Rosie Thomas is planning some Iron & Wine and soul for her next
album. The Seattle indie rocker -- currently on the road promoting
her holiday offering, "A Very Rosie Christmas" -- has enlisted pal
Sam Beam to produce her follow-up to 2006's "These Friends of
Mine."
"We've been talking about doing it for a year," Thomas tells
Billboard.com. "I think it's going to be different because we write
different kinds of things. I'm just going to come up with a bunch
of songs, and when I like them I'm going to give them to him and
he's going to start putting them together musically."
Thomas says that she intends "to move the rhythm up a bit ... go
for a more soul-filled feeling" on the new songs, which she says
comes at the behest of Beam. "He was really pushing me for years;
'I want you to write that Motown record you've always wanted to
write,'" notes Thomas, who's a Detroit native. "I just start
laughing, 'cause it's like, 'Sam, look at you. You have a beard.
How can I go to
you to write this kind of stuff?' But I know
he has it in him. It'll be fun, regardless."
Thomas says she's written a few things already but plans to start
working in earnest in the new year, when she goes to either New
York, Los Angeles or Nashville to hunker down. "I tend to need to
get away to write, get out of my comfort zone," she explains.
"That's when I feel most creative."
Meanwhile, Thomas will be in the Christmas spirit for the next
couple of weeks, with the tour wrapping Dec. 14 in Seattle. The
shows feature music from the holiday album -- including a pair of
originals and an opening set by Thomas' comic alter ego, Sheila
Saputo.
"It's a lot of fun," reports Thomas, who got married shortly after
finishing "A Very Rosie Christmas." "I've always loved to work on
Christmas songs; growing up, every Christmas Eve we entertained the
family that came over 'cause my parents were musicians. And I love
Christmas records, so I thought 'Why have I not done one yet to
share with people I love outside of my family?' I've had a blast
doing this."
