She's been compared to Norah Jones, but Dutch-born Keren Ann Zeidel has a haunting style all her own - and a unique take on her adopted home in the Big Sad Apple, writes Jim Carroll
SOME records, they simply scream New York. Every note is another loud, jarring image. In your mind, you can see the steam rising from the pavement, dodge the yellow taxis making their way down city canyons and follow the flow of people up and down subway steps. These records are as big, brash, bright and bold as anything in Manhattan.
But there are other records, and they whisper New York. Big cities bring melancholic moods. For all the hustle and bustle, there's always one sad-eyed soul standing still watching it all go by, thinking big existential thoughts and sighing a good deal. In the case of Keren Ann Zeidel, this character probably smokes a lot too.
Zeidel's new album, Nolita, is as New York as Law & Order. An album about miscasts, melancholics, dreamers and drifters, Nolita was recorded by Zeidel in the building on 23rd Street she also calls home. Many years before, it was the hum of sewing machines you heard when walking by the building. With Zeidel, it was the sound of a musician working and reworking her songs which drifted down onto the street.
To Zeidel, New York has an enigmatic, timeless beauty. "In New York," she says, "you can lose track of time. Often, on the same street, you have scenes from the '30s, the '70s and today all mixed up together. It means that if you're looking at something that is quite modern and contemporary, you can almost see transparently beyond it to the building which used to stand there. All of New York is layered and you can see right through the layers."
As much by chance as anything else, the songs she worked on began to take on the shape and sense of the city around her. "It rubs off on you," she explains. "You look at these layers and start thinking about people from 30 or more years ago and all the sadness and happiness in their lives.
"People say that New York is haunted, but that's the wrong word. It's not haunted in a spooky way, but by the history of the place and the people. I think because of this there's always a strong sense of melancholy to the music which comes out of New York. Even the electronic records, even the rock bands."
Nolita is a dramatic affair, an album where Zeidel's smoky, bohemian, slow-motion jazz melodies, sultry voice and forensic eye for the smallest details make all the right moves. From the lovelorn languor of Greatest You Can Find to the vast narrative arc of Chelsea Burns, there's a strange, compelling magic at work.
Born in Holland to a Javanese-Dutch mother and a Russian-Israeli father, Zeidel's early years were spent between Paris and Holland. A couple of French-language albums, La Biographie de Luka Philipsen and La Disparition, opened her account. She also became involved in a number of collaborations, including the ethereal soft-focus folk of Lady and Bird, with Icelandic musician Bardi Johannson, and The Isis Project with songwriter Guy Chambers.
Then, a record called Not Going Anywhere appeared on the Blue Note label in 2004. While it was greeted with cheers and comparisons to Norah Jones, Zeidel simply viewed it as a means to an end - "an inbetween record" as she puts it.
"I was just putting down ideas, but I started to like the feel of it because it was quite candid and positive. At the time, I wasn't really going anywhere, hence the title, but I decided I would find a label for it, release it and take some time off. During that time off, I put together my own recording studio in New York and started working on something completely different. It's these songs, the ones I wrote in New York, which are on the new album.
"With Nolita, I've really spent time and made a lot of effort on the production. The previous record took a few days in a studio, but I really took my time over Nolita. The studio was my own, so there was no clock ticking. I could take all the time in world to get things right and do as much production as I wanted to and play as much as I wanted to with the songs."
Zeidel may have taken her time with the recording, but it was time worth taking. There's a very distinct sound and atmosphere to the album which embellishes every track.
"I really experimented with sounds and atmospheres. I used pre-amps and compressors and all kinds of toys on it. I need to be surprised by where a song goes. I might have an idea for a sound or a mood, but I tend to tinker away until the right setting comes along."
It was also very much a solo run, with Zeidel taking care of pretty much everything. "I didn't produce my first few albums. I thought because they were my songs and it was my voice that I needed some outside help. It took me two records to find out that this was not necessarily true.
"It's much harder to sit with someone and explain what you want rather than do it yourself. If you can't explain it, well, you have to be able to do it yourself. With Nolita, I thought I could get to where I wanted to go by myself, so that's what I did."
Zeidel has spent much of this year on tour, a necessary part of getting her songs out to the public, but also something which has affected her songwriting. "I write all the time, so there's lots and lots of scraps and ideas which I will never use or never come back to. But I have found that the songs I am writing while touring are not as good as they would be if I spent more time on them."
To get it right, she'll probably go back to her studio in New York. There, she'll begin the writing and rewriting process all over again. She'll gaze out her window, stare at the cityscape and see what catches her eye.
"It's a great city, but you have to have your own take on it, your own identity within it and your own sound. There are endless ways to write in and about the city, so you must have your own style. You have your very own film of New York screening in your head, so you should aim to have your own unique soundtrack to it as well."
Nolita is out now on EMI
