“I think it’s crazy to shut your mind off to any music.”

UK’s most endearing soulstress, Alice Russell, is no stranger to musical exploration. it’s no surprise, really, her fearless, funk-inspired vocal stylings were fostered by a classically inclined father. Add organist and choir master to his term conducting a local orchestra back home in Suffolk.

“It was kind of a good introduction to learning vocal harmony. I used to sit next to the harpist in the orchestra, and that’s the instrument I wanted to play. But my dad couldn’t quite afford that,” she laughs. “So I learned the cello instead!”

In retrospect, Russell’s journey away from classical performance seems almost inevitable. “The radio was my first education to any music other than classical, really… Through the radio I heard James Brown and The Beach Boys, and I remember I was quite young – eight or nine years old – hearing that stuff, and being drawn to that other music.”

Since recording with such established acts as Quantic and Kushti in the early 2000s, and releasing her collaborative debut album Under The Munka Moon in 2004, the genre-melding singer’s music has been far more inspired by hip-hop than high-brow.

“Whenever I got pocket money I started buying records… I really got into hip-hop, and Prince. And then through the hip-hop, I found a lot of people that were being sampled. So it was kind of like a big long learning process.”

Logically, early in her career Russell began to believe “collaborating with people really keeps you out of your comfort zone”, and was hungry to seek out a smorgasbord of artists and producers. “I think that’s what really keeps me wanting to do different things.” “Collaborating with people really keeps you out of your comfort zone. I think that’s what really keeps me wanting to do different things.”

Renowned for injecting her categorically soulful voice into various pioneering musicians’ releases – including David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, Mr Scruff, and TM Juke, among many others – satisfying her love of participating in diverse recording and writing approaches is a top priority for the ubiquitous 38-year-old.

“It’d be nice to just go and try getting in to some of these places where music that I really adore is coming from, and work with some local musicians as well. You know, searching people out,” she proffers. “I’d love to do that actually.”

And she almost certainly will; it appears very little can deter Russell’s musical innovation.

Her indomitable attitude was perhaps most apparent when she created her own UK record label, Little Poppet, for her widely acclaimed 2008 album, Pot of Gold. “I think it was just to see how we could do it on our own,” she explains of its formation. “Feeling like you’re in control of the music is really nice.”

Having ticked that off her list, Russell’s latest release – To Dust – sees her return to the Tru Thoughts label, “and also another label in France who actually funded the record for the past few years, until Tru Thoughts came back on board this year.”

Going from her own label to another “felt like too big a step to completely commit to just one again,” notes Russell. She attributes this success in sharing her latest album between two labels to a “good team of people working on [it].”

Implementing yet another collaborative process to balance creative control with supportive manpower, Russell was determined to get the “best of both worlds!” she chirps.

The resulting release appears to have done just that; To Dust is a faithful showcase of the talent and international industry experience Russell encapsulates.

‘For A While’, ‘To Dust’, and ‘Twin Peaks’ are her personal favourite tracks, having been in the works for three or four years (with the exception of closing track ‘Heartbreaker 2’, which she “literally wrote on the last day of recording in the studio”).

“I go on and off listening to [the album],” she confesses, “because we spent such a long time mixing it.” “That’s kind of what expression is about, just trying to communicate your interpretation of how you see the world, really.”

In fact, considering the emotional depth behind her latest record, and indeed Russell’s entire catalogue, it comes as no surprise that the vocal heart behind To Dust was given just as high a priority as its technical execution. “A lot of the tracks we did about three or four versions of, and we came back and thought that’s just not the feeling, that’s just not quite right…”

This passion and fervent honesty permeating Russell’s music could perhaps be overshadowed by the sheer impact of her impressive voice. But she explains that lyrical truthfulness constitutes a large part of her approach to writing: “I think it has to be, because it’s your perception of the world. So it has to be something that you’re really feeling. It has to come from the heart.”

“That’s kind of what expression is about,” she elaborates. “Just trying to communicate your interpretation of how you see the world, really.”

Perhaps closest to home, Russell’s concerns about the issues “affecting everyone on the ground around you” in the UK are communicated unabashedly in her song, ‘Citizens’.

“The economy and the fact that for us over here, we’ve got a very right wing conservative government back in power, crippling a lot of things that should really should be there for people.”

“It’s a kind of call to arms song, really,” she explains. Stressing the power behind ideas, particularly among a UK community who have been brought up listening to music with “that gritty edge to it”, as she calls it; the eternally optimistic singer encouraging her neighbours to “just be careful not to get too caught up in the things that are there to sort of try and placate us.”

“I think it’s definitely something that’s on all our conscious thoughts at the moment,” Russell adds.

The concept of fighting against placation is just one message, among many, to support the potent soul within her album. “I don’t want to shut myself off from any subject in any way,” she states, again confirming her perpetually curious nature.

Russell’s sincerity in performance is far-reaching. Her passion for the power that music carries is almost irrepressible, as she confides that there is no musical instrument, style, or topic she isn’t itching to explore in future recordings.

“I’m still discovering new stuff all the time, from all over the place,” she enthuses, “so I think to shut yourself off – I find it really strange. How do you know if you’ll really like it or not?”

To Dust is out now through Tru Thoughts/Fuse.

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