Kirsty Almeida is back… there was a loud bang in London at the end of April as her new band and music was revealed to the UK music media. Kirsty has been signed by the legendary Decca label and her album "Pure Blue Green" is released on Monday September 13th. The single "Spider" is released on Monday 14th June on Decca Records on download. Working out of Manchester for the last few years, the last time we saw her perform locally was with her band Descarga one recent New Years Eve on Casemates.

The single "Spider" is produced by the legendary Youth, which Kirsty describes as "pure drama, a darkly soulful voodoo tale about delving into your imagination and the price you sometimes have to pay in the eyes of others for that journey."

 

A true global citizen, Kirsty's bio describes how she was born in the UK and brought up in Gibraltar, growing up traveling to Venezuela, Singapore, Florida and The Philippines, just to name a few places. It reads: "She studied art and music at college and joined the traveling theatre company of "Carnival Messiah". Moving to Manchester, Kirsty became a singer/songwriter touring the city's smokiest dive bars and sang on one occasion for Latin band La Gran Descarga who, by the end of that night, requested she join the band full-time. Soon, Kirsty became their principal singer and song-writer and toured with them for three years. Deciding at this point that she wanted to move on, she left to write her own album."

Fast forward and we enter the Decca period joining the label with some of the top names in the industry including Vera Lynn, Jamie Cullum, Diana Krall… just look at the website, she's up there amongst the best. She's only been signed to Decca (Universal) for less than a year.

Kirsty and the Troubadours have been confirmed to appear at a number of festivals throughout the summer including Glastonbury, Big Chill, Secret Garden Party and Summer Sundae.

"My A & R team is led by a wonderfully enthusiastic and musical man called Tom Lewis

and for over a year now I have been working with my manager, Mark Denby who is doing a sterling job with Lucy Holland who has just come onboard as part of our management team as its all getting so busy. I picked a producer out of about 15 that I was very lucky to meet and share thoughts with. The producer I picked is the wonderfully artistic Youth and we made the album in 12 days," she says sharing her experience as one incredible journey.

"I loved every second of it including the hard bits. He brought a great deal of dynamic to the album and raised the bar for all the musicians involved. There are eight musicians in my band including me and I am very lucky to have been given the chance to hand pick each member over the years and I am extremely proud to be working with them all. The album was mixed in LA by mixing engineer, Brad Gilderman, and mastered in London with John Ellis, Assistant producer and multi-instrumentalist on the album.

She told the Chronicle it has so far been an interesting ride with Decca, and fascinating to watch the machine of the music industry in action.

"It really seems to be about business. I have met some really wonderful people in the industry who are truly passionate about their work. It's a very big change for a professional musician to go through the major label. I am very much looking forward to the next stage of this when we can actually get on the road playing out there."

Kirsty describes her new material and album as very much a storytelling album.

"The album is a little like a bohemian hotel and each song like an eccentrically decorated hotel room each different from the others and very individual. It’s been described as the new Carol King or Roberta Flack which is an honour," she admits, but points out this new path is not a new direction but one which has been calling her since she was given a guitar.

"I tried so hard not to go there as I thought that, because it felt so comfortable, audiences would never be interested, so I tried so hard to go down other paths that I thought would be so much more popular. Eventually the struggle got me and I decided that I was going to move to Hawaii and change my career by becoming a marine biologist and retraining but first, I thought I would write the album that I knew I had in me. So, I moved to Sheffield to a little cottage and cut off all my ties with my career and spent my time writing what I felt was an album for me and my guitar's ears only. Within 2 months it was written and I felt satisfied that I had been true to writing an album for the song’s sake and not the commercial callings. I uploaded it onto my myspace for friends and family to enjoy and within a few months I was signed."

Working with Decca every week there is a new surprise she smiles, obviously excited about her future prospects as she launches into the festivals she will be performing in "on great big stages alongside incredible artists and what more could you ask for? "

Check out: www.decca.com and www.myspace.com/almeidagirl and also check out YouTube