大象传媒

All of which means that there鈥檚 a certain amount of pressure attached to the release of her second solo outing, Bloom, though speaking to her, you wouldn鈥檛 know it, as she鈥檚 brimming over with the simple relief of having finished the project.

"I am very happy with it. It鈥檚 weird because you get so close to something when you鈥檙e recording and writing it, you can鈥檛 be objective.

Lou Rhodes

"So when you鈥檙e finished and you have a listen back to a body of work, you start to detach for the first time and think 鈥榬ight, that鈥檚 what happened. It鈥檚 interesting."

Organic music

That creative process is something that she finds she鈥檚 often asked about. She says she鈥檚 not alone in having such an 鈥渙rganic鈥� approach, though it鈥檚 only because of a recent article that she鈥檚 been able to confirm that theory.

"I鈥檝e never been one of these songwriters who can take up a pen, sit down and write a song. I was reading a piece in a magazine about how other songwriters do it and there鈥檚 such a spread of approaches.

"I found that I come down on the side of someone like Devendra Banhart who said that your songs come when you least expect them to come. That鈥檚 exactly how I am. For instance, I was walking back across the fields from taking my kids to school and started writing a song.

Lou Rhodes

"For me, the creative process is never really a conscious thing. It doesn鈥檛 really live in my mind. It鈥檚 more of a case of heart and guts. It does its own thing when it flows out."

Such an approach leads to many ideas falling into the mix. In fact, there鈥檚 even a rumour that lead single The Rain is inspired by no less than the mighty Led Zeppelin. Lou, though, says that鈥檚 not quite the truth.

"The song鈥檚 not influenced by Zeppelin, but the drums are. John Bonham used to have a way of micing up his kit that got the most amazing sound, so we miced ours up in a similar way.

"With both this album and Beloved One, we鈥檝e been going back to basics in the way we recorded stuff. So much music is over-processed with everything added on. We鈥檝e been all about creating the atmosphere in the studio so that you don鈥檛 have to add things on, recording songs as a performance so it鈥檚 not reliant on loops and samples."

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