Valerie June is one of the most exciting artists new artists and You Can't Be Told is her terrific new single.
It is the latest track to be taken off her album Pushin' Against A Stone - a record where we are going to see her mix genres and sounds for a very eclectic sounding album.
We caught up with the singer-songwriter to chat about the new single and album and heading out on the road.
- You Can't Be Told is your new single so what can fans expect from the track this time around?
This time around it is going to be dirty blues (laughs).
- This new single was penned by you and Dan Auerbach and Kevin Augunas so how did you find doing some writing with them?
We had fun with the writing - the writing was the most fun thing about the whole process. The recording was harder for me but the writing was fun.
That was one of the first times that I had been in a co-write situation so just being in a room and having the ideas of other artists that I respect and admire was really nice.
- As you say this was your first time in a co-write situation so how did you find that process as opposed to writing by yourself?
It is such a gift to be able to write songs in general but when you can share it with somebody it is just such a pleasure. It is such a happy moment when you finish a song and you are just like ‘wow that was great’ (laughs). It is like having a great sunshiny day.
It is really hard to describe what it is like to share that experience with somebody else because it is a very introspective process. But at the same time the biggest thing that I get out of it is I am able to watch the other writer and learn their methods and that just helps to enrich what I do.
Every writer writes in different ways and so some write the music first while others write the lyrics first and some write while they are doing other things and it is just nice to see how other writers are writing.
It is nice to be able to take a little bit of that and try it myself and try to write in that way, just to see if I can.
Some write for an idea, like today we are going to write about purple, and so I was like ‘can I choose a topic and write around it?’ That is not normally how I write so it tests me and it pushes me to learn more about my craft.
- How did the collaboration between Dan and Kevin come about?
Kevin came to Memphis and hung out with me and he asked me who I would like to write with, and I said that I would like to write with Dan. He was like ‘let me give him a call’. So he gave him a call and sent him some of my music and Dan was like ‘yeah, let’s write together’.
- You are about to hit the road with Jake Bugg so how did that support slot come about?
I believe that the photographer Dean was on the plane with Jake Bugg’s manager and Jake Bugg’s manager was like ‘what are you listening to?’ And Dean was like ‘I am listening to this girl Valerie June you should totally check her out’.
Jake Bugg’s manager went home and checked out my music and he loved it and was like ‘this girl is someone that Jake has to hear’. So he let him hear it and they were like ‘we have got a tour coming up would you be interesting in doing it?’ And I was ‘yeah, for sure’.
He is just a lovely person and he has got a great sound and great music and I was just happy to accompany him on his journey.
- How excited are you about getting out and playing in front of a live audience here in the UK and introducing them to your new album?
I am always excited about playing in front of live audiences because I really enjoy it, for the most part. So it is just going to be a lot of fun.
I have got a band here in the UK and they are going to come along and we are going to take a lot of pictures and eat lots of good food and get into trouble.
It is going to be great and we are going to have a good time. I think it is going to be a treat for UK audiences because other wise they would have to come to a little old juke joint in the middle of somewhere to see me play (laughs) and it would be really hard for them.
- This is the second track that has been taken from your debut album Pushin' Against A Stone so what can we expect from the rest of the album in terms of its sound?
The album is so extreme sound wise as there are straight up country songs, straight up blues songs, some songs that are more commercial pop while there are others that are really stripped down and raw.
So it is just very eclectic and very extreme genre wise and it is just me dabbling in a lot of different questions and exploring what I can do and having fun.
- That was sort of my next question I was wondering if moving around all the different genres was a deliberate decision?
I would say that it isn’t really up to me. When I asked Jake how he writes songs he said ‘I think that a good song writes itself’ and I have read other writes say a similar thing. I thought about that on the plane ride home and I was like ‘he is so right’.
So if a good song writes itself wouldn’t it tell you what kind of song it is going to be? Wouldn’t it be like ’hey, I am a country song?’ Or ’hi I am a Blues song?’ When I hear the voice singing to me sometimes it is an old black man’s voice, sometimes it is a young child’s voice and sometimes it is my voice that tell me what genre or what instrumentation to put with the song.
