Tristan Prettyman

On the other end of the line, Tristan Prettyman sounds like a normal 26-year old. That’s probably because, beyond being a recording and touring singer/songwriter, Prettyman is your typical mid-twenties California girl. Raised on songs and surf, the former Roxy model launched her songwriting hobby into a career in 2001 when she was asked to contribute a song to the surf film Shelter. On her latest album, Hello…x, Prettyman has grown up and embraced her bluesy side without leaving her surf-pop roots behind.

Although Prettyman may not have always planned on being a musician, her beachy, bluesy folk tunes have led to tours with G. Love and Special Sauce, Ray LaMontagne and former squeeze Jason Mraz and, because of her passion for surfing, Prettyman is often crowned as the female answer to Jack Johnson.

En route from Los Angeles to her hometown of San Diego, Prettyman gave SSv staff writer Natalie B. David a ring to discuss her new iTunes EP, singing with Cat Stevens in London and the importance of staying down to earth.

SSv: So I just read that today you’re putting out an iTunes live EP. Can you tell me how that came about?

Tristan Prettyman: It’s pretty sweet. We just got a call from them. They used “Madly” as their single of the week when the record first came out and they supported it and they called us a couple months ago and said ‘Well, would you like to do a live iTunes EP?’ and it just kind of made sense. So me and my band went to San Francisco and recorded a whole bunch of songs and put ‘em together for a little EP.

SSv: I saw that it also has a cover of the Britney Spears song “Toxic” on it.

TP: Yeah.

SSv: Why did you decide to cover that song?

TP: Um. Well, I’ve been doing it for a really long time. It was actually my brother’s idea. I had just started playing it and people just kept requesting it at every show and I had never recorded it before, so it was kind of a fun thing to do to finally have a recorded version of it.

SSv: I’ll have to check it out. That sounds pretty cool.

TP: Sweet. I don’t know how impressive it is or anything. But people seem to really like it. I don’t know. It’s always seemed odd to me. It’s not a bad song if you play it acoustic.

SSv: Well I guess to talk about the full-length, a lot of people have been saying that it’s a more grown up sound for you. What sparked that musical shift? Was it planned, or was it just something organic that happened with your songwriting?

TP: I think it was pretty organic, you know? It’s funny. I feel like I really did my transition from a teenager to an adult in the past couple of years and I feel that was just reflected on the record. And from touring so much with all the different bands, it just happens really natural. When I went in to make the record I didn’t have any expectations or ideas of what it was gonna sound like. I had been listening to a lot of blues records and really just liked that kind of sound and I think…

I don’t know what it was. Maybe I just became more comfortable with who I was and being a girl and finding your sexiness and that sort of thing and really kind of put that on the record. I think on the last record I was in the back of my head like “Ahh, my dad’s going to hear this.” So I gotta keep it PG and this just kind of ventures into the bluesy, kinda sexy aspect I suppose.

SSv: And the album was also recorded in London. What did recording in that location bring to the creative or recording process that you wouldn’t have gotten had you recorded in California or the states?

TP: It was pretty crazy because I’m a bit of a procrastinator. When everyone’s like ‘Hey, we need this right now!’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s going to be great. It’s going to be fine! Don’t worry’ and in the back of my head I’m like ‘Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! I’m running out of time! Oh my God!’ My A&R from the record label said ‘I have these producers in London and they really love your stuff and do you want to meet with them?’ and I was like ‘Okay’ and I went there. And from the minute I got there and met them, it was just on. I just knew we had to make it here. It’s going to be perfect. It’s the right studio, and the right people, and the right musicians that they had.

I think that London lends itself to a more sexier sound and groove. London is very much a city with so much history, it kind of gave the nudge of the direction that I was kind of leaning towards then. Like a good push, you know? And I don’t know. Because it was crazy, I just played the songs and everybody would start playing along and it just kind of went like that.

