Kristina Train
Kristina Train is about to unleash her debt album Dark Black later this year but this week she will give us a taster with her Dream Of Me EP.
I caught up with her to talk about the EP and how it introduces us to the rest of the album as well as what lies ahead for her for the rest of the year.
- You are about to release your new EP Dream of Me so what can we expect from the news tracks?
The new tracks will be a sample of what you will get on the full album but I wanted to put these out first because they feel summery and fun.
I really wanted to put something else my introduction but does sound a little different to everything else on the radio and I think that that Dream Of Me does that.
So yeah I am looking forward to actually having it released and out there - I can finally have piece of mind.
- So how have you found the response to the tracks so far?
The response has been really wonderful and it has really blown me away. UK radio has been so good to me and so supportive and encouraging as they are playing my music and I really appreciate them getting it out to the public.
The video that I made for it has had over 200,000 hits on YouTube and people seem to be enjoying it.
I am just really thrilled and I couldn’t be happier that it is actually happening for me this way in London because I love it here and it is so nice to get a positive response in a place that I love.
- You moved to London last year from America so how have you found settling in over here?
I have never been happier. I have always wanted to be here and I felt drawn to London and I felt like I needed to be here.
It was difficult for me to actually get here but I finally made it and to be honest I have never looked back.
- So what aspect of London was the big draw for you?
I found it to be extremely inspiring first and foremost for my music and I also loved the music I was making here and the music that I was hearing here.
Every single thing is stimulating here as you walk outside and it is architecturally beautiful and there is a wide range of music happening and it is accessible for everyone. The galleries, the art, the vibe as there is just something in the air and the lifestyle.
I just feel like I have everything that a major city and metropolis has to offer and yet I can retreat and feel like I am in quiet community and I really feel like I am a part of it.
The people that I love are here - my really close friends and my support system are all here - and that says it all and you can’t beat that.
- The EP comes ahead a couple of months ahead of the new album Dark Black so how does the EP introduce us to the full album?
I think there are main themes running through it is a dark album and there is some darkness to it but also some light - it was my way of getting through some very difficult times in my own life and I think that comes through in the songs.
But after moving to London I found hope and found a new page and a fresh start. So both of those things were there.
Also you can hear sort of a modern electro-organic sound where I have taken classic songs and tried to produce them in a modern way so they have a timeless quality to them.
- The tracks on Dream of Me are very melody driven so are we going to see this style continue on the whole album?
Definitely I am all about a melody (laughs). That is what I love to sing and it is important to do exactly what your love and melody is a big thing for me.
- You have been working with Martin Craft on Dark Black so how did that partnership come about?
Martin and I first got to know each other… I was a fan of his first and I have always wanted to work with him.
We became good friends about two years ago and we started thinking about this album two years ago so it has been a very long process for us.
He knows me inside out and he knows my voice inside out; he knows how I sing and he knows how to draw the things out of me that really resonate in both my music and my life. So I feel very lucky to be safe in his hands and we worked very well together.
- You have said that getting this album together was a two year process so what has taken so long or is it just purely the way things have worked out?
The album itself was more of a year but it was important to me to build a long term relationship with Martin. I didn’t want to bounce around in studios with writers and write made to order songs I wanted it to have depth, roots, meaning and significance and I wanted it to be writing for a reason.
So the process of trusting Martin took a very long time but the album itself… like I said I moved here a year ago and that is when it really started for me.
And now almost a year to the day it is happening (laughs). I think it takes time to really… I take this very seriously and I want it to be as great as it possibly can so I would rather go at a snails pace than put something out that I am not 100% behind or satisfied with.
- There were many labels interested in signing you but you are not with Mercury Music so why did you eventually sign with them?
Mercury is the label that I felt wanted me the most and they wanted me badly - not only that but they promised to let me do my thing and they are behind it 100%.
And it makes all the difference in the world to have a label that is committed to their vision and gives them the support that they need to make that vision a reality and that is what they have done for me.
- So how much was that creative freedom a key aspect for you?
It’s everything to me - if I don’t have creative freedom that I would rather do something else. It is very very important to me to be able to communicate exactly what I feel and how I feel it needs to be communicated.
And it is not only the content of the song but also the sound and the musicality and production and it is something that I have been very heavy handed in from the beginning.
I took almost a year without labels and doing it on my own I took my life savings and I moved to London without a safety net because that is how important the creative control was for me.
Then when I came up and presented it to them that it when they got behind me - but it was with the condition that I kept my vision.
- You have also just announced a new tour so what can we expect from these shows?
The shows will be not only me communicating the album in public but also getting a sense of exactly who I am.
The best performances are always when the unexpected happens and being a musician the best thing is playing live and get out there and do something free and fun every night.
I think out there it is going to be about the live show and the experience and finding a connection with the people there - hopefully we will all go through the emotions together.
- How excited are you to get out on the road and start playing these tracks live in front of a British audience?
Oh I can’t wait - live is really where I do it. It is what I have been waiting for and I am itching to get out there.
I not only want to get out there and know the country but I want to make my roots here and make connections with people.
- Finally what's next for you between now and the end of the year?
Well just turning in my album and then getting out on the road and being able to take a breath and breathe and realise that I can finally have a life again (laughs).
Kristina Train’s EP Dream Of Me is out now
Click here to download the Dream of Me EP
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw