Artist Interview: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

By JAMIE GRISWOLD
MyNorthwest.com

Listen to Interview | Grace Potter

Don’t call her a demure songstress. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals will be bringing their original brand of honesty to Neumos November 18th. “I think that it’s honest, I think there’s an honesty and humanity to what I’m trying to do as a singer. When I’m singing the lyrics of the song, I’m really thinking about them…It’s an element and a place that we go to…something true that’s really hard to find now in music, and it’s important to me.”

For those attending the performance, Potter and her band have high expectations, “We hold our fans to a high level of understanding, and they are the kind of people that can tell the difference between a manufactured formulaic band and what we are, which is something different.”

Potter gets writing credits on most of the band’s tracks, but believes in collaboration, and is working to fight her tendency to hold tightly to the reins. “In the past I’ve written everything…but more recently I’ve been trying to open up to the idea of sharing that experience with everybody. It’s hard, because I really like writing songs. It’s kind of my thing, so it’s hard to open up that can of worms.”

Potter’s recordings are, dare I say, soulful, but Potter believes the band’s essence as artists shouldn’t neglect their stage performances which Potter says is where the “art” in the portrayal of their creations lie. “If you go online and listen to us you’re going to get one version of us, that’s the studio version of us. And then our live experience is very different and at the same time, you know, we’re playing the same songs but in the live, in the moment it’s really about that visceral kind of, up to the moment feeling of being able to stand in front of a band and watch them do what they do. And it really allows us to stretch out and be more personal with the audience. Not to say that studio work is not personal but I think it’s very different, it’s more of a science and being on stage is more of an art.”

In an effort to allow fans to get the full experience of the band, they’ve released “This is” episodes on youtube, the title derived from their latest record release, This is Somewhere. “People were only seeing a little piece of who we were as a band and our music, and me, for some reason my impression that I’ve left on people was that I was some kind of demure, you know, soulful songstress…It’s just very one dimensional and I think that what you see of those youtube clips of us behind the scene is really the true us shining through, just the good, the bad, and the ugly and I think all bands now are opening up to new forms of media and that was our attempts at doing the same thing.”

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals: “Apologies”

Potter and her band don’t shy away from touring or interacting with fans. Potter describes the band’s course to present day as having “[done] everything backwards.” The band started touring before they had a recording contract, and describe their early accommodations as, “people’s floors…there were times when we didn’t even know where we were going to stay that night. And we just ended up, you know, sleeping in the van or somebody’s floor, whether they liked it or not. When we started out it was very random. We would take a gig for like an arts festival in Cape Cod to sell enough CDs to get the gas to get to Boston to maybe have a gig, maybe not. It was like flying standby for musicians. I mean, everything was really up in the air, and we kind of learned as we went, we were very self-taught.”

The rigors of a touring band doesn’t allow for many breaks, but Potter is not deterred. “We’ve been in the van all summer. It’s been a huge tour with very little stopping in between…We only get little breaks, That’s okay though…I love it I really do.” Their stretch on the road is set to end early January. “We are definitely not playing anymore music after January 9th. We are off the road, and we are going to be heading to the studio and getting into pre-production shortly thereafter, and hopefully we’ll be in the studio no longer than past march…but records always take longer than you think.”

Performing at Neumos, in Seattle, November 18th.