SSv: You mentioned before that you became more comfortable with yourself and be more person and not worry about, like you said, your dad hearing your record. Did any of that have to do with the fact that you weren’t at home and surrounded by the usual things?

TP: I think so. I kind of do that on purpose anyhow, because when I’m home it’s really hard to get me to do anything because I just want to surf and lay on the beach and, you know, fart around all day long. So being able to leave really puts the focus on. If you take all the things that I wouldn’t check myself with away, it’s the only thing I can focus on and so I think in general I try to be more focused, and one of the biggest things that stands out in making my record is the producers were really encouraging with their criticisms. They offered a lot of criticism and direction but it was in a really positive way. So it made me want to try harder and really like really put all of my love and hard work up to that point into the record. I dunno. They had a magic way of getting me to focus.

SSv: Which is always good. It’s always nice to have that.

TP: Yeah, yeah. It was pretty awesome. You know when you’re really into something and you’re like “Wow, this is turning out amazing” and you’re just so psyched and you want to share it with everybody and you’re so proud of it and you know for sure that it’s really great? There’s nothing else that compares to that feeling. It was just like once we started I just never looked back at all. I just was like “Crap, this is like insane!”

SSv: I also read that while you were in London you had the opportunity to sing some with Yusif Islam, the man formerly known as Cat Stevens.

TP: Yeah!

SSv: Can you tell me a little bit about that experience?

TP: Yeah! He kept a studio downstairs and engineers came up, and I had heard that he was downstairs and that he was going to be in that week and I wanted to meet him. My mom is repeatedly mad at me because I seem to always meet these people that she grew up listening to like Carly Simon and James Taylor and Steely Dan so my parents are just like, ‘Man, you get to meet everybody that we grew up listening to.’

But so he was downstairs and we just got a call. The engineers said, ‘We need a girl to sing on this song and are there any girls in this building?’ And they were like, ‘Yep, Tristan’s here, she can do it.’ And I was like ‘Oh, yes! Me Me Me!’ So I went down there and he was like ‘Here’s your part’ and it was the most highest note that I had to hit, and I had been like smoking cigarettes and drinking at the pub and I was kind of like in my gritty rocker persona of myself.

So I was like ‘Oh, no, I’m not going to be able to hit this note and this is going to be where I embarrass myself.’ And then I nailed it perfectly and he was so complementary and just like ‘Oh, your voice is beautiful, and you’re making a record and I’d love to hear it.’ And I was like ‘Sure, you should come sing on a song.’ And he said ‘Oh, I’d love to!’ and I just thought he was saying it in passing, you know. But then his engineer came up the next day and said, ‘You know, he never agrees on anything and he never says something just to say it, and you should really take him up on it.

So we got all scattered and got a couple songs ready and he came up and took a listen and sang on this song that I have called “Just in Case” which isn’t on the record. We probably kept it for a B-side because it’s a love song that didn’t really go with the rest of the record. Which was really sad because I was like [mopey voice] ‘Oh! He didn’t make the record. How can he not make the record?’ But in a way it’s like this thing that I get to keep for myself and will hopefully get released later.

But everyone after that was like, ‘Man, he used to never come up to the kitchen or hang out in the common room and now he’s up there all the time and he’s so much more talkative. You brought out his social side.’ It was pretty funny.

SSv: I also noticed that you run your own MySpace and you write on your blog on there. How important is it for you to stay connected to your fans in that way and put yourself out there as an actual person instead of a face on TV or a voice on record?

TP: You know it’s always going to be important to me, and something more importantly that I love to do and that I’ve been trying to do since the beginning. I never really think of myself as, I don’t know. I just really love playing music and I don’t ever think of my fans as like plebeians, and I don’t want to be a superstar celebrity. It’s more that I just want to play music and I think when you let people kind of, if you don’t give them a lot and they have to wonder and make their own kind of judgment about what kind of person you are and what kind of artist you are, then you kind of end up with this very unclear, like splattered version of who you really are.

