Today we’ve got the first listen to the self-titled third album from alt-country artist Krista Polvere, and her voice sounds as gorgeous as ever.
While living in Virginia, Krista has pieced the new record together with artist/producer Bryan Elijah Smith, recording in a minimalist basement studio. Packed with beautiful moments of musical and lyrical maturity, the album is described as the product of “an intense personal and creative partnership ignited by musical and personal intimacy and risk-taking”.
Having clearly held nothing back in its creation, Krista explains the stories behind the album for us below, from themes of reckless abandonment, desperation and regret, to time spent with Amish folk in the Virginian countryside.
Krista received a massive co-sign from then-collaborator Ryan Adams a few years back when he contributed some guitar and vocals to an earlier record, stating he had “always been impressed by her.”
“She’s always impressed me as a songwriter and a friend. But the songs I’ve heard this time, I can honestly say I had no idea that she was capable of what I heard.
“I don’t say that to undermine her – I was shocked at how intricate it was. From what I’ve heard it’s such a powerful record. It’s going to be a real game-changer.”
Having built more of a profile since then, Krista is hoping her introspective new release will make just as much of an impact on everyone who hears it. Launching the record with a show at Ding Dong Lounge on December 10, Krista will have her full live band in tow for the first time in years, which should make for a very special evening.
The Stories Behind Krista Polvere
Father
It’s a confident and sexual track which came from a desire to not play it safe. Showcasing my interest as a chameleon style songwriter, taking a slight departure from the past ardent nostalgic demeanour, Father is wild, irrevocable, and free.
Devil In Me
About lust, passion and love this track is the antithesis of being captivated by someone who is emotionally unavailable. It’s that feeling of being so desperate and attracted that it feeds into a reckless abandonment “there’s a devil in me crying for your arms tonight, I’ve a fevered heart beating in the heat of the light, I may loose control, I may burn bright, there’s a devil in me crying for your arms tonight”
Shut Up & Ride
The first single off the record is a rollicking, guitar driven ode to spontaneity and risk-taking, with an unmistakably lustful lyric, reflecting my character an apparent true Gemini, having two very different sides to my personality.
The single is accompanied by a music video shot in which I play two roles – a free-spirited, independent woman travelling the dusty back roads of Australia and a mysterious, ghostly seductress inhabiting the Virginian woods. The woman that I once was and the woman I have now become.
Rockin’ Horse
A track about the failures to meet the expectations of my family I am telling a story of being regretful in that I did not follow standard cultural norms but instead lead a more bohemian way of life. I’m questions the idealist view that a husband, home and family are deemed to be an ‘appropriate’ way forward.
Concluding, that no matter what challenges and direction my life takes, my constitution remains strong and unwavering “Oh don’t I always want more can’t break me down I’m a rockin horse, can’t break me down I’m a rockin horse”.
Tennessee
Traveling the south of USA in a van almost every weekend with my lover while living in Virginia for a year I was mesmerised by the beauty of the country. This track plays homage to these parts and the influence Americana music has had on me.
Bryan (producer/lover) and I drove for 10 hours on one particular occasion to spend time in Nashville and this song encompasses the simplicity and beauty in that way of life “wind keeps a calling me back to Tennessee, Tennessee don’t let me down, don’t let me down”.
Songbird
This depicts a story of my goals and aspirations for music. The songbird who stuck to the plan and never sold out wrote for the truth not for stardom. The man in this story represents the music industry which offers everything and gives very little at times.
As a songwriter and musician all you can do is connect with the people who love to hear and see you for what you really are – “ohh when the lights in the city drown you out, ohh who you gonna turn to?”
Joe
A tune written in the Virginian countryside and a time when I was surrounded by farmers and Amish folk. My imagination ran wild and was caught up in a setting of two childhood lovers who had worked on the land all their life. They had a strong sense of community and commitment to their church but life ended so tragically when husband Joe passed away.
His wife left alone with their children was stricken with sadness and left with only loneliness and memories as she vacantly sang to the wind while wandering the corn fields “dying embers fertile seeds summers gone in the breeze upon the day break the children wake and she sighs, more than I can bear, more than I can share, with you”.
All I Really Wanted Was You
Lost and a shadow of myself standing behind a man that I adored and moved countries for here I sing about my former self and desires to travel to New York to see old friends but not having a choice to leave my lovers side, I sat and wrote stories in the fields instead.
Spending more time alone that I’d like feeling like a bird with my wings clipped but wanting to please my man “I wonder if they can see me, I got so good at disappearing, taken by the night pulled by the light, all I really wanted was you”.
Lonelier Than Yesterday
This track was written in Virginia at a time when I wanted to escape. There was so much appreciation for the experience of being there but I felt so alone and isolated in the country with no way of going anywhere.
I was in deeply in love but knew the situation was not at all healthy and would end badly leaving me broken “I made all my choices, taken me this far, a crown that seemed to glow, was drowning deep in tar. A love that seemed in taters a dress shred over time. Promises won’t matter, you were always mine, you were always mine”.
Echoes
This track was added to the record last minute as it was not part of the original track listing. It gives a very close insight into the connection between Bryan and I. It’s dark and there is a sense of intense longing between the two. Voices that ache, echo and ultimately entwine with one another just like the love they shared.
Echoes is wistful and ethereal and was recorded through a very cold snowy winter, in a basement, in the Virginian countryside “winters chill, brittle and broke, hearts on fire she steels the smoke”.
The Otherside
A dreamy song where I recollect to a time when I wondered if there was more than the situation at hand. In a relationship and feeling trapped I sang about my curiosity for the otherside. Another lover, another country or just another situation I was feeling alone and too broke to fight.
“I wanted something new, ahh to take me high, I wanna burn this down, take me through to the otherside, take me through to the otherside”.
