Alice Russell doesn’t seem to stop. Ever. It’s easy to lose count of her albums and EPs, but it’s hard to forget that voice. The UK-born soul singer lays herself bare through her music, encouraging countless remixes and interpretations mere weeks after a studio album drops. She is a tireless and passionate songwriter whose latest studio album, To Dust, is a collection of emotionally intense neo-soul songs that both break your heart, get you mad, and make you want to get up and dance.
Hot on the heels of an August EP, “For a While,” Alice will kick off a US tour supporting Midnight at the Beverly Laurel, the latest remix of To Dust. Eight different artists collaborated on the record, which Alice dearly loves.
Collaborations and remixes as much part of her catalog as her studio albums, but she is most excited right now about performing live–especially in the US. “I like to come and soak up that energy before I come back and do a Euro tour!” Alice kicked off a second 2013 North American tour on October 5 in Washington D.C. at the Howard Theater, and will be criss-crossing the country and Canada all month long.
Alice chatted with us just before she embarked for the States, and she had lots to say about her musical collaborations, why performing live inspires her so, and her true love for the LP.
I’ve often felt like you Brits do American music better than Americans. Do you think that’s the case?
Aw… I think we’ve just been sort of ping-ponging music over the pond to each other, and then sort of digesting it and throwing it back. I feel like, yeah, we’ve always looked over to you guys and then sometimes it comes back here and then… a little game of tennis or something! [Laughs]
It seems like that’s been going on for decades, and it’s interesting how that trend seems to continue.
Yeah, and all over, really—Australia, New Zealand—it’s really great. I think everything’s just so global now. You can get hold of music from places that you never thought you’d hear music from. I think it’s a cool time at the moment.
You grew up singing in a church choir…
[Laughs] It wasn’t the gospel type that I would have liked; it was more like “Ave Maria.” But it was a great training ground for harmony and just generally getting into singing, really, and not even realizing how much I loved it, you know? It was just something we did. Every Friday night we had choir practice and we’d do the Sunday service. It was very natural.
Do you remember what first turned your ear towards the soul artists that influenced your singing style?
I think it was the radio, really. I was about nine when I started listening to the radio and picking out the things I like, which was James Brown, Cameo… I remember hearing “Sex Machine” by James Brown and being blown away by the sound of that. And then Aretha Franklin… and getting into that, really, before I had pocket money and could afford to buy records, which obviously then gave me the whole scope. But it was the radio, really—getting drawn to these sounds and thinking, what the hell is that? It just moved me and drew me in.
So, you spent all this time listening to loads of old soul and R&B music when you were a kid. Did your friends or parents ever wonder, where did this come from?
They were cool about it! They were pretty open-minded to that. Out of all my sisters, I was the one who was drawn to that sort of style music as well. My older one was into the Thompson Twins and Duran Duran. [Laughs] As far as my friendship groups, it wasn’t until I went to high school that we sort of shared common ground, and there were a few of us really obsessed by this music.
A really good friend was into blues music and had a dad who played in a blues band; I then got introduced to the Rolling Stones through her, and sort of proper old blues stuff. So, high school sort of developed all that. And the boys were into hip-hop, and all the parties we went to were hip-hop, so I then got into that. In hip-hop, I found people like David Axelrod and all the people who the hip-hop guys had been sampling, so there was a whole new wave of music I found through listening to that as well. It was sort of an organic process of finding out stuff and sharing music with friends.
Reading about what you’ve been doing over the last year is staggering. To Dust took some time to record, but then you released two EPs—”For a While” on August 27 and THEN “Midnight at the Beverly Laurel” out on October 8. You seem to do this with your music – intense recording then a bunch of remix releases. What drives you to make music like this?
I think the remixes… you just want to see what else can happen and get the music out to different audiences. That the one thing that remixes do—they turn people on that maybe wouldn’t have listened to the original track. I think remixing is really important, and I really like it when people do remixes and then you hear what they do and you really like it. That’s pretty cool.
Also, the other thing that we spent more time doing is touring. Sometimes, I just want to dish the time out more equally between being in the studio because I don’t feel like we ever get enough studio time in a year. I’d like to see that happen! [Laughs]
Do you feel like these remix collaborations are key to your success?
Yeah, I think it’s always important to broaden the horizons and try different things. But I think also the other thing that seems to all get people is… seeing us live is a very different experience to the recorded article. I think the other thing that we do as well is when we’ve recorded a nice acoustic version of some of the tracks, they seem to be the ones that get to people a bit more intimately. I feel like they’re sometimes some of the best things I can put out; they sort of really hit home and are what I’m about.
To me, that emphasizes the strength of your songwriting. That you can play an acoustic version, or you can listen to the album version, or there are four remixes of the song that you can choose from and you’re comfortable with that.
Yeah, definitely. I think that’s why I enjoy doing covers as well. You get struck by another song and feel like it’s okay to cover it—like “Retrograde”… some of the songs coming out at the moment feel like timeless classics, both lyrically and melodically.
The sound on To Dust is just amazing. There’s a lot going on around this big sound of your voice. What kind of album did you set out to create?
Yeah, I mean… It was kind of a stretch of angry times, so a lot of the themes on it are of miscommunication and getting some of that anger and frustration out lyrically. I think production-wise, because it took so long… that was a blessing in disguise because we kept going back and almost remixing our own songs. So, some of the songs have got five different versions of them, which sometimes can be a bad thing, but in this case I thought it was a good thing. The album felt very cohesive after that. And some of them, we went back to the demos… it was quite a good process.
