Karen Elson On Making Music In The Closet & An Unintentional Homage To Nick Cave

Karen Elson wears a lot of different hats: supermodel, musician, performer, Mrs Jack White, mother of two. A longtime admirer of the flame-haired English beauty, I was genuinely ill with nerves before speaking to her from pure fan-induced intimidation and terror. Little did I know she would turn out to be an incredibly warm, down-to-earth, funny woman. I was fortunate enough to chat to Karen about making her lovely gothic debut The Ghost Who Walks produced by her very famous husband, listening to Nick Cave in her angsty teen years, her ongoing work as a model, and the pitfalls of being a ‘morning person’…

Hey Karen how are you? I’m good thanks! What time is it over there at the moment?

You know what it’s appalling but it’s actually 9am but I’m just sort of getting out of bed. I’m more the night owl type. Oh I’m the opposite to be honest, I get up so early. It’s so funny when I’m on tour because we’ve got really late nights, obviously because I’m playing my shows until like midnight, and then I’m waking up at 6am every morning much to my frustration (chuckles)

You must just be in a habit of getting up as soon as the sunlight breaks Yeah I just keep getting up early even if I’m tired!

So tell me how the shows are going? Well, I just had my first show of the U.S. tour in San Francisco and I just love San Francisco. It’s just such a great American town and it’s quite liberal – it was just such a fun time. The crowd was fantastic and I’m just hoping that L.A. will have a similar vibe tonight.

Oh cool, so you’re actually on the road at the moment? Yep on the road, we have a tour bus, I’ve got my band and all that stuff. It’s really great!

Fantastic! Do you have the whole family there with you? No, they’re coming in a couple days. I wanted to start the first few days just with myself so I could kind of get into the press, and I’m just so busy so I wouldn’t want to bring my kids and then not see them… But in a couple of days everything’s going to clear up so I’ll bring them then.

I love the [The Ghost That Walks] by the way – it’s so soft and lovely, but haunting too. Aw thank you!

Can you tell me a little bit about the music that influences you? There’s this soft, melodic sound mixed with these very gothic stories, and I just wanted to know what music that you listen to for pleasure that might have influenced the feel to the record? Well I’ve got such a wide taste in music so it’s hard to pin down exactly who are the people I love the most… Obviously Velvet Undergound, Nancy Sinatra, Lee Hazlewood, Cat Stevens… those are the sort of people I’m currently obsessed with. Also a band, I’m sure you’ve heard of them, called Love.

Yeah I love Love! Yeah they’re brilliant. I keep listening to this song obsessively A house is not a motel. It’s just such a great song.

I also noticed that in the past you’ve listed Nick Cave as one of your influences…? Well when I was a teenager and I listened to Nick Cave and P J Harvey, I was really struck by it and it was such a departure from anything else I’d listened to. Before that I was listening to teenage pop music and then I heard Nick Cave and it was just something so profoundly beautiful and there was also something almost scary about it! There were love songs that were so dark but to me they were all honest. It wasnt all “hey I’m gunna love you forever baby blah blah blah” – and I wanted to just hear the melancholy that comes with being human and Nick Cave just speaks that language I think.

Yeah he speaks more about the psychosis of love… Yeah, he definitely does! And it’s those songs that move me! But it wasn’t like I was thinking ‘I want to write a song like Nick Cave’s’ – I never thought that, but I was just really trying to put off a sense of sorrow and mourning that in my very full life I felt that, you know?

Yeah, I think you’ve achieved that actually! Oh I hope so!

Also, it’s funny that you say that Nick Cave had such a profound impact on you when you were younger, because one of my favourite tracks on the album is “Stolen Roses” and it really reminded me of the Nick Cave Murder Ballads album! It’s a lot like the track ‘Where the wild roses grow’… Was that conscious choice? You know what, a lot of people have said that to me and it’s so interesting because when I first wrote that song I thought it sounded like ‘Scarborough Fair’ (sings the first line of Scarborough Fair – omg). It’s so strange how, maybe, unconsciously different songs come out when you’re writing because I certainly didn’t consciously say ‘Oh I wanna write a song like that!’ But I do love that song and I agree because when I listen to it with objective ears I can completely see where everyone’s coming from.

So Karen, with the performance component of your tour, having a background in The Citizen’s Band cabaret type performances, it’s obviously really important part of your show, have you ever thought about moving into something like musical theatre or film or something else with a greater performance component? It’s funny because people will send me things here and there, like a script or something… like in The Citizen’s Band that has a musical theatre element and it’s a bit rough around the edges as well and I’m definitely into that but right now acting I’m not sure about! I really love music and I really love writing songs… I love watching beautiful films don’t get me wrong, in fact I have a lot of friends who are actors and I have a lot of respect for them because its not an easy job, but I don’t know if I’d even be any good…

Well you don’t know until you’ve tried do you? Well I think I’ve already found my way of expressing myself, do you know what I mean? And finally through music I found something that really fulfills me and moves me and makes me feel like I’m getting these essential things off my chest. I don’t know if acting would be much similar to what I’m doing as a model… I guess I just have a profound amount of respect for all the actors and I know they work incredibly hard but I don’t know if I have the time to invest! It’s only because when I do something I want to do a good job. I don’t ever want to walk into something unprepared, I’d want to study and in the cabarets we have a lot of opportunities to do theatre shows next year, which I’m definitely looking into which would be wonderful. That’s what I’m really into, I’d love to do a month-long theatre show and I think that would be a real challenge… But it’s all unique and individual things like that which interest me. And if an interesting opportunity arises, I’m always open-minded.

And The Ghost Who Walks was recorded in the closet, is that right? It’s quite hilarious on so many levels isn’t it.

It conjures this fantastic image of Karen Elson hunched over in the closet with a guitar. Haha it’s so silly. But, I mean, it was really important for me to do that to be honest. I think that I needed to have a private process and that it was a safe environment and ultimately being in my messy closet with all my weird bags of vintage clothes and odd shoes, made me feel comfortable (laughs).

Well fair enough. And there must also be something about having a house full of amazing musicians constantly coming and going – there’s got to be something daunting about that Yeah we have a very creative household we have a lot of very profound and prolific people coming and going as well and everyday life at our house is just playing music, writing songs, using the studio… and Jack has a record label and the label is down the road from our house and everybody who works there is our good friend and we’ve got a real family of people which is wonderful.

Is there ever an average day in the life of Karen and Jack and the kids? No there never is in our household, I wish there was ha ha ha ha!

You’ve come from a modeling background but how much time are you going to put into modeling in the future because obviously music is your main focus at the moment? I’m trying to find a way to keep doing it because I really enjoy modeling still and strangely enough since I’ve started doing music, the fashion world has been really supportive of my record and I feel as far as modeling goes I’ve probably got a good 5 years left and I really want to enjoy them and make them a wonderful experience. I’m game and open to doing both but it’s just a matter of time and juggling things, I need to make sure I leave enough time for my family… but the thing is with fashion, in terms of being a model, I’ve done it for so long that I can do it with my eyes closed at this point and I like the people I work with and it’s quite an enjoyable thing these days and doesn’t require too much effort…music, however, requires a lot of me emotionally and it requires my absolute focus so that’s the hard part because music really involves my personality and my soul much more than modeling does so that’s a struggle.

Finally, is there any chance of you coming and touring around our shores anytime soon? Absolutely I’d love to come and tour Australia

That’s fab we’ll have to work that out and get you here. Okay definitely. Well it was nice to talk to you.

Thanks so much Karen and good luck on the tour Thank you so much! Bye…

The Ghost Who Walks is out now.

Title Image Provided by Karen Elson

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV