With her eponymous debut album due out in the UK and Europe on 11th November (reviewed here), Torres is busy planning a promotional trip to Europe when I place a transatlantic call on one particularly miserably Glasgow evening. Thankfully she’s got time for a chat in an altogether more pleasant mid-morning in Georgia. Torres, the alter-ego of Nashville native Mackenzie Scott is in good spirits. As well she should be. Just a year ago she was still in college, writing an album and hoping - like countless others - that she would be able to record it.
It’s been quite a year, and one that’s only going to get busier through autumn.
Having briefly visited the UK to play London, Manchester and Latitude in the summer, this tour is a bit more substantial, with eleven dates taking in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Belgium and the UK (including a slot supporting Daughter at Shepherd’s Bush Empire as well as a headline show at the Borderline).
There’s near-permanent eagerness in her voice when she talks - whether that be about travelling to play shows, or how she recorded the album. While the album may take the listener into dark recesses of 22 year-old Torres’ mind, none of that is apparent in her sprightly replies or the sheer enthusiasm she carries when talking about music.
With the album having been released in the US back in January, it’ll interesting for someone having already dealt with the nerve-wracking wait for the response to a debut album to go through it all over again. She laughs when I pose this to her. “I’m interested to see what comes of it, if anything. I have no idea if it will have an impact at all - but I hope the reception is good.”
If the reviews are anything to go by, it will be. On the surface Torres is a folk album, but by using an electric guitar and stripping the production right back, it sounds raw and gives it an edge that just can’t be created with an acoustic. “Everything I wrote for the album was derived from folk finger picking on the acoustic guitar,’ she says. “I played acoustic for years and finger picking was the first natural style I picked up so everything was written on acoustic. All I did was switch over to electric and play the same notes. It translates as something different though.”
Finding that perfect sound came about after her family pitched in to buy her a Gibson 335 for Christmas last year. “I’ve been heading in that direction for a couple of years - when I was playing acoustic I didn’t have a fully formed idea of what I wanted my sound to be.”
Living in Nashville, she says being surrounded by folk musicians gave her the drive to find something different. “I didn’t stand out and that was frustrating for me. I liked the idea of doing something a little different and being a little louder, using that folk formula but having it translate on a more dynamic, attention-grabbing instrument.”
It was in Nashville, while at college, that Torres really found her calling as a musician. After an upbringing that she describes as “doing what kids do, learning the piano, playing in the school band, singing in church,” it wasn’t until high school that she began to play guitar and write. That led her to study music, which meant those late nights spent writing songs were actually helping her gain her degree. “I was constantly writing in college as that was my homework, but it was all I wanted to do so I’d stay up to the wee hours writing songs.”
Lyrically, the album is mature, using metaphors and imagery to reinforce its central themes, so it’s a mark of Torres’ talent that many of the lyrics took shape over her time at college. “They’re very personally lyrics that I wrote over the four years at college. A lot were poems that weren’t turned into songs. Some were class assignments for my songwriting classes.”
Not a bad way to serve your time as an undergraduate – especially when at the end of it all you’ve got enough material to record a debut album, along with your degree.
From graduation it was straight into the studio with producer Ryan McFadden to lay down the tracks that would form the album. Well, I say ‘studio’, but the space the album was recorded in was a little more dramatic than that. “We got a space that really catered to the sound I wanted, a big spacious mansion in Tennessee that’s been around since the civil war. It’s a big haunted space,” she says. “The house is part of the album. It was crucial - I have no way of knowing how it would have sounded otherwise but I feel the space helped create that haunted, ominous sound I was going for. I think I made the right call.”
Haunting and ominous are adjectives that fit the album well. Covering tales of broken relationships, heartbreak and suicide, it’s a dark and powerful record, the raw sound created helping shape that atmosphere. Torres says she used Brandi Carlile’s folk-rock album The Story as a reference point. “Ryan and I talked a lot in pre-production before going into the studio about the direction I wanted the album to take. I brought The Story in the first time we met up. I wanted my album to evoke the same feelings that her album did whenever it was played. He was really good at interpreting that.”
Torres says that the church played a big part in her upbringing, and as well as being the first place she sang, it was also her first musical influence. “All of the music I write is inspired by my upbringing, by hymns. I love Johnny Cash. He’s one of my biggest influences. That was how he wrote; it was from dark human experiences but it was almost like he was writing hymns.”
It’s unsurprising to find Torres’ influences covering some of the greats of both country and alt-country over the last fifty years, and she comes alive when name checking them: “St Vincent was the only thing I listened to during the recording. Beyond that, Ryan Adams is a huge influence. I got into him in college, I’m obsessed. He’s a prolific genius. I love Sufjan Stevens, The National - though I was late to the game on them, they came after the album was recorded. A lot of old school rock too; I was obsessed with Joan Jett for so long, and Fleetwood Mac.” She laughs: “There are a lot of influences in there.”
One major new influence on her is New York City. Having released the album in the States in January, Torres upped sticks and left Nashville behind in August, though a busy touring schedule has kept her on the road for much of 2013. “New York’s kind of been my dream home since I was 13-14,” she says. I had my sights set on it for years. I promised my family I would graduate from college so I did that and fulfilled that part of my responsibility and immediately hit the ground running with music. My life plan, not that one can really make a life plan, was to move to New York and work in music, so it’s worked out so far.”
Again, a bashful modesty comes through. It’s going to be a while before Mackenzie can sit down and fully take in what Torres has become. “I have a job now; it’s the job I’ve always wanted. I get to do a lot of travelling and I love that. This time last year I was in college in Nashville, Life isn’t like that any more, but day to day activities like hanging out with friends and drinking coffee; none of that is different.”
It’s refreshing to hear someone talk in such grounded terms about their success. “I’m really grateful for the support I’ve received so far,” she says. “It was really unexpected.”
And for anyone who’s heard the album, that reception is likely to get a little louder on the forthcoming European tour. As well as playing dates in new cities and seeing another part of the world, Torres is planning to spread her wings in other areas too.
“I’m looking forward to trying all kinds of whisky,” she says. “I’d like someone to recommend something to me in every city I visit - Scotch, bourbon. I’m also keen to possibly try absinthe while I’m there. Everyone says “don’t do it”, but I’m curious. Maybe that will need to be an off night though.”
There’s another burst of laughter before our conversation draws to an end. So, if you’re planning on seeing Torres while she’s touring, make sure you recommend a drink if you see her at the bar afterwards. She’s got a lot to celebrate.
LIVE DATES:
02-Nov Holland Amsterdam, London Calling @ Paradiso
04-Nov Belgium Gent, Café Video
05-Nov Germany Hamburg, Knust
06-Nov Germany Berlin, Lido
08-Nov Germany Munich, Hansa 39
09-Nov Germany Frankfurt, Zoom
10-Nov Germany Cologne, Gebaude 9
13-Nov UK London, Borderline
14-Nov UK Brighton, Green Door Store
16-Nov Greece Athens, Six D.O.G.S
18-Nov Ireland Dublin, Sugar Club
