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Three years since her last release 2009's Everybody, Ingrid Michaelson's follow-up effort Human Again is a beautifully sombre mix of songs focused on feelings, relationships, and emotions. There is a definite substance to the album housed within the concise lyrics and wounded delivery, and a tangible distress within the album cover alone.
Catching her in the UK after a surprise early-evening pop-up show at Bush Hall on Tuesday the 26th of June, AltSounds talked with Ingrid about the gap between albums, the making of her fantastic new video 'Blood Brothers', the meaning behind Human Again, and her plans for a new album:
AltSounds: It’s great talking to you Ingrid, first off: What have you been up to recently?
Ingrid: Well, I have been touring, I did a six week tour in the states and we had a really great time, then I was off for a few weeks before coming here to the UK.
AltSounds: You’re newest album, Human Again, has been three years coming, was there a reason for the gap?
Ingrid: Well, no. I think that it just was the way that my life way going and how I was writing music – I wasn’t really writing a lot actually. But I’d been touring a lot and I needed to actually say , you know, “I need some time to not be on the road; I’m gonna make another record and I just need to be in one place to really focus on writing”.
So, I took a lot of 2011 off, I got married that year too, so I just took that year and I wrote and I did my record and I got married and then everything sort of picked back up again at the beginning of 2012 so it didn’t feel that long, it didn’t feel like three years. But when you’re constantly travelling and playing shows your life can go pretty fast. Though I’m already to start recording a new record and I only release Human Again half a year ago so I think if had more material maybe something might of happened sooner.
AltSounds: The title ‘Human Again’ seems to suggests a return to feeling normal, what’s the reason for that title?
Ingrid: Well I feel like I was very detached from where I am now and who I am now. I was searching for something and not finding it. Then I met my husband and basically I felt like I returned to that feeling of being in the right place and moving in the right direction. I was really sad and I think my music was the only thing I really had, maybe because it was like the love of my life and it can’t really love you back!
I feel like I fell in love, for realsies, which also made it very difficult to make music because I didn't write about how broken hearted and lonesome I was all the time. It’s only when you do become happy that it becomes difficult to write those songs, you have to find a different avenue and a different relationship with your music. I think that’s also why it took me such a long time to write this record because I had to figure out how to write again, but in doing so I felt like I’d return musically and everything was just better.
AltSounds: Who did you find anything in particular inspired you during the writing for Human Again? Do you find that your influences have changed over the years?
Ingrid: Oh yeah, though I think there no criteria for what is inspiring to me. It can be just a few lines of a song or walking through the park and looking at these 150 year old trees and thinking about the man who planted them. I feel like it’s just whatever strikes me as beautiful and interesting that inspires me the most. So, in terms of influences it’s the same thing: this evolving situation where your introduced to new music, new artists, and new things in your life; I like to move forward. I don’t listen to the same music I listened to five years ago, I kind of keep going and keep absorbing new things.
If you want to get specific, I definitely love Bon Iver, Jessica Hoop, and I actually really got in to that Lana Del Ray record which is a bit controversial over in the states, I think they’re more forgiving in the UK. I like people that do things that are different, you know.
AltSounds: In your newest video, 'Blood Brothers', you dress up as some of the more recognisable stars of pop, including John Lennon, Gene Simmons, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Beyonce, David Bowie, and Amy Winehouse. What was the inspiration behind and the video and what does it mean?
Ingrid: Well, I didn't know if it was too obvious. I had this idea for a very long time of sort of shape-shifting into different character all in one take, well seemingly one take – over the course of a day – and when I wrote the song I thought that ‘well this is the most perfect video for the song’. My face is basically the canvas for all these different people, and I wanted to use famous, iconic musicians because I thought people would recognise them and it’d be fun to watch and interesting to see all the different transformations. Its basically the idea that everything is the same: we’re all the same canvas, we’re just painted differently.
AltSounds: How long did you have to sit down in the making of the video?
Ingrid: It was about 15 hours one day and 4 hours another day. Yeah, my skin was pretty raw by the end of it.
AltSounds: Is there a certain song or moment in a song that means something important to you?