For me it’s like I’m really just kinda like a normal 26-year-old. Well, not totally normal. So it’s just like I’m able to be myself and let people see my personality and in that way I become not just a song or a face or a lyric or something on the radio. I become a real person that people can relate to.

I don’t know. That’s just kind of important to me. I definitely see a difference at shows with even how people treat me compared with some of the other bands that I’ve toured with. And people who kind of keep a more mysterious persona, those fans get like crazy and I just want people to be normal. And I definitely see that when I’m just normal myself, then people treat me like a person instead of being like a rabid, I don’t know. [Laughs]

It’s like when people see me, they talk more on a real-to-real personal level. Like if you’re going to a restaurant with somebody and their friend and you’re meeting somebody for the first time, you’re just a person, you know? A person that you know that you might get along with or something like that, as opposed to, like, you’re famous singer girl and I love your song and that’s all I really know about you, so.

SSv: So, I read in another interview where you said that you fought to keep copy protection off of Hello…x because it was all over twentythree. Why was that important to you?

TP: You know I think if you’re like Dave Matthews or some ginormous band you should copy control your records, but as a new artist, and for me, I could care less. I would give my record to everybody because people are going to get it anyways. I think for people to have a record and not be able to put on their iPod or their mp3 player or something else and share the music, the whole point is starting the music and getting it out there.

As a new artist the last thing you need is something making people not want to buy your record, especially for a stupid reason like copy control. So. I was like, “We’re not putting it on this new record.” [Laughs] And I got it. And it was such a hassle. We got so many e-mails and it was like something the label was trying out and they just happened to try it on my record and I didn’t like it.

SSv: Well, because, like, I still go out and buy CDs, but I bring them home and put them on my laptop and put them on my iPod.

TP: Yeah!

SSv: So it just seems kind of counterproductive to not let people do that.

TP: Yeah, it’s just kind of. I mean, when I got the record, I couldn’t even play it on my computer. It wouldn’t even read it. I was like “This is retarded. I have to buy it on iTunes.” And, I mean, it’s just a joke as well because artists don’t make any money on their record. Artists make most of their money on touring and their merchandise and from publishing, so to put a copy control on your record is really the label kind of screwing themselves because they’re keeping people from buying it from them. So.

SSv: The website that this interview is for runs on the premise that “meaningful music exists.” So what do you consider meaningful music or what about music makes it meaningful?

TP: You know, I think when we’re talking to somebody or when we meet somebody or even when we go to a show. I think for me, I think that you can tell when someone is being sincere and genuine and that they do it because they love it, because their heart’s in it. I think you can tell and see through it when it’s not from the heart and when it’s fake.

I don’t know. I guess music is meaningful to everybody. Some music affects people where other people may be like “I don’t get that.” You know? And, I don’t know. I go through phases, definitely. I have this funny thing where there’s a lot of bands I didn’t used to like and then I’ll hear one song and I’m like “I love this!” and I’ll buy every record.

I went through this with Bjork. When her like bear video came out, I was like, “I don’t understand this. She’s so bizarre. It doesn’t make any sense. I hate this. I don’t get it.” And then I heard her song “All is Full of Love” and I was like “This is an amazing song.” And I went out and bought everything. And I went through this phase where I loved Bjork and I couldn’t figure out why I never loved her, and how I thought it was terrible. I was amused with myself for being such a retard and it was like, so I think I have this thing where sometimes somebody will put a record out and a handful of people will totally get it and there will be a ton of people that don’t get it and in 10 years they might hear it again and get it. It works kind of funny that way. There’s definitely a time and place. That’s why when a lot of people are like “I don’t like your music. I don’t get it. It’s boring.” I’m like, that’s cool, you know? You’re just into something else.

So it’s just all in your preferences and what you prefer, and I think that’s why music is one of the greatest things that we have. It changes, even though it stays the same.

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