Norah Jones on cherishing the album in the age of streaming
BY Simon Button
5th Mar 2024 Celebrities
3 min read
With the release of Norah Jones' new album Visions, the songwriter reflects on the evolving art of crafting a record since her breakout debut Come Away With Me
Norah Jones came to fame in 2002 when her debut album Come Away With Me sold 27 million copies. The daughter of musician Ravi Shankar, she's gone on to be a nine-time Grammy winner and has released eight more studio albums—the latest of which, Visions, is an upbeat contrast to 2020's introspective Pick Me Up Off the Floor.
How would you describe the new album?
It's so hard to describe in words. I guess that's what listening to it is for. But I think it's a really fun album actually, which I didn't realise until we put it all together.
That said, we had a lot of fun recording it and I think that's what comes through on the finished record. A lot of these songs were [producer] Leon Michels on drums and me on piano or guitar, just playing and having a good time.
Your previous album of all-new material, Pick Me Up Off The Floor, was much darker in its sound. Presumably you were in a happier place when you put Visions together?
Oh, definitely. The last one was sad. I love that last album, I really do, but I was probably in a different place when I made it.
Why did you settle on the title Visions?
A lot of these songs came from that moment between going to sleep or trying to go to sleep. You get a little melody that comes into your head and jolts you awake, and you don't want to forget it.
So I would put those ideas down and that was the start to maybe half the songs—just a little blip in the middle of the night that I recorded on my iPhone voice messages app.
It's your first studio album in nearly four years, not counting I Dream of Christmas in 2021. Why the long break from recording new material?
It doesn't feel like a long break and the Christmas album was still an album. It was also my first long-form collaboration with Leon.
He played saxophone on a few of my albums and we did a song together called Can You Believe. Then I asked him if he wanted to do the Christmas album with me. I didn't want to do it unless I knew I could do it with the right kind of sounds and not make it super cheesy, and he was perfect for that.
When we were done with the Christmas album, I asked if he wanted to work on something that had no parameters.
As I say, we didn't really know what we were making and there wasn't any specific sound we were going for. It just sort of all came together and it was more sporadic than I'm used to.
We would get together once every few weeks, just for a few hours, across maybe a year and a half.
It's a very joyful collection of songs. What's your definition of joy?
Just being at ease, comfortable and laughing.
Music is in your family but did you consider other careers?
I didn't really consider another career. I've been playing gigs since I was 15, so I guess I had the bug early. Was there a back-up plan? Nope, but it's worked out.
Your first album Come Away With Me was a massive success. How did that feel at the time?
It was definitely a crazy time. I look back on it and some of it was really fun, some of it wasn't and some of it was just confusing. Playing music all over the world and travelling—that was really fun.
But there was a lot of stress, a lot of scrutiny and a lot of overthinking of something that was supposed to just be fun and from the heart.
It seems you've always made the music you want to make. Is that the case?
Yeah, I've always felt really free in that way and I've always felt really excited to try different things and collaborate with different people. The best part of this job is not knowing where it's going to take you and then being surprised by yourself.
Of course, the industry has changed a lot. Streaming and social media are the biggest changes.
I'm just glad that I sold albums when you still could. I feel really lucky about that because I think it's hard for people to make money now. They have to be their own managers and PR machines. It's a lot more work now.
Do you still conceive of albums as a body of work rather than just songs to be streamed?
I still think of albums in the old-fashioned way. In fact, when we sequenced the new album we still sequenced it as Side A and Side B, as if it were on vinyl. We did press it on vinyl and there's a sweet spot where an album is not too long.
But streaming has changed some things. I did a series of singles a few years back and I enjoyed that because you can just release a song out of nowhere.
Visions is out on March 8 on Blue Note/EMI
Banner credit: Joelle Grace Taylor
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