It's new to me, and I don't think I've seen it around here before. If it's been posted, I apologise in advance and would appreciate it if you could delete it please.
I tried the search function but nothing came up, so here goes ...
Vanessa Carlton [ tickets ] is starting anew. She's begun another chapter in her recording career, signing with, of all labels, Irv Gotti's The Inc., formerly known as Murder Inc.
Carlton has a new future in her personal life, too, as she and Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins broke up earlier this year. This whole feeling of freedom is captured in "Nolita Fairytale," the first video from her latest album, "Heroes and Thieves." In it, she destroys the moving piano that made her famous in her first video, 2002's "A Thousand Miles."
"I decided to crack out of the shell," Carlton said during a phone interview with LiveDaily. "I look at it as cracking an egg. I've reminded people of this traveling piano and then shattered it in order to start anew and open a new chapter. I've gone through so many changes and evolutionary changes since that first video. It's a coming-of-age thing."
Carlton is celebrating the Oct. 9 release of "Heroes and Thieves" with a short club tour that kicks off Nov. 2 in Scottsdale, AZ. Taking a break during a radio station-sponsored concert in Cincinnati, Carlton talked with LiveDaily about "Heroes and Thieves," her ex-boyfriend Jenkins and working with Fleetwood Mac diva Stevie Nicks.
LiveDaily: You've been through a lot in the last couple years, between your record deal and personal relationships. Judging from the lyrics of the first single, "Nolita Fairytale," it sounds like leaving your former record label was a good thing.Carlton: It was a great thing. In making those big, bold moves, in the end, I think it ends up being so much more rewarding. I really wanted to go out and find a team that would support where I was heading artistically. It wasn't worth making another record unless it was going to be something I loved, [that] reflected my aesthetic. In the past few years, I was touring with Stevie [Nicks]. I sing about her in the song, as well. She helped me get through the transition of finding a new family and all those moments at night when you doubt yourself. You wonder if you're ever going to release another record or what's going to happen to you in this crazy music industry. I was able to really lean on her, as well.
Why did you decide to name your album "Heroes and Thieves"?For the past few years, I've been [sorting out] the heroes and thieves in my life. I know it's a dramatic way to put it. Not everything is so black and white. It's this idea of good and evil and light and the dark [that shapes] us. That song, specifically the title track, is really about being confused about which way to go and making the wrong decisions and learning from them. "Give me a rain check. Let me grow up a little for a couple years and I swear I'll be better and make the right decision next time." These are blanket decisions. You could apply them personally, professionally, anything. We need the heroes and the thieves in our life to grow and be better.
What was it like to work with Linda Perry. I heard she's pretty inspirational to work with.She's great and she creates such a nice vibe in the studio. I love her engineering and she really helps me get my feet under me a lot. She really believed in me, and I'm so proud of our work.
I see that you worked on the album with Stephan Jenkins. This is kind of an awkward question, but was it before or after your break up?We are working partners. We're unconditionally working partners. We produced nine songs. We worked whether we were together or not. This was our child. This is our great offspring. Nothing was going to kind of get in the way of it being great. The intensity between us, if anything, I think helped things along. Stevie [Nicks] did come in the studio a couple times and noted that it was similar to Fleetwood Mac [laughs]. Politics, you know. Stephan and I will always respect each other. I think he's a brilliant songwriter and producer. I'm so proud of our child.
What's your favorite song on the album and why?"More Than This." It kind of lyrically embodies what I still struggle with at night. I kind of wrote it as a lullaby to myself. It reminds me of what I need to do, and this notion that we can decide to be happy. You don't need to crave any more than what you have. That would make everything just so peaceful. Then I love, melodically, how that track rose. It's just so beautiful to me. I love the big choir. We just had such a great time in the studio working on that song. There's just a joyful vibe that comes out of that song.
The Inc. seems the most unlikely place for you, given it has a rap background. Did you have any hesitations about signing with them?Not when I met Irv. The team is amazing there. I know it's unlikely. I think it's for our benefit for people to question it. Irv is a fantastic A&R man, a great music executive. He did a great job guiding me on this record. I've never felt so much support from a label before. It's a hard industry right now. It's kind of hemorrhaging. To find the team that I found, I know how lucky I am.
I read that he had a pretty overwhelming response to the record. He loves the record. When I first met him, I was playing new songs in [Universal Music Group chairman] Doug Morris' office. Those meetings can be super sterile and boring. When it was over, he [Gotti] stood up and started screaming and running around the office in circles, swearing. He was so overwhelmingly moved by the song. I thought, "This is so passionate and amazing and unfiltered and uncensored." God, I wish more people were like that in the industry. Maybe then we would release better music. He really had such a strong gut reaction to things. He's so in touch with his gut, I thought, "I want to be around that energy." And so I am.
What was it like to tour with Stevie Nicks. She must have given you some amazing advice.She is my mentor. I actually just left her today. We were in Chicago rehearsing. She is an extraordinary woman. She's such a good person. I know she's Stevie Nicks and she's so magical on so many levels and larger than life. But she's this earthy, amazing person at the end of the day. She's such a good woman. I look up to her. Touring with her was just the best. Being near Stevie is such a gift. She keeps giving to me. She was a big part of this record. She sequenced the album. She sang on the record. She was there right from the beginning, when I didn't have a new deal yet and I didn't have the record written. She helped me through every step. Every stage of this record, Stevie was involved and there by my side. Stevie was encouraging me to move forward and take the next step. As scary as it is, you have to take the next step.
That must have been nice to have so many people so supportive of you. It sounds like you have a supportive team overall. It's great. I hope I'll be touring this record and [The Inc. will] be supporting it, as they say, for the next year and a half, two years. There are many songs I want people to hear off this record, not just one single. It's really about songs that we release that will entice people to come into the world of this record. It's really a very cohesive body of work--not just a couple songs that we threw together. I'm excited about the team.
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