Interview: The Power And Pop Of Grace Potter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Grace Potter didn't set out to be a pop star, the music just took her there.
This August, the lead singer of Grace Potter And The Nocturnals released her solo record Midnight - a thumping dancefloor excursion strengthened by the raw and electric voice of Potter. It led some people to wonder about her new direction. She had strayed from the rugged whiskey-soaked rock of The Nocturnals, beckoned by the shiny neon lights of pop music. It is a move that wasn't a calculated step towards stardom, but rather the results of an artist evolving.
"Initially I actually thought it was gonna be a Nocturnals record, and my only goal was that it sound like fun" she explains during a break from her tour. "I've never captured that spirit. I think that for me a lot of the records and a lot of the time when I make records I get really serious, and I want to like say something really important, and really powerful, and really carry all this weight. Ultimately I think sometimes the music can buckle under the weight of that pressure on an album."
"I wanted this to just have a levity to it. I wanted there to be a really buoyant, effervescent spirit to this album. That was the ultimate goal" remembers Potter. "A lot of the changes and the fact that it turned into a solo record are in some ways a reflection of just the actual nature of me versus the nature of me in the context of The Nocturnals."
Potter's progression towards pop was something that was apparent to her bandmates as they started to hear demos for the album. They could see the direction that music was pushing her towards. After some tough conversations they were content to sit this one out, but it was harder for Potter to venture out on her own without the comforts of her old group. "That's been my identity and my safety blanket for many many years. Thirteen years really of being a band" tells Potter. "To suddenly strip that away and just be standing kind of naked, risking my own reputation and my own sort of sense of self - it was a very powerful, and ultimately a really exciting moment. Certainly there's those moments that it's just like, is this what I want? Luckily I'm a pretty bold brassy fearless person, so once I delved into that I was like let's do this."
Despite the lamenting of some fans, it's a move that seems to have paid off for Grace Potter. Midnight finds her completely cozy among the bigger beats and basslines, still able to contort that amazing dynamic voice from ragged howl to wounded and vulnerable. At the heart of all of it seems to be an authentic artist chasing a sound more than a style.
"I think if I was really trying to become a pop star you would know it. I think that there's a very intentional move in a direction to join the conversation of what's being played on the radio, but I don't actually have a Beyonce fan for my hair - and I don't have backup dancers, and we're not playing to like 808 kickbeats" laughs Potter. "That hasn't happened and it never will, because I'm me. Ultimately this is just the world seeing me at a different angle and I love being given the opportunity to join this conversation because I've always had it in my head. Pop music has always been in my blood."
Grace Potter brings the music of Midnight to The Fillmore Philly this Friday December 11th. To hear more from Grace including what she learned from The Rolling Stones, check out the full interview below.