Ingrid: Well, I don’t really like to think of anything as being too important, but in terms of something that sums up a lot of the record there is a line of a song called ‘I’m Through’ that’s about being devastated and broken down. The line is something really sad, like “I would rather feel this” (“But I would rather feel the sting, than never to have a felt a thing. I’ll always know you were the one, to rip me from the ground”) – like, I know this is awful and one day it’ll get better but its awful right now; though I’d rather have had this feeling. “It’s better to have love and lost than to never love at all”, that whole thing just spun in a different way.
I write about love, I write about human emotions, and it’s sort of all I really feel…I know. I don’t really know too much about politics, and all the things some people might write about, I feel like I’m only allowed to write about human emotion, because that’s all I really know. That’s the idea of the record: being human and feeling things, and reacting to things, burning down and building back up again because of all the hard things that you live through, so that’s kind of the idea and I think that that line and that song encompasses that.
Ingrid: 'Black and Blue'. It just seems to be the one that people are responding to, and it’s fun and poppy and catchy. I think it has a heart and a good sentiment behind it.
AltSounds: You’ve already touched on this slightly but have you got any plans for another album yet?
Ingrid: Yes, I already have a handful of song thats are either half-written or almost done and I’ve been kind-of marinating in production ideas and what sort of colour-palette I want, and how I want songs to take shape. I want my next record to have a definite style to it, and a cohesive theme. I’m don't know when it’s gonna happen, it’s all contingent of my schedule and time-off, because I need to time to finish writing and to record, and that might not happen for a while because I’ve had a year off.
As soon as I’m done with one record I’m always like “Let’s do the next one now!”, I think I always have more fun in the studio recording and creating. I love performing but there’s a thing about just being in the studio: going in everyday and just recording and writing and fleshing out songs and I really just love that part of this live so I hope I get to it again soon.
Catching her in the UK after a surprise early-evening pop-up show at Bush Hall on Tuesday the 26th of June, AltSounds talked with Ingrid about the gap between albums, the making of her fantastic new video 'Blood Brothers', the meaning behind Human Again, and her plans for a new album:
AltSounds: It’s great talking to you Ingrid, first off: What have you been up to recently?
Ingrid: Well, I have been touring, I did a six week tour in the states and we had a really great time, then I was off for a few weeks before coming here to the UK.
AltSounds: You’re newest album, Human Again, has been three years coming, was there a reason for the gap?
Ingrid: Well, no. I think that it just was the way that my life way going and how I was writing music – I wasn’t really writing a lot actually. But I’d been touring a lot and I needed to actually say , you know, “I need some time to not be on the road; I’m gonna make another record and I just need to be in one place to really focus on writing”.
So, I took a lot of 2011 off, I got married that year too, so I just took that year and I wrote and I did my record and I got married and then everything sort of picked back up again at the beginning of 2012 so it didn’t feel that long, it didn’t feel like three years. But when you’re constantly travelling and playing shows your life can go pretty fast. Though I’m already to start recording a new record and I only release Human Again half a year ago so I think if had more material maybe something might of happened sooner.
AltSounds: The title ‘Human Again’ seems to suggests a return to feeling normal, what’s the reason for that title?
Ingrid: Well I feel like I was very detached from where I am now and who I am now. I was searching for something and not finding it. Then I met my husband and basically I felt like I returned to that feeling of being in the right place and moving in the right direction. I was really sad and I think my music was the only thing I really had, maybe because it was like the love of my life and it can’t really love you back!
I feel like I fell in love, for realsies, which also made it very difficult to make music because I didn't write about how broken hearted and lonesome I was all the time. It’s only when you do become happy that it becomes difficult to write those songs, you have to find a different avenue and a different relationship with your music. I think that’s also why it took me such a long time to write this record because I had to figure out how to write again, but in doing so I felt like I’d return musically and everything was just better.
AltSounds: Who did you find anything in particular inspired you during the writing for Human Again? Do you find that your influences have changed over the years?