In the age of the viral single, why do you feel it’s important to put together full album around these things that were going on in your life?
I’m still into the old school. I like to put a long player on the record player, and I like to slow down. In a world that’s speeding up—with our attention spans and Spotify and everything—all these things are amazing and I totally utilize all of them!
But I love the focus of an album and having to sit down and make sure it flows for the person that’s listening. I think it’s really important, and I think it’s kind of scary how fast everything’s getting. Our attention spans… you might not even finish listening to a whole song. Like, I loved Frank Ocean when that album came out. You listened to that start to finish. I really love when other people put that effort into that. I think, for me, it makes sense to tell a story and want to see that through a long player. It’s quite important to me.
And you’ve released your music on vinyl as well, to give listeners another opportunity to slow down and appreciate the storytelling and artwork.
The sound quality is just so tasty on vinyl. And also just holding it in your hand… I’m the same with books. I’m not really a Kindle kind of girl, I like my books. And I like my vinyl. I think it’s nice to give people the option, so if they want to buy a few tracks, that’s cool. But it’s nice to give the die-hards the whole album and on vinyl.
It must be encouraging for artists like you to know that there is a contingency who wants an album, and not just a few singles.
Yeah, and I love the EP thing as well, because sometimes there’s a body of music that just doesn’t fit on an album, but it would work fantastically as an EP. And that’s fine as well, but I just adore the album. I still love it.
You played Glastonbury this year, which had to have been huge for you.
Yeah, that was cool. Wicked. We didn’t get to stay, but it was cool to do it this year. I was really pleased.
How are you feeling about the upcoming US tour?
I love it. I love coming out to the States. We came out in May and toured and I miss it. I’m really pleased that we’re doing two tours this year. I just love it. I love San Francisco, I love New York and I have friends there, so it’s nice to come and see those guys. And also, you guys are really verbal in gigs! You really shout out and get involved, and I like to come and soak up that energy before I come back and do a Euro tour. So, it’s quite nice to come back to the States to get some of that energy, and then come back here with it. [Laughs]
That’s hilarious. It makes me think of the contrasting experiences riding the subway in New York and the Tube in London. On the Tube, it’s usually dead silent. On the New York subway, you never know who’s going to do what.
Yeah, people talk to each other out in the States a lot more. I think it’s good, and I think it’s really healthy! I think we need to calm down a bit out here.
Do the inevitable comparisons to other British soul singers bother you at all?
I think it’s natural for people to liken me to people. In a way, it kind of gets you out there. If you’re reading an article and someone likens you to someone they understand, they might never have heard of me otherwise. If they like Adele or like someone who’s really famous and getting all these accolades… I suppose it only helps, really, because it might make them check it out. If there’s no comparison, it’s harder for people to understand maybe what I do. So, in that way I don’t mind. It’s flattering as well sometimes when you get compared to big people. It’s all good. It’s a natural thing we do, I think; we have to liken things to things we’ve heard before. So, it’s cool. It’s all good! [Laughs]
Obviously, it takes a long time for most musicians to register any sort of success or to really make a living doing what they’re doing. I’m curious: what has surprised you the most about this musical journey you’ve been on?
Um… the musical journey… um… that’s a tough one! I’m still very much ensconced in it. I think it’s just the fact that I’m still doing it sometimes—that I haven’t given up! [Laughs] I think that might be what I’m surprised at, but I think it’s something that you can’t not do as well. Sometimes you don’t realize how much stuff you’ve done and how much stuff you haven’t done yet as well. Sometimes I think, “My god!” And then I look back and think, “Yeah, but you did that and toured with him…” That’s a big question. I’ll still be thinking of that later tonight.
I didn’t mean to throw you for a loop! I talk to a lot of musicians, and everyone seems to have these totally out-of-the-blue things that happen that kind of keep them going, so I think I had that in mind when I was writing that question.
I think the live shows keep me going, because then you’re getting an instant reaction from the audience and you’re really communicating with them. Whereas when you’re recording a song in the studio, it’s quite a remote process until the music’s released. So, I think for me the best, most surprising bit are shows that you think, “Shit, I’m going to have to win these people over.” But then they’re there with you straight away. So, those kinds of things—I think they’re the best part.
You just keep creating and creating… it must be so rewarding to keep the music fresh and to get great feedback for what you’re doing from your audiences.
Definitely, and it’s important for me—for the audience—to keep things fresh and to try different things anyway. I’m constantly pinging around going back to old influences, and then I move on to something different, so I’m a bit schizophrenic when it comes to other things I want to try. That’s why I love people like Beck as well, he sort of reinvents himself for each album, and that’s highly commendable. [Laughs] Attention span, I think, is what I need to work on! [Laughs]
You’re touring behind the soon-to-be-released, “Midnight at the Beverly Laurel.” Do you have another album planned after this EP?
Yeah, I’m planning to work… I’m sort of touring at the moment. It’s been quite a busy summer. At the moment, I’ve got January and December clear, so I’m planning on getting back into the studio then, really, and get cracking, because I’ve got some ideas bubbling. I’m really keen to use that down time. It’s going to be dark over here, really cold and miserable, so I need to shut myself in the studio and get on with the next album. That and also with Quantic… I did a track with him in the summer for his album, but we’re talking about getting in the studio together to do another long player together as well. We’re hatching plans! [Laughs]
