Singer-songwriter Jessica Pratt’s new music, featured on Pitchfork, is a marked departure from her austere sound

Jessica Pratt, who released the album “Here in the Pitch” earlier this year, will play the Pitchfork Music Festival at Chicago’s Union Park on Sunday, July 21.
AP

When Jessica Pratt released her eponymous debut album, which she says was created with virtually no editing, the singer-songwriter earned praise for her stark guitar and hypnotic vocals, and the 2011 album’s imperfections were more of an asset than a liability.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the indie musician is treading carefully as she moves toward a more complex and refined sound on her fourth album, which was released recently and is her first in five years. Fans can hear her music live when Pratt performs at the Pitchfork Music Festival at Chicago’s Union Park on Sunday, July 21 at 4:15 p.m.

“It can be a real danger when people who originally started out as solo artists develop into a full-blown band,” says Pratt. “If you’re not careful, it can lead to a watered-down or homogenous sound because you might lose some of the more distinctive qualities of the music.”

So when Pratt went into the studio to record “Here in the Pitch,” she was calculated and purposeful about the role each instrument would play.

When Jessica Pratt entered the studio to record the album “Here in the Pitch,” released earlier this year, she was calculated and purposeful about the role each instrument would play.
AP

“I guess we tried to think of it as more of a jazz approach or something like that, where the essence of the music is the focus, but there are these accents,” she says.

She was inspired, in part, to add more production and instrumentation by a better understanding of the size of the canvas she was painting on.

“It was my second time making a record in the studio, so maybe between the first and second pass in the studio you understand a little bit more what resources you have at your disposal and imagine the extra color you can add to things,” she says.

The 37-year-old has often been compared to groundbreaking folk musicians such as Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, but has sometimes resisted these comparisons, seeing them as too reductionist.

“If you play acoustic guitar and don’t do anything radically specific in terms of style that would go against a folk association, it’s just something that people go back to,” she says.

Yet this record’s improved production, move away from fingerpicking and addition of more instruments, particularly percussion, reinforce her claim that she is more than a folk singer, with some songs inspired by classic California pop bands such as the Beach Boys and the Walker Brothers.

But Pratt’s sound isn’t the only ode to 1950s and 1960s Los Angeles on the album. Her lyrics drip with inspiration from that infamous era, channeling old Hollywood glamour and icons like Judy Garland, as well as notorious villains like Charles Manson.

Although Pratt grew up in Northern California, the City of Angels has always fascinated her.

“When I was growing up, I read a lot of music books and biographies and stuff, and I would say 90 percent of them had something to do with LA. So it always had a certain mystique to me,” she recalls.

Pratt regularly visits historic Hollywood haunts like Musso and Frank Grill, and admits to watching interviews with director David Lynch, but unlike some of the more obsessive cinephiles who populate the city, she wouldn’t necessarily call herself a film buff.

And although Pratt has released two more albums since moving to Los Angeles over a decade ago, she believes the city’s influence on her has finally been expressed in this album.

“My second record came out shortly after I moved to LA. I wrote it right after I moved, so I was probably still filled with the fumes of San Francisco,” she says. “I’m not sure why it took so long for the influence to be felt. But it definitely did.”

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Pitchfork Music Festival

When: The gates open from Friday to Sunday, 19-21 July, at 12:00

Headliners: Black Pumas at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, July 19; Carly Rae Jepsen at 7:25 p.m. and Jamie xx at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 20; Jessica Pratt at 4:15 p.m., Brittany Howard at 7:25 p.m. and Alanis Morissette at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 21, among many other artists. For the full schedule, visit pitchforkmusicfestival.com/schedule/.

Where: Union Park, 1501 W. Randolph St., Chicago

Tickets: Daily general admission: $129; three-day general admission $249; upgrades available

The information: pitchforkmusicfestival.com/