So I just let the songs tell me what to do - they are my guides and they are the boss. So I am subservient to the songs and I let them tell me what to do. I don’t judge them I just write whatever comes to me. I have written hundreds of songs and some of them I never want anyone to hear; some of them are about some dark stuff while others are really funny.
When I have finished writing a song I don’t judge it and I don’t say ‘can it be a pop song?’ or ‘can it be marketable?’ I say ‘I have just written a song’ because I know that if I allow the flow to keep happening I am going to get to the songs that everyone can relate to; you write ten bad songs you get one good and when you write ten good songs you get a band one.
I just allow the song to flow and I just write them and I allow the song to tell me whether I am supposed to sing them. I have a lot of songs in the bag that I don’t even think I am supposed to sing and when I find the right voice for them or I find someone who says ‘I really want to sing a song that tells a story about domestic violence’ then I will be like ‘I have got one and it is not one that I want to sing, if you like it sing it’.
That is how the songs come to me and that is why there are so many different genres represented on this record. I think if I had a lot of money to go in the studio every single day - recording costs a lot when you do it right - then I would probably record all of these hundred songs and I would try to put them all together by theme; so I would pull out all the country songs that I have written and try to bring them together in a storyline and I would make a country record.
Then maybe I would make a Blues record and try and keep them in their certain genres. But I don’t know if I am going to live long enough to get all of these songs recorded so I just like to a little bit of this and a bit of that.
Working with Dan and Kevin they both have very strong ideas because they are both very strong and confident men in the music world and so I felt that this was a collaborative project.
- You Can't Be Told and Workin' Woman Blues are your two single releases so where do they fit into the rest of the album?
After we had recorded all of these random songs and I sat with the record for a little bit, before I let anyone else hear it, and I was like well where does it start for me?’ And it started with me being the working woman (laughs) as I had many great jobs and we just doing so much stuff.
So the record starts with that song because it tells a good story of that woman who is getting up and trying to do everything that she can to provide for herself - but she does have dreams and hopes and desires.
It moves into Somebody To Love, it is a sweet song, and at the end of Workin’ Women it says ‘Lord, I am ready for a sugar daddy’. So when it goes into Somebody to Love and she has found somebody. At some point she was trying to tell this man that she has found some different things along the way.
To each person it is going to sound different and be something to them that they relate to differently - they will tell their own story with it. So I don’t want to tell too much about the story.
- There is a jazz and gospel feel to your music in terms of its sound so who would you say have been your main musical influences?
I don’t really have a main person but the people that I do like are the story tellers; people like Carole King, Bob Dylan or Mississippi John Hurt. The stories are what it is really about and these songs are stories.
I don’t want to classify my music in any way it would just be that I tell a great story - I am a story teller. I am writing music now but maybe one day I will be writing books, I don’t know.
But I see stories and I live stories and I hear people telling stories and I just write songs based on stories. So that is what all of the songs have and carry.
Some songs that I listen to have no story and they have just one catchy beat and a catchy hook, and while that is fine that is not what I am doing. If you like a good story you will like this record.
- You are also going to be doing you own headline show at London's 100 Club so what can people expect from that show?
We are going to do so many of the songs on the record and I will also be throwing in some new songs that I have just started writing - so there will be a bit of a taste of what is to come with the next record.
There will be more songs from Pushin' Against A Stone than the new stuff; I will only do one or two of those.
I always like to do something traditional or something southern spiritual in a set as traditional songs are so great because of the stories that they tell.
- Finally what is coming up for you for the rest of 2013?
As soon as I get finished with this tour I am going to head to Austin, Texas for South By Southwest, I am really excited because I get to play a Willie Nelson track. I love Willie Nelson’s music - there is a story teller.
Then I come back to UK for another tour here and through Europe before going back to the States for a tour and then coming back here (laughs). So the rest of 2013 and into 2014 is just going to be travelling and playing and sharing the songs with different people.
You Can’t Be Told is released 4th March. Pushin’ Against The Stone is released later this year.
Click here to download You Can’t Be Told by Valerie June