Interview: Entertainment.ie speaks to singer-songwriter Dawn Landes ahead of her Dublin gig

Dawn Landes has been a firm favourite of ours over the last few years, and her most recent album 'Bluebird' was in regular rotation on our record player in 2014. We caught up with the Kentucky-born, Brooklyn-based songwriter for a quick chat about Bluebird - which is being pegged as her 'divorce record' following her split with musician Josh Ritter - as well as her work with other musicians.

Dawn plays Whelan's, Dublin on January 15th.

It's been ten years this year since your debut album 'dawn's music'. How do you feel when you listen back to your early material, especially since 'Bluebird' is such a transitional record, in many ways?

Wow, it's been 10 years already? Incredible. I don't really listen to my early albums intentionally, but if they happen to pop up I stand behind them. I still play a few of those songs live too. The "dawn's music" album was my love letter to recording; I had such a good time making that album as a budding sound-engineer. I played most of the instruments on there and did most of the recording by myself. Bluebird is a completely different animal - all tracked live with many people in the rooms.

Every reference to 'Bluebird' seems to call it your 'divorce record', which does it a bit of a disservice. Were you wary (when writing it) of it being presented that way, and if so, did it make you second-guess yourself in any way?

I suppose I had a sense that no matter what I released it would be called my "divorce record", given that my ex had released his album [Ritter's 'The Beast in its Tracks'] post-split and that seemed to be the bold print. Thematically, there's a lot more than that going on in Bluebird. If I had to summarise it, I'd say it was more about loss.

Did you draw on any particular albums or the work of other musicians for this record? What/who were you listening to most in the studio?

John Martyn's "Solid Air" was a huge influence on me. I was listening to that non-stop around the time we went into the studio.

I want to ask you about Thomas Bartlett, whose work with The Gloaming has been really acclaimed here in Ireland over the last year. What did he bring to Bluebird that other/previous producers may not have?

Thomas and I have been friends forever and he's the first producer I've worked with on one of my own albums - usually I self-produce everything. It was a struggle for me to give over the reigns, but he really steered the album in such a beautiful direction. I couldn't be happier. I'm excited about all the success The Gloaming is having, well deserved…such a great band.

You released a covers EP last year, too - we love your take on Springsteen's Atlantic City. What criteria did you have when it came to song selections? And do you think you'll you work with Jim James [My Morning Jacket] again?

Thanks. The Covers EP was my first foray into crowd-funding, through Pledge Music. I demoed a bunch of songs and had the fans pick their top 5 favorites to go on the record… selection by committee, I guess. I was living in Kentucky this summer and had a blast singing with Jim. He's a monster, I'd love to do it again.

It'll be great to have you back in Dublin on the 15th – what can we expect of your Whelan's gig?

Thanks, I'm looking forward to it! I love Whelan's. Expect to sway. I've been seeing a lot of swaying at my shows lately….