With a joint album with Bobby Gillespie on the way, Jehnny Beth has urged all artists to embrace the benefits of collaboration.
The singer-songwriter releases Utopian Ashes on July 2 with the Primal Scream frontman, her first record since her debut solo album To Love Is To Live, which came out in 2020.
While the former Savages frontwoman might have been expected to immediately continue with her own work, Beth tells Music Week that she believes collaborations can be an important benefit for artists.
"I love collaborations, it's something I've done in the past and I will keep on doing it because I think it's just marvellous," she explained.
"It's amazing to go into someone else's world and understand how they work. I'm always really curious about that. It's why I do radio and TV [shows], I love to ask artists how they do things. But the best for me is when I work with them because you leave that experience with part of them still in you. When you work with different producers you always get part of them in you and you think about how they would do something differently. So it's almost like an additional card in your hands."
Beth appeared on Gorillaz' track We Got the Power, has recorded a duet with The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas and appeared on Tindersticks's album The Waiting Room, among other artistic interactions.
However, the singer-songwriter warns that for artists to get the most out of the collaborative process, they must be prepared to be uncomfortable in the studio.
"At the beginning you always have to be open," she said. "You don't know where it is going and it's important to keep your mind like this otherwise you end up with something too restricted and you're not surprised. So it is very important not to set rules before you actually put your hands into the work. You need to use your ears to hear which way it's going. The musical tells you usually."
Music Week subscribers can read Beth's interview discussing her working relationship with Gillespie and previewing Utopian Ashes in our latest issue.
