Joss Stone: free in the face of danger

It’s hard to believe British soul singer Joss Stone is only 24 years old. Since the release of her first album, The Soul Sessions, eight years ago this month, she’s made a further four albums in quick succession.

She’s been feted — then ridiculed — by the notoriously fickle UK press. She’s worked with everyone from Mick Jagger to Lauryn Hill, and railed vocally against the constraints of her then-record company.
Most shockingly, in June she found herself the target of a foiled murder/abduction plot when two men were arrested near her home in a car containing swords, rope and a body bag.

It was something of a surprise, then, to speak to a breezily unaffected Stone, sitting in the kitchen of her family home in Devon, having a cup of tea and nattering openly to journalists on the other side of the world (“Sorry if my line is a little bit dodge. You’re so bloody far away!” she teased) about the rollercoaster that has been her life for the better part of a decade.

She was on the line ostensibly to talk about her newly released fifth album, LP1. Co-written and produced by ex-Eurythmic Dave Stewart, it’s the first release on her own label, Stoned Records, since parting ways with EMI.

It’s not the first time Stone’s toyed with ideas of rebirth — this is, after all, the woman who called her third album Introducing.

“LP1 is the first on Stoned Records, but I wouldn’t say it’s my rebirth. The only album that really did represent that was Introducing. That was the first one where I was really truly allowed to do what I wanted,” she said.

“Although not completely, because I was still with EMI, and, man, did I fucking suffer with them. The first two albums were my schooling, and Introducing was my graduation. Whether I got it right or wrong is neither here nor there.

“The point was, I’d done it and I’d done it myself. For the first time, I could say it was mine entirely.”

Relishing her newfound freedom, Stone recorded LP1 in little more than a week following an unexpected invitation from Stewart.

“He called me and then two days later I was on a plane to Nashville, so there was no time to think about it. Besides, what is there to think about? Dave Stewart asks you to come and make an album — if you’re not doing anything that week, go do it!

“Afterwards when I came home and listened to it in the mixing process, that’s when all the thoughts started to seep in. Maybe people will hate this? Maybe they’ll love it? My attitude now is, if people don’t like the album, I’ll just make another one.

“I’m trying to be more carefree with what I’m doing — because I can now.”

Stone’s split with EMI was much–publicised, largely thanks to the singer herself. Her final album for the label was called Colour Me Free, and Stone adorned the sleeve from behind the bars of a cage. On its lead single, Free Me (sensing a theme here?), she wailed, “Free me, EMI!”

Stone soon got what she wanted, but listening to LP1 — particularly the venomous album highlight Karma — one senses that she’s still working through her demons.

“[Karma] wasn’t about EMI, it was just about dickheads. Sure, some of those dickheads worked at EMI.

“But it’s also about a relationship. I had one particular bad relationship that’s ended up providing me with so many lyrics. It’s inspirational when someone’s that much of an asshole — the angst and the lyrics you can come up with are great.”

She has a new man now, and the pair recently travelled around Europe in a rusty old campervan Stone called Janis, after her idol Janis Joplin. It’s not the sort of holiday one would expect of a woman worth an estimated nine million pounds.

“Because it’s so normal? I just thought it’d be fun to drive around Europe, and it was. We had a few dramas with the van, so in the end, we left her there in the forest. Poor Janis is still there,” Stone laughed.

Given her carefree nature, did the dramatic events of June act as a rude awakening? Did she consider that perhaps a young, famous and very rich woman might not be so safe holidaying in a broken-down campervan?

“That did annoy me, to be honest,” Stone said, sounding unusually calm given a murder plot was foiled metres from her front door.

“It could have made me really paranoid — maybe I shouldn’t live like I do, maybe I can’t drive around by myself or go where I want.

“But fuck that. Honestly, there’s no way anyone’s going to change how I live my life.”

INFO: Joss Stone performs as part of the Notes from the Hard Road and Beyond concert, October 22, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne. More Australian dates to follow. LP1 out now.