At the end of the day, it’s the music that matters most, but it’s always nice when an artist’s backstory includes some romantic details. In our internet-centric age, artist bios are all too frequently filled with blah-blah statistics denoting YouTube views or Myspace hits.
The tale of LA-based songwriter Jessica Pratt, however, is uniquely fascinating. In 2012, Pratt was an unknown musician whiling away her early 20s in San Francisco. It was around this time that Pratt’s friend showed some of her recordings from 2007 to White Fence’s Tim Presley. Presley was so moved by her music that he started a record label just so he could release Pratt’s self-titled LP.
Pratt has now completed a second album called On Your Own Love Again, which lands in late January. It’s seven years since the songs on her debut were recorded, so it’s no surprise her songwriting has developed. “I was really raring to go, because I had these songs that I wanted to show people and I felt like they were so much better,” she says. “Because [the first record] was such old material, I felt intrinsically like I had already advanced a lot from that stage – just being an adult and playing for years after that.”
Jessica Pratt is an enchanting collection of songs, featuring nothing more than finger-picked acoustic guitar and Pratt’s mesmerising vocals. For the release of On Your Own Love Again,Pratt has teamed up with esteemed indie label Drag City. Thankfully, the label investment hasn’t hampered her no-frills production aesthetic. In fact, this record is more lo-fi than its predecessor.
“The first record is actually mostly a studio record,” Pratt says. “It’s just that maybe the most well-known song on it is one that I recorded on a four-track. The way that song is recorded is basically how I like to work.
“My biggest concern was with trying to write and record in a way that felt pure and natural to me, which is recording at home,” she adds. “It’s not necessarily that I needed the quality to be of any real low-grade. It’s just the way it works out for me.”
The crackly recording perfectly suits Pratt’s vocals, which have the ability to transport listeners to a time of black-and-white nights spent in smoky coffee houses. Similar to Jessica Pratt, several of On Your Own Love Again’s songs have a wistful demeanour. It’s never entirely melancholy, but Pratt’s not afraid to examine vulnerability.
“I guess there is a darker thing that comes out,” she says. “I don’t know if that’s my own temperament or if it’s the influence of things I’ve listened to that I love very much or if it’s just the tonal flavour that I need to inhabit when I play. I think it’s a combination of all those things. Also, the bulk of the second record was recorded right when I moved to Los Angeles and I didn’t really have any friends. I spent a lot of time alone. I was kind of going through a difficult time.”
Pratt will make her way Down Under for next year’s Sydney Festival. The release of her first record was basically unplanned, so one might imagine being thrust into the life of a touring musician came as a shock. On the contrary, Pratt has embraced the opportunity to do music full-time.
“I was always working on music privately and recording stuff,” she says. “I always did it and never questioned it. [Getting exposure] gave me more confidence and it definitely made me want to pursue that harder.”
Catch her atSydney Festival 2015at theFamous SpiegeltentonSaturday January 10, ticketsonline.On Your Own Love Againout Friday January 23 throughDrag City/Spunk.
