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Kirsty Almeida: Doing It Herself

Amy Rich catches up with bluesy-folk singer, Kirsty Almeida.

Posted 29th July 2010, 2:04pm in Interviews, by Amy Rich
Kirsty Almeida In the midst of a hectic festival schedule, Amy Rich catches up with bluesy-folk singer, Kirsty Almeida for a chat about her upcoming debut album, 'Pure Blue Green', the trials and tribulations of being true to yourself, and plans for her next single, 'Late At Night'.

You wrote the album 'Pure Blue Green' (which is great by the way) in two months, how did you manage that?
Well, it wasn’t easy. I got myself a cottage in Sheffield and thought it was going to take six months, but it ended up taking only two. I was alone all of the time so I faced a lot of demons. It was really tough but I came through it. Sometimes, as an artist, you just have to take a sabbatical and get on with it. I knew I wanted a really big change because I was stuck in a rut – and that change was either going to involve training to be a marine biologist in Hawaii or writing the album. Even while I was writing the album I wrote off to find out about a volunteering post in Hawaii, but then I got signed so that was that.

That’s pretty lucky. So what’s it been like taking it on the road? – Any favourite places you’ve played?
It’s been great. We’re doing loads of festivals – we were at Glastonbury the other week which was amazing and we got to stay for the whole time. And the good thing about festival crowds is they don’t need warming up. They’ve bought their tickets so they want to have a good time. We’ve also done Lovebox and this weekend we’re playing the Secret Garden Party where we’re going to be making the video for the second single, 'Late At Night'. The first video – for single 'Spider' – cost about £30K but this time we’re doing it ourselves and I’ll be surprised if it costs more than £1K. We’re getting all our friends, family, and professionals we know involved and we’re really excited about it.

And what about when you’re done with all the festivals – how do you spend your time in Manchester? What’s the music scene there like?
Manchester has a really healthy music scene - because there’s not the same financial constraints as there are in London people are a lot freer. I really like to hang out at a place called the Oddfellows Arms. On Monday nights it has an amazing folk session where everyone can get involved and jam. The Band on the Wall is good, too. And I’ve got an exhibition of all the CD artwork which I’ve done for 'Pure Blue Green' - it’ll be on here towards the end of September.

So it looks like Kirsty and her band have a super-busy summer ahead of them what with festivals, videos, and singles releases too. But the one we’re counting the sleeps for is the album - 'Pure Blue Green' – which will be out in September. Having seen Kirsty play live, and listened to a sneak preview of the album, we can’t wait to see more from this northern girl and co.
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