times better. There’s a lot of arrangements on this record and we’ve kind of transformed this sound into a rock ‘n’ roll kind of thing at times. The live show stands a different vibe and we explore a lot we what we can do with just the four of us. Even when we had just a keyboard player it was amazing how much fuller it sounded. So, one day!”
You mentioned your live shows having a sort of rock ‘n’ roll feel. A number of the acts you’ve been touring with, like Son Lux and San Fermin, do have sort of a lush, intricate style that people might compare to you and think it makes sense to pair you together. As a songwriter, though, whose music would fit in so well with the canon of decades past — people talk about the influence of Dionne Warwick and others on your sound — how do you feel you fit in the national scene of music right now? Who do you view as your contemporaries?
“As much as I respect and love the Son Lux and San Fermin stuff, I think what’s truly interesting about our band —we cover a lot of ground. San Fermin is all about the arrangements and Son Lux is as well. In that world, we kind of went together. Overall, I think it was kind of an awkward fit. I mean, obviously we’re not electronic or anything. So some people I don’t think really got what we were doing. It was kind of a weird fit, but I love them and I think they’re all ridiculously talented and doing cool stuff. I’m not really sure exactly who we’d fit with.
“We did this tour with Hiss Golden Messenger that was perfect. We don’t have any computers or tracks or whatever. We’re just a band. That was great. We just met all the War on Drugs guys and it was a joy to meet all of them and to hang with them. That kind of world, or, I don’t know, I also love R&B stuff, and I feel like we could maybe mesh with that world a bit. I don’t know. We span a lot of music genres and it’s hard for me to say exactly. I think it’s just that I’m a huge fan of, you know, Caitlin Rose and that kind of stuff. Even Jenny Lewis could maybe work. I don’t know — I’m just in my own world. (laughs) If it clicks, it clicks.
“But, us and Ryan, that was unbelievably perfect. I had heard Ryan’s music obviously before. I had had a record of his in high school, but that was it — that was all I knew. When I saw them again when I was opening for them when I was playing with Jenny, I was completely blown away. Like, with Jenny’s band, we were good, but I was like, this a real fucking band. This is really good. They have it dialed in. The dynamics, they all know how to play together so well — I was just so impressed. I watched their set every night when I was on that tour. And then, when Ryan asked us to open for them in Europe, I was so honored to do that. They’re pros, you know.”
It feels way too early to talk about a follow-up record — but since you wrote those songs so long ago, have you been thinking about next directions?
“Yeah! I think about that every day. You know, I have a ton of music. Obviously in that time, I recorded two more records and I’ve written a lot. But it seems like I should have, like, four records ready to go. After we did that Spacebomb record and I knew it was going to take a long time and I put everything I had into that record — we all did — it was really heartbreaking and confusing for me when I knew it was going to be on hold for a long time. I was a struggling writer and musician with no money, basically living from paycheck to paycheck for years and years. I didn’t have money to record again. I didn’t have any money to record with Spacebomb — none of us did. I did two more records really quickly, with zero cash, just in a weird state of mind. I kept writing, but when you get older and you’re still in music, you can’t pull favors any more. You can’t just be like, ‘Hey, do you want to learn all this weird music I wrote and these crazy arrangements and I can only send you 10 bucks?’ You can’t do that anymore.
“In Nashville I just started playing these solo sets, doing the whole Loop Station thing, but there’s a fine line. I know how cheesy and terrible that can be. But it was the only way I could express myself and keep playing and doing something that wasn’t just like a ‘girl and guitar’ kind of vibe. It just got weird, I got really dark, and I starting to think that maybe I didn’t belong in music and maybe this wasn’t what I should be doing. I’d never thought that before, because that’s all I think about. But now that there’s a label and I have the opportunity to work with some people I didn’t have the opportunity to work with or work with the same people but now I can pay them what they’re worth. Now it’s like, oh shit, hell yeah. I want to make this the best I can. I have been thinking about what I can do. I want to work with a lot of the same people because we’re like minded and have good ideas and work well together. All of us have grown so much. I’ve been writing a lot, as much as I can. It’s hard to write when you’re on the road. But, you know, I was just trying to write something before I talked to you and I missed your phone call. (laughs) You try to do it when you can. My goal is to have it finished by this time next year. Not out, but at least recorded and mastered and ready to go.”
I read somewhere that Matthew had encouraged you to use some older songs of yours for this album. Do you think you’ll use that method to curate songs on album rather than writing an album as an album?
“Yeah! Back then, that was really scary for me. I was still in college. You feel like you have no time, but when you’re in college you really have so much time. And I was a songwriting major, so I was writing all the fucking time — all the time — so I had so much music, back then especially. When I was sending Matt all this music, I was thinking we’d make this entirely new record, but he was taking songs from this whole span of time — ‘Violently’ I wrote in 2009. That’s the oldest one. But it works — if it’s a good song, it’s a good song.
“I’m kind of doing that still in sound checks with the guys. We’re putting a bunch of songs together and we have to fill a lot of time with a nine-song record. I want to put in new stuff, but I don’t want to bore people. I’m just trying to carefully put it together. Trey, he’s known me a while now and he knows a lot of my songs, so he’ll say, ‘How would you do this one?‘ ‘Oh! Crazy, I haven’t thought of that one in a long time,’ and we’ll just play it. I think that’s a pretty good way, and it takes a lot of pressure off, too. I’m writing and I think I’m writing better stuff, but it’s nice to know that there’s still some good stuff from the back catalog I can pull out or have just in case.”