Kirsten Price

Industry Bible Billboard Magazine tells us that Kirsten Price "should offer triple A radio a new star.." You may have heard some of her work before; even before the release of her debut album “Guts & Garbage, Price’s music had been featured in such heavyweight television shows as The L-Word, CSI and Cashmere Mafia. Her unique vocals have been chosen by Coke, Clinique, Lee Jeans and Campbells for national and international advertising campaigns. She has been touring extensively on her own to promote her album playing 100 shows in 17 states, and served as the hand-picked opener for Wyclef Jean, and, the long-missing-in-action Sly Stone.

But that’s all surface. Listening to her album, and talking to her, brings out all sorts of shades, nuances and quirks. Although the press has compared her sound to such wide ranging artists as Amy Winehouse, Macy Gray, Christina Aguilera, Lauren Hill and Joss Stone she is not “the next" anything. She IS wickedly funny and she is very exacting and determined. “I have problems delegating", (she admits). At the end of the day, what you are hearing is a singer who wants to express her creativity and do it, decidedly, in her own way.

The singers teen memories from growing up in London involve her working with a number of a capella groups and choirs, “I always filled in for whoever was missing, the alto, the soprano.. When left to my own devices at home, I’d raid the whiskey cabinet, smoke some cigarettes, cue up some classic records Bach, Prince, Mozart, Motown, and bang away at the piano. It wasn’t the worst day to spend my evenings."

Eventually, music pulled Price out of London and toward New York City, where she arrived, jobless and near penniless, a week before Sept. 11, 2001. “The only good thing about that was getting to feel the sense of togetherness and compassion that was taking place in the city right afterwards", she remembers.

After some commercial work and generating a lot of industry buzz Price began work on several tracks, assisted by producer Frederick Sargolini “I had pretty much finished the bulk of what I wanted my record to be before the labels came calling", says the singer. “And part of any deal anyone was going to be offered was that they had to include the material I had already worked on." Price was able to cut some additional tracks with Raphael Saadiq (of the R&B trio Tony! Toni! Tone!) and Danny Saber (David Bowie, Madonna, Seal).

With mixed feelings about the mechanics of the industry, she ended up releasing her debut album through her own independent label KPI, to critical acclaim. “That’s the biggest hurdle, isn't it? Producing your own material in a way that accurately reflects who you are, or finding people who can help you achieve your vision", she says. “When it came time to finish the album, I wanted to cut off a lot of the fat, and put the music back where it’s supposed to be."

The result, “Guts & Garbage", finds the singer taking center-stage and having her fabulously talented collaborators working for her, not over or against her. "I’d say this record is 100% me and what I wanted to do" she says. The record is both diverse and cohesive, deftly moving between the exaggerated swagger of “Crazy Beautiful" through the trip-hop flavored jams of “5 Days Old" and “Possibilities", with plenty of soulful harmonies (the retro-leaning “Bring Me Back" and contemporary pop sheen (“Let Me Go") to round out the mix.

Oddly, despite the increased interest in female-driven soul music (especially those artists with a UK flavor), Price admits she doesn’t see herself much in her contemporaries, or vice versa. “When I work, it’s like I’m living under a rock, she admits. It’s just me and my own stuff."