“I want people to feel like they’ve taken a giant dose of Prozac,” is what the lovely and easily-likeable pop singer-songwriter Rachel Platten says she wants audiences to take from her music and performances.
Platten is a twenty-six year old artist from New York whose piano-driven pop is easily accessible, catchy and upbeat. During a telephone interview this week, she told me, “I think it’s easy to write about things that are negative, or makes you upset or are hard in life, because art comes from pain, but it can also come from a gentle place and I like to look at that side of things and hope to give that back to the audience.” Both in her music and during our interview, she definitely sees the glass as being half-full.
She released her sophomore album Be Here last spring on the indie label Rock Ridge Music and has toured almost non-stop since its release. Currently she’s on tour with Andy Grammer, including opening for him on Saturday night at Neumos. Several of her songs have appeared on commercials, in movies and TV shows and her excellent single “1000 Ships” has been played on a lot of radio stations throughout 2011. She brings to mind singer-songwriters like Ingrid Michaelson, who was the first real star to emerge from having her songs placed on television shows and not having a traditional record deal, and Australian pop singer Lenka, who also makes upbeat, piano-driven pop. There’s also an every-girl quality to her and directness and honesty in her storytelling that is likeable in the exact same way that Taylor Swift is likeable.
“1000 Ships” was written, she said, just before going back to the US after spending time working on her music in Sweden, possibly the world capitol of good pop music. “I had this idea of writing about unrequited love, and maintaining hope and optimism even though you aren’t getting through to someone that you want to,” she said, but also that the song came to her very quickly. “One night in Stockholm, I stayed up until like five in the morning, scribbling like a madwoman on whatever scrap paper I could find. I can’t even remember writing the words to ‘1000 Ships’ because they came to me so quickly. I was in the zone.”
Another standout track from Be Here is “53 Steps,” which was also written in Sweden. She says its about her love of touring and traveling. “At the time, I wasn’t touring much. I had just done a college tour but I love touring and waking up in different cities every morning. I wrote the song with the intention of wanting to keep doing that. It was about how incredible it is to be on the road and travelling all the time. I was hoping that by singing it every night, it would make it come true, and it did.” Though Platten recently told the Seattle Weekly that the harmonies were demo takes, but it still has one of her strongest vocal performances. The melody works in tandem with the harmonies nicely and the song is an irresistible pop gem. “It’s a really special one to me,” she says in our interview.
Though Platten can find positive in most situations, her music doesn’t make any effort to gloss over difficult truths. “Little Light” is about trying to persevere through difficulty, with her singing on the chorus, “looking for a little light to illuminate the truth and stillness after everything is blown away. Life fades in the cuts and the struggles; I just need a light at the end of the tunnel.” It’s one of the most specific lyrics to highlight what she means when she told me, “I want people to think they were being spoken to and saying things they may not have thought of before, kind of like therapy. Not on a superficial level, but feel like they’re cheering up.” That she’s so likeable and probably easy to relate to for younger girls means that she doesn’t come across as preachy or superficial.
That Rachel Platten is as easy to like as her music is makes her one of the pop singers I’m most excited for in 2012. She has a big year ahead of her, first with her music being featured prominently in the new ABC Family series “Jane By Design.” She also recently signed a publishing deal with EMI and will continue to tour through the year and work on writing her next album.
Platten, born in Boston, lives in New York, has made music in Los Angeles, London and Stockholm. She’s living her real-life dream and excited for each new journey.
{Rachel Platten plays at Neumos on Saturday, January 21, with Andy Grammer. All ages, 7:30pm doors, $13.50 tickets, available here.}
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