VANESSA CARLTON RELEASES NEW ALBUM ON IRV GOTTI THE INC

Singer songwriter Vanessa Carlton discusses her latest album, ‘Heros and Thieves’ which was released on Irv Gotti’s record label The Inc.

Singer songwriter Vanessa Carlton has released her third album ‘Heros and Thieves’ and the album marks Carlton’s first release on Irv Gotti’s The Inc record label. After her debut album ‘Be Not Nobody’ spawned the hit single “A Thousand Miles”, which reached the top five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, Carlton released her sophomore album ‘Harmonium’ although it failed to live up to the commercial success of her debut. After not believing there was enough support at her former label A & M, Vanessa felt it was time for a change.

We caught up with Vanessa Carlton to get her thoughts on surviving at a label that didn’t fully support her.

“It’s impossible to survive in an environment as an artist that’s conditional. There’s certain people at my old label that liked to believe in me you know. You need the majority and you need someone there fighting for you unconditionally. Someone that believes in you and your projects and if they don’t then you have to move on, which is what I did. I’m so grateful that I made that record (Harmonium) and I’m so, if I was to do it all again, I’d make all the same moves, which is a big thing to say because regrets are the worst. I couldn’t have made ‘Heros and Thieves’ without making ‘Harmonium.'”

We also spoke with Vanessa about her working relationship with Irv Gotti and how things have been at the label.

“Oh, Irv is fantastic. I met him kind of serendipidously at Doug Morris’ office. I was playing ‘Hands on Me’ which is the second song on ‘Heros and Thieves’ and he started screaming at me. Overly excited, exuberent running around the office like ‘Your the s***.’ I thought it was refreshing, you know those meetings are so sterile. I think he’s so brave. He doesn’t filter himself and what’s most important is he has fantastic ears. He’s very musical and I believe he could A & R any genre. He could A & R a great country record.”

Vanessa Carlton also had some help in the studio during the recording process of ‘Heros and Thieves’ by doing some of the album at Linda Perry’s studio and she also recorded at a studio up in San Francisco with Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind lending his producing skills as well. Carlton also talked about the recording process of ‘Heros and Thieves.’

“The recording process on this record was like arts and crafts time. That’s what I loved about it. There were no rules and you could come up with any idea. I want to do twenty piece choir here and I want to whistle over this part and I want to play keys, like literally keys, hit keys here and we would just do it. There was fantastic freedom. I was working with Linda Perry at her studio, Kung Fu Gardens, which is great. A great vibe and we worked all through the night. Those kind of haunting hours in the middle of the night that are always the best.”

Vanessa Carlton’s first single off ‘Heros and Thieves’ is ‘Nolita Fairytale’ and her tour will kick off November 2nd in Scottsdale, Arizona. As of press time Vanessa Carlton has tour dates booked until November 24th in Montreal, Canada.