A lot has changed since Kristin Diable last put out an album in 2016.
The Baton Rouge-born, New Orleans-based singer-songwriter gave birth to her first child, Lucinda, in 2019. Then the pandemic hit.
It’s given her time to reflect on everything, after spending so much of her career hustling and on the go. It’s also given the songs for her upcoming album, slated for release in 2025, plenty of time to bake.
“In some ways, sitting on ideas a little bit longer, once I do get lyrics out and do find the melodies and arrangements, they feel deeper in a way because they've been brewing longer,” Diable says.
Before she starts recording the new album at Dockside Studio outside Lafayette in a few weeks, she’s playing a show with Jonny Campos, of the Lost Bayou Ramblers, at BK House Sunday, July 14 at 6 p.m.
Diable started writing songs as a child and played open mic nights in Baton Rouge as a teenager. It was once her goal to sell a million records by her 21st birthday, and she jetted off to New York at 19 in hopes of accomplishing it. But after years in the city, she found her way back to Louisiana — this time in New Orleans, which she still calls home.
These days “I don't take myself as seriously, but in a good way,” Diable says. “I want to make really great work that's honest, vulnerable, meaningful and all of those things that make music worthwhile. But also, I think I'm less attached to outcomes now than I used to be, and I'm more focused on just being present and showing up and really present for writing and making the music.”
The signature grit in her voice makes everything she sings sound bluesy and soulful. She’s often been compared to fellow Louisiana native, Lucinda Williams, who she opened for in Nashville nearly a decade ago. Think the same vein as Maggie Koerner.
Diable’s 2012 album “Kristin Diable and the City” and her 2016 record “Create Your Own Mythology” were both commercially successful, with tracks making it onto shows like “True Blood,” “One Tree Hill” and “Virgin River.” “I’ll Make Time for You” from “Create Your Own Mythology” is nearing 1 million streams on Spotify.
According to Diable, the new album will explore finding peace among turmoil. Over the years, she’s been focusing on staying calm and living in the moment.
When creating music, Diable finds melodies come to her more naturally, almost from a spiritual place, she says. She draws inspiration from her own life as well as observing others and trying to put herself in their shoes, or, as she puts it, “approaching humanity with curiosity and some empathy.”
She also gets ideas for song titles and concepts while completing tasks like doing the dishes or while on long drives, whereas she tends to need more time to chip away at lyrics.
“I could probably write 10 songs, just the melody, in one day,” she says. “I sometimes take longer to really reach a place with lyrics that I feel really like they've met the mark, and they're not silly.”
The gap between albums has been an exercise in patience.
“It’s taught me I don't have to rush, and I don't have to have everything figured out at once,” she says. “It's OK if understanding, if insight and if creativity comes at a slower pace or just at a different pace.”
The play runs at Lupin Theater July 11-21.
Her show at BK House will feature her playing guitar and singing and Campos on pedal steel. He also performed with her and her band The City at Jazz Fest earlier this year.
“It'll be kind of a spacey, spiritual, swampy take on a lot of the songs,” Diable says. “He adds so much tone and texture and depth.”
The duo will play both old and new songs, but with different arrangements.
“When you play with different musicians, when you play with different instrumentation, you play the songs differently. You play to what that instrumentation is and to the other musicians you're on stage with,” Diable says. “So it'll be fun to see the nuances of how the songs come out with that unique format.”
Kristin Diable performs at 6 p.m. Sunday, July 14, at BK House. Tickets are $25-$30 at bkhouse.org.
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