Keren Ann Feels Most Artistic Producing Music

Keren Ann spoke with the Telegraph about her latest album ‘101’ and how the Paris-based singer has spread herself among several projects. In addition to the new pop album, the 37-year-old runs the Yellow Tangerine music label and is one half of Lady and Bird with Icelandic singer Bar i Jóhanssen. Lady and Bird are composing an opera, ‘Red Waters’, for the Centre Dramatique National d’Orleans, premiering in Rouen in November.

“It’s weird that they call producers technicians and call singers artists,” she said. “The most artistic part of making a record is producing. You can learn song-craft but the part that’s never ending is finding the right arrangements. It’s like creating a painting using flute piano, bassoon and French horn as colors and pigments, this is what obsesses me. When I retire, all I’m going to do is write endless 20-minute repetitive music for classical instruments, that’s the most fun thing to do.”