Nerina Pallot
We are obviously thrilled to be welcoming you back to Norwich, and to be hearing you perform tracks from Stay Lucky, your latest album release. However, there are many earlier songs that fans will also want to hear again. How do you decide what makes it into the list for each show?
I try to think of songs that I may not have played much over the years, and throw a ‘rarity’ in during a show, and I also canvass fans on social media to see what they would like to hear. I do tend to lean towards whatever my latest album is if I haven’t toured it much before, but realise that now that I’m six albums and many EPs in there is a lot of material to cover! It’s knowing that there are some songs I can’t not play, and then hopefully picking a less well known one that someone in the audience has been hoping to hear.
Stay Lucky is clearly a very personal album, with songs about devotion, love and even death. How much of life do you believe is the result of luck or fate, and how much is achieved through hard work and strong relationships?
That’s quite the question! I think it’s a 50/50 split really - we get dealt a certain hand at birth in terms of geography, family, health etc and the rest is up to us. I reckon Monopoly is a fairly good metaphor for life - I suppose you’re kind of hoping to end up in Park Lane, but if not, Regent Street will do and trying not to go directly to jail without passing Go...
You have always seemed unwilling to be pigeon-holed by your song-writing. How much of that has been a conscious decision, and how much is simply a reflection of how you have developed as an artist, and as a person, over the course of six albums?
It wasn’t a conscious decision at all really - I’ve just always had a tendency to follow my muse wherever it went. Sometimes it would be commercially successful, sometimes it wouldn’t - I’ve just written whatever I wanted to at the time. It’s creatively quite lazy, in some ways.
You have written songs for, among others, Kylie Minogue. Have you ever been tempted to switch away from performing and touring, and concentrate instead on full-time song-writing, as did Norwich's Cathy Dennis?
No. I never intended to write songs for other people - it came about because Kylie’s A&R man heard a song of mine I had written but not yet released and convinced me to give it to her. It was a fun experience, that led to working with more artists in a co-writing capacity but I simply didn’t enjoy the process enough to do it full time and it’s not something I plan on doing again.
Kate Bush has been cited by you as an iconic influence, but from the new generation of singer songwriters which names currently excite you?
I’m a big fan of James Blake - especially his second album, ‘Overgrown’. Um. I don’t actually listen to other singer songwriters much when I come to think of it. People always imagine that if you are one, that’s what you listen to, but of the new generation of artists I’m more interested in people who don’t necessarily fit the singer songwriter term. Laura Mvula is another newish artist I really love, and also Michael Kiwanuka if we’re specifically thinking about people who write and perform their own material in a traditional sense.
You have had albums released by the likes of Polydor and Geffen, as well as on your own label, Idaho. What advice would you give to any new artists being courted by a major label?
Try to negotiate a decent retention or reversal clause. The long game is owning your rights because streaming - when it works - is a potentially endless flow of dosh so hang on to your rights in some shape or form if you can. There is one deal I can think of recently where the artist in question was streaming so well, and getting so much buzz that no major label was necessary other than to propel them further on to top tier stardom. So now that they have done a major label deal, it’s on their terms, and involves them licensing rather than selling their rights to the label. But that’s rare. And artists sign to majors for the marketing heft and production budgets they cannot conjure on their own. I’ve done it myself, and it helped enormously. But if you can keep control of your copyrights, do it do it do it.
In your opinion does the current shift away from the purchasing of physical product and towards streaming services help or hinder new artists?
It’s what it is. Streaming has only really existed for a decade now. It’s just the new delivery model for music. I think it’s a little bit sucky for independent artists though because majors have negotiated remarkable up front advances from the likes of Spotify etc., and some of them also own stakes in these companies, whilst indies don’t have that clout. And because of territory variations and audience shares, nobody has yet come up with a watertight basic payment outline. The accounting in these instances is a dark art. Plus can change. But for a savvy new artist who isn’t on a major - I think it can be fantastic actually. It’s immediate distribution, and if the Spotify Playlist Gods decree that your new track is worth putting on one of their major playlists, then you can go from relatively modest streams to some major traction, in the space of a few days. It’s exciting, even though a few megastar artists are dominating the lion’s share of streams.
Will you be bringing any of the musicians who played on Stay Lucky along with you on the tour? We have previously welcomed Bernard Butler (who contributes guitar to three tracks on Stay Lucky) playing alongside Ben Watts on a couple of visits to Norwich.
Yes - I will be bringing the drummer (Lewis Wright, who is himself from Norwich) and bass player from the album on the road with me. It’s been great being able to do that on a lot of shows in the last few months, everything feels very natural live as a result. Especially because the new album was recorded so organically and so dependent upon the interaction between the musicians in the room at the same time. It’s a very human record in that sense!
You have just released Reviens Au Lit, a French language version of Come Back To Bed (from Stay Lucky). Can we expect to hear more tracks given a Gallic makeover, or even an entire Reste Chanceux?
Ha ha! I have indeed done a French version of the title track (‘Ta Chance) and one other, ‘Coeur Solitaire’ (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter). I keep thinking I quite fancy writing an entire album in French, as I started writing Come Back to Bed in French first, weirdly. I’ve always done the odd French version of singles here and there over the years, but I’d quite like to get my teeth into a whole record.
Your Twitter feed is a delight to follow – open, honest, and entertaining, but also expressing frustration at how the world works and how certain people behave. Thinking back to Everybody's Gone To War, do you believe that we now have a better idea of what we're fighting for?
Thank you! I find Twitter is what you make it. And I’ve learnt over the years to not be provocative for the sake of it, but when you actually ask for robust discussion - even with opinions you may not share - it can be a brilliant place. There are some really interesting people out there, and I’ve discovered so many new things from other Twitter users as a result - books, records, films, comics, all sorts.
When it comes to knowing what we’re fighting for - I don’t think anybody knows anything - politicians, public, the world at large. Donald Trump is president. KFC ran out of chicken. If we should fight for anything right now, it’s that KFC get their chicken back, because Nando’s - while excellent - is really rather pricey.
And finally. You have visited Norwich on several previous tours. Have you yet had a chance to explore our fine city, or visit our beautiful Norfolk coastline?
Last time I came to Norwich I did have a good look round. And I’ve spent a bit of time on the coastline as a child on family holidays, Hunstanton was lovely if I recall. I have also been dragged to Sandringham with my Her Majesty the Queen worshipping mother - we bought a tea towel with a corgi on it, and I still have it somewhere. It’s so beautiful - and nicely remote. You don’t ‘pass through’ Norwich and Norfolk - you go there with intent because it’s not on the way to anything, and I think that’s what gives it its own identity. And so much amazing history!
Nerina plays The Waterfront April 21st
