Pitchfork contributor Sophie Kemp sits down with the LA-based musician to talk about her new album and minimalistic approach.
“A week before her third album is released to high praise, Jessica Pratt eases into a leather couch nestled inside Pitchfork’s windowless listening room on the 27th floor of the World Trade Center. It’s kind of ironic, being high inside one of the tallest buildings in the world with no skyline in view. But the grey-walled room, with its jarring tranquility, also feels right for the conversation at hand. Quiet Signs is, after all, a record that came alive following a period of self-imposed isolation in Los Angeles, where the folk singer, songwriter, and impressive fingerpicker has lived for the past few years. ‘It was a convalescing that needed to happen,’ Pratt explains, hinting at personal events but never losing her signature mystery.
“Over the course of our meeting and subsequent phone conversation, Pratt parses out her words with intense amounts of care and consideration. She describes the way she writes her music like a dadaist or a surrealist from another era: thoughts appeared in her brain, so she acted on them. Sketches of sounds and melodies started to percolate, lyrical fragments began to atomize. Eventually she landed in New York and, for the first time in her career, put the album together in a proper studio, working closely with the engineer and co-producer Al Carlson.
“The result is Pratt’s most transcendent release to date. Endlessly warm to the touch, Quiet Signs is one of those listening experiences that feels plucked from another era. There is a bizarro universe where Pratt could have been a ’60s beatnik writing on a beach somewhere, and her music often gets compared to that of the early-’70s Laurel Canyon folk scene. But Pratt’s old soul never feels so out of place or openly nostalgic, even when she’s embracing touches of old-school prog or Tropicália. No matter what corner of space and time Quiet Signs lives in for its listeners, one thing seems constant: when Pratt’s voice cuts in and turns loose threads into fine vintage silk, it will make you want to cry.”
Stream Jessica Pratt’s ‘Quiet Signs’ below and catch her live at Rewire 2019 onSaturday, 30 March. Learn more atJessica Pratt.
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→ https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/5vBzRz5dpbEQUO75LKIbfs
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