Acclaimed composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lettie returns with her sixth album “Pirate Lover” a dreamy album comprising of nine tracks largely recorded in her home in the windows of time made available to her in between her day job working for a well-known ex-politician, prisoner and priest.
Dealing with his near-death experience, a family gambling addiction, seeing the place where she grew up ruined by the building of a vast new power station but finding in all the wreckage love with an ex-racing car driver provide some of the backdrop to the album. The album is a nostalgic trip down memory lane recorded using unusual instruments and providing an antidote to copy and paste recording techniques.
A turning point came when Lettie found out that her dentist had thousands of streams on Spotify and had created his tracks entirely using AI because he couldn’t play an instrument and had never played a gig in his life.
Taking inspiration from Molly Drake and the old Blues artists she adores, she began at the kitchen table with her acoustic guitar and invited several musicians to play including Dave Barbarossa (Bow Wow Wow/ Adam Ant) creating a stripped back pastoral album with barely any production except that created by Grammy Award winning mixing engineer Cameron Craig.
Lettie grew up in Suffolk (attending the same school as Ed Sheeran) and even played Jimmy’s Farm on the same weekend with him in September 2010 accidently sending him her tech spec.
In 2008 Lettie met David Baron on Myspace. She was invited to record at the Edison Recording Studios hidden in the famous Edison Hotel off Times Square and she recorded two albums ‘Age of Solo’ and ‘Everyman’ in 2008 (the collaboration continued for two more albums). As a result, Lettie was picked up by the BBC and performed at Maida Vale and Glastonbury and gigged frequently. Sadly this historic studio no longer exists.
Lettie supported Peter Murphy (ex-Bauhaus) throughout Europe as support act as well as being his merch seller in 2009 and sold out of her albums.
Her performance has always been powerful avoiding backing tracks at all costs. This has included looping a keyboard and playing many instruments simultaneously. Gina Birch from The Raincoats was impressed by her attempt to play keyboard with her big toe at the same time as singing and playing electric guitar.
Lettie’s ghostly vocals appear on the song “Johnny Remember Me” the cover of the John Leyton song that appeared on Dr John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell’s Sony released “This Time It’s Personal” (2016). She also appeared in the video. Roger O’Donnell from the Cure calls her “a precious English talent.”
Lettie has also collaborated with Anthony Phillips for Cherry Red and for UPM.
Follow Lettie
Website: www.lettiemusic.com
Blog: https://lettiemusic.blog/
Bandcamp: https://lettie.bandcamp.com/album/pirate-lover
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lettiemusic
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/lettiemusic
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/lettiemusic