A new day

Despite an acclaimed and highly successful career, life hasn’t always been kind to Beth Orton. During her 1999 tour, she juggled promotional commitments with recurring health problems caused by Crohn’s disease – a non-fatal but extremely painful degenerative illness of the stomach with no known cure. The strain was so great that Beth was close to packing it in. She was tired of going on the road, tired of recording, tired of talking to the press, tired even of songwriting itself. But Beth is a true blue battler, someone who overcame the death of her parents by writing her highly distinctive, extremely beautiful and utterly moving songs. Recently, she remarked; “I’m quite strong. I’m built like an ox. It’s bizarre.”

Hence on a July morning on the eve of the release of her third album, which at one stage she had never even dreamed would see the light of day, Beth Orton is in very good spirits, or as she puts it herself, “bloody marvellous!” In turning her back on songwriting for a while she found that she fell in love with music all over again. “The daunting bit is over now, I’m just in it now,” she asserts. “Now it’s just like ‘C’mon then! Let’s do it’ And we’ll go and make another one. And another and another!”

The result of this rejuvenated career renaissance is Daybreaker – a subtle collection of ten songs boasting a typically star-studded credit sheet.

“Daybreaker is a made up word to describe the sun coming up, the start of a new day and the sound of a record playing as the dawn breaks,” she explains, perfectly summarising its dreamy freshness.

A key influence is Ry Cooder’s soundtrack for the classic Wim Wenders movie Paris, Texas.

“I wanted it to sound very cinematic and lush,” she says. “Luckily after meeting Ben Watt (Everything But the Girl) he totally got that as well. I think he took the album into Technicolour. There was a certain type of drama that built with the songs which was to do with everyone really coming together.”

Of course, Ben Watt wasn’t the only A list luminary on board. Collaborators include her old mucker William Orbit, ex-Smiths legend Johnny Marr and her block rockin’ beats pals The Chemical Brothers. Guest vocalists include Ryan Adams on the Johnny Marr-penned single ‘Concrete Sky’ and country goddess Emmylou Harris on the aptly titled ‘God Song’. While Beth has been collaborating with the best for many years now, she admits she still gets very giddy about the prospect of working in such illustrious company.

“I get really overexcited and start jumping around the room,” she giggles. “When I got a call from Emmylou saying she wanted to do the song I was like ‘Oh... my... fucking... God!’. And then when I got the track back I was really nervous. She was on tour in America so she had to do it away. I didn’t know how it would turn out, but when I got it back I was just so happy.”

How did she first hook up with Emmylou?

“I met her about four years ago in Nashville on the first day of my first ever American tour,” Orton recalls. “We were on the same bill and she just came up and introduced herself. She was lovely and she knew my Trailer Park album. We just got on really well. This year, I went to see her play at an anti-landmine concert she did in London which was beautiful. I had given her a necklace on the last day of the US tour. She didn’t know I was coming along to the landmine show to say ‘hi’ and there she was wearing my necklace! I thought that was kind of an omen so I got a copy of ‘God Song’ to her. And the rest is history!” she laughs.

“With Ryan (Adams), I loved his Heartbreaker album. I thought it would be nice to get somebody to do backing vocals on ‘Concrete Sky’ so I got in touch with him and he was up for it so that was great too. I never really have a wish list. I once said in an article that I’d love to work with Beck and a year later I was. At the moment, I’m working with a guy called Kieran Hepden (Domino recording genius Four Tet) and he is doing a mix of a song called ‘Carmella’ on the Concrete Sky EP. But it is never premeditated.”

Other current artists that Beth adores include Near Tropic, Japanese outfit Grin and Cat, Lucinda Willaims and Gillian Welch.

“The British scene has got really hidden and underground and I think that’s alright,” she opines. “People have to do that to make it strong again. Everything being so much in the public glare all the time is so awful. Now the public is so suspicious of the hype and bullshit which has been prevalent for far too long. At the moment, I think we’re just in a bad cycle with all that Pop Idol stuff. But you are guaranteed that underneath all that there is something strong starting to grow. When it flips and the whole balance turns it will be very interesting. And it will.”

Daybreaker goes on the road in October, due round our way for a two night stand in Vicar St.

“It’s a similar set up to my previous shows,” Beth reveals. “Cello, violin, drums, bass, guitars. But we are implementing some more beats now rather than re-creating the album with just acoustic instruments. Now we have a laptop on board that joins in as well.”

Last time Beth wowed us live, an unsigned David Kitt did the opening honours. Kittser also played at last month’s live debut of Daybreaker material at the famed Electric Ballroom in London’s muso capital Camden Town.

“That show was beautiful,” Beth raves. “People at that gig were amazed. All my mates were going ‘Who is that guy? He is beautiful!’. All the girls are falling in love with him!”

From sharing a stage with such a fine specimen of manhood to getting her all time heroine to sing on one of her songs, Beth can hardly believe how lucky she is in 2002.

”I’d never imagined any of this,” she says. “It’s just brilliant.”

I think the pleasure is all ours.