We had a chat with rousing Americana artist Natalie Del Carmen about her captivating new album Pastures and how it came together
A thoughtful emerging Americana artist who’s earnest honesty and likeable charm has earned her a growing following, Natalie Del Carmen is somebody who really feels like she is hitting her stride with the release of her immersive and resonating new album Pastures.
The release explores themes like family, restlessness and the weird, relatable space that seemingly everybody seems to find themselves in as they reach their early twenties. It makes for a collection of tracks that are rooted in a very real and very heartfelt place, documenting Natalie’s experiences and feelings in a way that feels rewarding throughout, and we couldn’t pass up on the chance to have a chat with the artist and find a little bit more about how the album came together and what inspired the tracks that adorn it.
Hey! We love your new album Pastures, what more can you tell us about it?
Thanks for taking the time to listen through. I’m not too far past writing this record, but I feel as though I’ll be connected to it for a very long time. More so than my earlier work. I believe it’s because I wrote about topics that stick with you at any age, like the pressure to amount, show up, win, and understand yourself. As much as it’s a modern Gen Z’s lens into young adulthood, I’m writing about feelings of becoming nonetheless, so hopefully it’s still widely understood. No one has, or can, outrun the strange feelings of their early twenties, after all.
What was the process like putting it together?
As a late teenager, I used to just write songs. That’s essentially how my first record Bloodline came about. Just writing songs and trying to find a theme to tie it all together in the end. I felt writing this record that I was writing a record, if that makes sense. I was circling the same themes over and over subconsciously between songs, and that made it easy to find its purpose. With these songs, I knew my influences, what I wanted them to sound like, and I hope that made it easy for Brunjo (a production collective in Nashville, TN) to produce them. It was recorded in 8 days.
What were your biggest influences when creating it?
At the time, I was finally getting into some of my biggest influences today. It was perfect timing. Noeline Hofmann, Rayland Baxter, Margo Cilker, and Brandi Carlile steered the ship. I was also becoming more intrigued with pedal steel and knew I wanted it more splashed in than we had it in the past. “Dark Loner Western Cowboy Alone In The Desert” was the branding we’d joke about when producing. When we couldn’t get a take sounding quite right, I’d say over the talkback, “Western cowboy in the desert! Feel that!” and we’d nail it.
Do you have a favourite track or moment from the album?
‘El Cortez’ is the favorite child on the record for what it means to me. It’s about my dad, and about feeling rich in ways that don’t involve how much money you make. I think that’s something we all need to be more familiar with, outwardly at least. Especially in a society that applauds what’s easily measurable and overlooks what actually makes you feel full. So much of what makes life good can’t be posted, priced, or proven. There’s a great lyric in one of my favorite Izaak Opatz songs called ‘Married With Kids’ that kind of nails this feeling: “I wouldn’t know what I didn’t have until I saw it in a magazine.”
What else do you have planned for the near future?
I’m always writing. I don’t always know what to do with them or how they all tie together, especially as clean as they do on Pastures, but writing nonetheless. I hope to always be writing and releasing music about what I feel happy or at odds with. I’m planning and hoping for a new record very soon.
