Gold Dust

Alice Russell isn't competitive with other neo-soulstresses. But she is curious about them. “I'm just watching an interview with Laura Mvula,” Russell says. “She's great! I'm just doing a bit of swotting up.”

The cult favourite from Brighton, England is about to devote the evening to talking up To Dust – her fifth solo album (counting two compilations) and first since 2008's Pot Of Gold. Russell hasn't been idle. Between LPs she travelled to Cali, Colombia to record Look Around The Corner with old ally Will Holland of The Quantic Soul Orchestra renown. “That was a very lovely part of the two years.” She cut vocals for David Byrne's musical project Here Lies Love with Fatboy Slim. And she toured “loads”, especially in Europe. However, Russell also had to contend with “quite a bit of stress” on the business side – “a real creative turn-off”. Fortunately, To Dust, led by the balladic single, Heartbreaker, was worth the wait. It's a very different album to Pot..., although the classically-trained Russell reunited with longtime producer TM Juke (aka Alex Cowan). “With Pot Of Gold, really for us it was getting back in the studio with the live band. It was more like a live acoustic sound. So we spent a lot of time writing the songs, but then we literally just spent two days doing that live. With this one, we wanted to go back to [2005's debut proper] My Favourite Letters and get more into the studio on the production side of things and play around a lot more. With this last album, we spent a lot more time on it, in the way that we've gone back and deconstructed and reconstructed the songs, which has been a quite fun process. I suppose we've just developed that side of it as well – all the different sounds on there.”

Russell digs the experimental post-dubstep soul emanating from the UK, proclaiming James Blake's Limit To Your Love to be “fantastic”. “I love Benga as well – and SBTRKT.” Still, she's not emulating anyone. Regardless, while promoting Pot..., Russell did speak of a future electro foray. Songs in that vein were again left off To Dust. “We sort of forked in the road,” Russell explains. “It's weird how you just start on a journey with an album and it somehow takes you in another direction sometimes, even if you don't necessarily think that's where you're gonna end up.” She'll return to the idea – at some stage. “I'm terrible – I'm all over the place. I just always dash in different directions and find it hard to focus on one thing.”

Originally aligned with the UK indie Tru Thoughts, Russell set up a boutique label, Little Poppet, to issue Pot... “It was pretty scary doing it on your own.” Now she's back at Tru Thoughts through a licensing arrangement. For many, the biggest surprise is that Russell has never signed to a major. She's often depicted as the alt.Amy Winehouse. Unlike the late Winehouse, Russell has freedom. The singer is content with the level of recognition she receives for her music. She can take a walk and look like “a scruffbag” without paparazzi ambushes – or constant, cruel scrutiny. “I've never wanted that fame thing.” Ironically, Russell and Winehouse both performed at 2007's MIDEM. “I met her briefly,” she says. “At that point, she was actually totally sober. We were tucking into the band's booze supply and meeting her band. She popped in for a little bit and she seemed really tender and quite shy.” Their paths crossed a second time in Philadelphia, The Roots' ?uestlove arranging for them both to sing at Black Lily. It was another “fleeting” exchange. This time Russell was too “shy” to approach Winehouse. Today Russell believes Winehouse simply didn't know – or understand – what she wanted in her career or life. “If I think about what I was like at that age... It's easy when you're about 21 or 22, maybe a bit older – you can really flip out. You still don't really know who you are. I used to go on terrible benders – but I was younger and had friends.”