“A self-taught pianist, Diane spent half her life
travelling the world with her devout parents before settling back in America in her
mid-twenties to pen her debut album “Bible Belt”. The album received high
acclaim across US audiences and now Diane is set to hit the UK with her
second album and as the face of Hoss Intropia AW11. Her bohemian style and
eclectic-cool reflect her unusual upbringing and musical inspiration. Diane
shows us her Intropia through the new Autumn Winter 2011-2012 collection, which
contrasts the ornamental and baroque with nature and is bursting with charming
details.
DIANE BIRCH - "Singer-songwriter Diane Birch took half
her lifetime, and traveled across the globe, to get to America, where she literally found
her voice and made her remarkable debut, Bible Belt. Though only in her
mid-twenties, Birch likes to think of herself as an “old soul,” and indeed
there is a startling maturity in her singing and a veteran’s self-assurance in
her writing. Hook-driven songs like “Fools” and “Valentino” offer more than
just instant gratification: they’re like your new best friends – you’ll want to
get together with them as frequently as possible. Birch mixes piano-playing
virtuosity with easy-going soul, and she can strike an uplifting groove on even
the most melancholy tune. Her work bears hints of Laura Nyro (when she was
hanging out with LaBelle) and early 70’s Karen Carpenter (when she was ruling
the charts), while effortlessly incorporating New Orleans second-line rhythms, gospel fervor,
doo-wop harmonies, country-blues guitar and classic AM radio-style melodies. Bible
Belt was recorded in New York City and New Orleans with a
formidable team of Grammy-winning producers: S-Curve Records founder Steve
Greenberg, soul legend Betty Wright and Mike Mangini. Among the players
accompanying Birch are guitarist Lenny Kaye of The Patti Smith Group, bassists
Adam Blackstone from The Roots, and George Porter of The Meters, acclaimed
drummers Stanton Moore of Galactic and Cindy Blackman of Lenny Kravitz fame,
saxophonist-about-town Lenny Pickett, and trombonist Tom “Bones” Malone, along
with veteran singer Eugene Pitt, lead vocalist of fabled Brooklyn vocal group,
the Jive Five. Birch was born in Michigan, but
at a very young age she moved to Zimbabwe with her South
African-born parents. Her dad was a conservative pastor who moved his family
from continent to continent. So the young Birch migrated with her folks from Zimbabwe to South
Africa to Australia,
following her father’s mission. Throughout her journeys, Birch longed to be
back in America, and finally
got her wish when her family relocated to Portland,
Oregon, when she was 10. Compared
to the average American teenager, Birch was truly exotic, both in terms of
where she had resided and in how she had lived – within the confines of a
strict religious community that had little interaction with its secular
neighbors. She had to be resilient and adaptable, which at times meant seeking
refuge in a rich fantasy life, imagining herself as someone living in say, the
eighteenth century, conjuring up imaginary friends/muses like Valentino, the
subject of one of her songs, an Amadeus like-figure, somewhat more dashing in
proportion than the real Mozart. Until she arrived in the States, she’d had
scant exposure to the radio or television and little knowledge of popular
culture; she’d only listened to classical music, opera and, of course, church
hymns. Birch initially cycled through a serious Goth phase, perfect for an “old
soul” trying to define itself. She embraced Goth both musically and
sartorially, as musical inspiration and teenage rebellion - listening to the
Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, the Cure, even Christian Death; arriving at her
father’s church in a floor-length black cape and waiting until the rest of the
congregation was seated before swanning up the aisle. Her musical education
didn’t stop there, though: she fell for songs from the twenties, jazz, the
Beatles, psychedelic music, and Fleetwood Mac. Since she was seven, Birch had
been studying piano via the learn-by-ear Suzuki Method and had cultivated the
ability to replicate a melody upon hearing it. As she explains, “Ever since I
was a kid, I have been incredibly fortunate in that I could hear something and
then just play it.” When she was old enough to live on her own, Birch moved to L.A., with the notion of
becoming a film composer: To make ends meet, she quickly learned a standards
repertoire and pursued work as pianist-for-hire, eventually landing regular
gigs at the Beverly Hills Hotel and L’Orangerie. Prince once saw her play and
invited her out to jam with him and his band at his home – an invitation she
duly accepted. Up until this point, Birch had always seen herself as a pianist
and hadn’t tried to sing until a friend cajoled her into taking a class. In
order to have something to perform there, Birch wrote an original song, which
her new classmates immediately loved. So she wrote another for the next class,
then another after that; thus she became a genuine singer-songwriter. Thanks to
material she began to post on her MySpace page, Birch heard from a manager
based in London
and before long was able to relocate there, where she soon had both regular
gigs and a major publishing deal. It wasn’t long before Birch was on the move
again, however, this time to ink a record deal with Steve Greenberg’s S Curve
Records in New York,
where she currently resides. As for the album title, “The idea of Bible Belt
has a layered kind of meaning for me,” explains Diane. “Because my dad was a
preacher, the very religious upbringing I had made a huge impact on my life, in
a very restraining and constricting way. I’m constantly talking about heaven,
angels, and forgiveness. I’m hugely inspired by church hymns -- their chord
structures, their colors. It was a form of constraint for me as a child but now
I see that it has fueled my creative fire.” Over the course of Bible Belt’s
thirteen songs Diane Birch has served up her own portrait of American music in
all its breadth and majesty, touching down on Beale Street, Bourbon Street, Tin
Pan Alley, Laurel Canyon, South Philly, Brooklyn street corners and many points
in between. Hers is a tour-de-force debut album"
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