Soul for the People (Interview with Martina Topley-Bird)

Martina Topley-Bird finally released her much-anticipated solo debut "Anything" in the U.S. this summer. The album features an eclectic myriad of styles including soul, rock and electronica. The singer's distinct emotive vocals add a unique ambiance to her music that resonate the voices of Nina Simone, Erykah Badu and Björk.

No wonder the British singer has been called the "black Dietrich of Soul." "Anything" already achieved critical-acclaim in England where it garnered a prestigious nomination for the 2003 Mercury Award, the British equivalent to the the U.S. Grammy.

Topley-Bird, 26, has a deep admiration for visual arts. Like many artists and designers, she is very visual in the way she puts her emotions into music. "I’m a romantic," she says. "I like to write songs that put you in a place and have an imaginary quality. All of my songs have strong reference points that create a certain situation."

Some might recognize the singer’s haunting vocals from the work she has done with rapper Tricky who was part of the pioneering trip-hop group Massive Attack. Together they collaborated on four albums while they were also romantically involved. The lovers split in the late nineties, but on "Anything" they’ve reunited to work on a number of songs.

In her lyrics, the singer takes a unique look at love and relationships. "They’re not plain love songs, because I hate those," she says. "My songs all deal with coming to terms with the desire for something and the struggle with what you want and what is right for you."

The gay-friendly singer emphasizes that everybody should have the opportunity to get married, including gays and lesbians. She admits, however, that she is not sure if marriage is such an ideal thing after her divorce from Tricky.

Topley-Bird’s encounter with Tricky was a life-changing experience. She was a fifteen year old girl who had aspirations to be an oceanographer. The two met when she was sitting on a wall outside of his house in Bristol smoking a cigarette. Tricky started a conversation about music and eventually asked her to sing vocals on some material he was working on.

Two years later, their meeting resulted in the birth of their child, and later the album "Maxinquaye." Topley-Bird doesn’t think her meeting with Tricky was an act of fate. "I think if you’re a certain person, you automatically tend to gravitate to similar people," she says. "That’s what happened with Tricky. It is a simple law of physics."

While working on her first solo album, she realized how much she has been influenced by Tricky in terms of songwriting and production. "He taught me to make decisions fast," she says. "It is important to trust your instincts and not agonize too long over things."

When the songbird started working on the album, she wanted it to be very different than the work she had done earlier. "I concentrated on having a very traditional songwriting framework from the beginning," she says. "I think has turned to be more accessible than my previous work while it is still both warm and challenging."

The album’s ingenious production was mostly created by the free-flowing creative process. Some tracks started out with a simple idea, certain noise or hooky sample before the melody or lyrics were written.

Besides working with Tricky, she also got help from Josh Homme and Mark Lanegan of Queen of the Stone Age who added a catchy, traditional rock arrangement to the powerful "Need One."

The singer credits geography for the great diversity of music that has been coming from the UK lately with acts like Franz Ferdinand, Jem and Dizzee Rascal. "There is simply no room in this country to have such an intense segregation between groups," Topley-Bird says. "It is easier for artists to cross-over and experiment with different genres just because of the way our society is structured."

Topley-Bird understands that people will have more appreciation for "Anything" after repeated play. "I think my music sounds different in different contexts and at different times of the day," she says. "The melodies have an instant hook, but the production is quite subtle so you need to sit down and experience it."

Try these tracks by Martina Topley-Bird:

"I Still Feel"

"Anything"

"Too Tough To Die"

"Need One"