Ingrid: Oh yeah, though I think there no criteria for what is inspiring to me. It can be just a few lines of a song or walking through the park and looking at these 150 year old trees and thinking about the man who planted them. I feel like it’s just whatever strikes me as beautiful and interesting that inspires me the most. So, in terms of influences it’s the same thing: this evolving situation where your introduced to new music, new artists, and new things in your life; I like to move forward. I don’t listen to the same music I listened to five years ago, I kind of keep going and keep absorbing new things.
If you want to get specific, I definitely love Bon Iver, Jessica Hoop, and I actually really got in to that Lana Del Ray record which is a bit controversial over in the states, I think they’re more forgiving in the UK. I like people that do things that are different, you know.
AltSounds: In your newest video, 'Blood Brothers', you dress up as some of the more recognisable stars of pop, including John Lennon, Gene Simmons, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Beyonce, David Bowie, and Amy Winehouse. What was the inspiration behind and the video and what does it mean?
Ingrid: Well, I didn't know if it was too obvious. I had this idea for a very long time of sort of shape-shifting into different character all in one take, well seemingly one take – over the course of a day – and when I wrote the song I thought that ‘well this is the most perfect video for the song’. My face is basically the canvas for all these different people, and I wanted to use famous, iconic musicians because I thought people would recognise them and it’d be fun to watch and interesting to see all the different transformations. Its basically the idea that everything is the same: we’re all the same canvas, we’re just painted differently.
WATCH // 'Blood Brothers'
AltSounds: Did you have any other personas you wanted to include in the video but couldn’t?
Ingrid: There were but I felt like I had to really pick ones that people would know who they were right away. I wanted to pick Judy Garland, because she’s one of my all-time favourite voices in the world but I don't think anyone would really know who it was. I wanted to do Elvis too but it just didn't really turn out right. It was a definite struggle because you’d think that there are so many to choose from but there aren't many that I could physically doing, being a woman, that would translate well.
AltSounds: How long did you have to sit down in the making of the video?
Ingrid: It was about 15 hours one day and 4 hours another day. Yeah, my skin was pretty raw by the end of it.
AltSounds: Is there a certain song or moment in a song that means something important to you?
Ingrid: Well, I don’t really like to think of anything as being too important, but in terms of something that sums up a lot of the record there is a line of a song called ‘I’m Through’ that’s about being devastated and broken down. The line is something really sad, like “I would rather feel this” (“But I would rather feel the sting, than never to have a felt a thing. I’ll always know you were the one, to rip me from the ground”) – like, I know this is awful and one day it’ll get better but its awful right now; though I’d rather have had this feeling. “It’s better to have love and lost than to never love at all”, that whole thing just spun in a different way.
I write about love, I write about human emotions, and it’s sort of all I really feel…I know. I don’t really know too much about politics, and all the things some people might write about, I feel like I’m only allowed to write about human emotion, because that’s all I really know. That’s the idea of the record: being human and feeling things, and reacting to things, burning down and building back up again because of all the hard things that you live through, so that’s kind of the idea and I think that that line and that song encompasses that.
WATCH // 'I'm Through'
AltSounds: What will the next single from the album be?Ingrid: 'Black and Blue'. It just seems to be the one that people are responding to, and it’s fun and poppy and catchy. I think it has a heart and a good sentiment behind it.
AltSounds: You’ve already touched on this slightly but have you got any plans for another album yet?
Ingrid: Yes, I already have a handful of song thats are either half-written or almost done and I’ve been kind-of marinating in production ideas and what sort of colour-palette I want, and how I want songs to take shape. I want my next record to have a definite style to it, and a cohesive theme. I’m don't know when it’s gonna happen, it’s all contingent of my schedule and time-off, because I need to time to finish writing and to record, and that might not happen for a while because I’ve had a year off.
As soon as I’m done with one record I’m always like “Let’s do the next one now!”, I think I always have more fun in the studio recording and creating. I love performing but there’s a thing about just being in the studio: going in everyday and just recording and writing and fleshing out songs and I really just love that part of this live so I hope I get to it again soon.
Human Again is available in the US now and will be released in the UK on the 27th of August.
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WATCH // ARMY Of 3 - 'Somebody That I Used To Know' (Gotye Cover)
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