HOW MANY TIMES, the third studio album from New Orleans-based singer songwriter Esther Rose, deals with emotional scars not altogether healed - and it’s a striking listen from start to finish. With delicate and almost fragile vocals matching the project’s theme and assisted by some of New Orleans finest players, Esther is undoubtedly heading for a place in the best records’ lists at the end of the year. We caught up with her via Zoom to learn more about this winning song collection.
Hopefully we will get to see you perform in Ireland in the not too distant future?
I hope so, I have not been to Ireland. I was in the UK in 2019, that was as close as I got to Ireland. I was on tour with Pokey La Farge’s band, supporting them. I’ve toured with these guys a lot in the past, they’re great friends. I remember being massively intimidated by how tall everyone was in Glasgow, everyone was six feet tall and super tough (laughs).
With your latest album HOW MANY TIMES due for release in the coming weeks, do you get anxious prior to a release and how the album will be received?
There is a lot of anticipation. This is my third release and it does get easier. I have more of an understanding now about the nerves and the waiting. It really is correctly named as a ‘release.’ I also think that people are not going to tear down the underdog in their reviews. In some ways when you start getting more super critical reviews you might be getting to the next level. I often think the people that are reviewing albums like my own probably already like it. We’ll get to find out soon.
Your writing is particularly personal. Do you need to be emotionally moved for inspiration when writing songs?
I guess I’m emotionally moved all day long. I’m an introvert. That’s the way I am in the world. Songwriting is an incredible tool as it allows me to do something that I think I’m good at. Getting deeply into people’s feelings and situations. I’m so glad that I found songwriting because I didn’t come to it until I was twenty-seven. It was a great discovery to find something that I want to do, can do and am good at.
Given its very personal theme and with the album written and recorded over a two-year period, did that prolong your sensitivities or did writing the individual songs give you comfort?
It’s not that I was emotionally stressed for two years straight, but each time I wrote a song I was dealing with a specific situation. I’m always trying not to write the same song twice. I use songwriting to explore certain situations. So hopefully when I’ve written the song, I’ve also gained an insight into how I’m feeling at that time. It’s really a way of being present with reality.
How important was the song sequencing on the album?
The sequencing is very important. On this album time the songs are not in chronological order, which was the case with my first album. With my first album I wanted to share the developments as they happened. On this album I wanted to take the listener through the flow of how the songs tell stories of heartbreak and processing, from being at home alone depressed versus finally going out on the town again. Maybe seeing the person I was writing about again, all these little stages that you go through. It couldn’t be chronological this time.
I sense that the song Keep Me Running is a reminder to take care when you may be vulnerable, don’t get sucked into another relationship?
Definitely, that’s well said. I feel that since I’ve written that song, I’ve come around a bit. I’ve an impulse to walk, run, keep moving, a fight or flight sort of thing. It’s important to have that energy and momentum to pick yourself up. Nobody is going to do that for you, we have to be able to do that for ourselves.
The musicians on the album really breathe life into the songs. I’m particularly impressed with the fiddle playing by Lyle Werner.
Lyle is a wonderful person. He was the first person to join my band. I met him on the levee in New Orleans. He was jogging, probably the only time he has jogged in his life. I’d heard of him and knew he played fiddle, so I just stopped him and asked him if he wanted to join a band. He literally ran home and got his fiddle. My projects are always changing with new musicians coming in and I have a ton of people around the world, in San Francisco, New York, the UK that are trained up on my songs. I had the same band for this record which was super special. It allowed us to really develop our sound together. Lyle just really cares about the tunes and you can feel it in his playing. All the guys that played had a deep understanding of the tunes.
I can feel the New Orleans influences on the album. Is that something that you aimed for?
Many of the musicians I play with are from all over the world. They’ve all come to New Orleans to play music because of the culture there. You can play on the streets, and maybe play three times in one night with different bands. The sound on my album comes from having such a diverse bunch of musicians to work with.
Tell me about the recording process for the album?
It took exactly one year with two recording sessions, a year apart. We started in January 2019 and bookended in February 2020. We finished before the pandemic and on the first day of the two-week span of Mardi Gras. It’s a very special day with gorgeous blossoms everywhere and a sexy parade that kicks off the two weeks before Mardi Gras. It’s so specific in my mind to finish on that day and be loading out from the studio on a day when the city had all this momentum.
Had you intended the album last year?
It got pushed back a little bit with Full Time Hobby, my awesome label in the UK coming on board, but it was always scheduled for around this time. I have a strong songwriting push within myself and my US label likes to slow me down a little bit and give it a full year before I’m back in.
How did you handle the lockdown and did any positives emerge for you from the enforced quarantine?
I went to live with my sister in Vermont during lockdown. I live alone in New Orleans and I was not keen on going through the quarantine experience alone. My sister and I are incredibly tight so it was a great experience to be close to my family for the first time in a long time. We hadn’t spent as much time together since we were kids in high school. We’re always looking for positives and that was my feeling at the beginning of the pandemic. I was lucky to have a safe place to land and also getting to know my nephew, who is a budding songwriter. I got him interested in guitar and he knows every word from all of my songs by now (laughs). But it’s also important to realise exactly how difficult this situation is for many and what’s happened in our lives. It’s almost like it’s still so close that we can’t really see it.
Have you considered when you’ll be back touring?
I’ve had to put touring out of my mind to just get on with my life. I just put it out of my mind because it was so devastating to make plans to tour or play live and see them go away. I think it’s important now to just stay hopeful and appreciate the things in our daily lives that are bringing us joy.
Have you been taking a break from writing?
No breaks. I love writing and recording, that’s what I do. I have a new collection of songs and I’m trying to find the right place to record them. They’ve all been written in quarantine and never performed live and I feel very excited about them.
Interview by Declan Culliton Photograph by Akasha Rabut