More than a decade into her career, singer-songwriter Laura Veirs is just now arriving with her seventh studio album, July Flame, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers and Folk charts. After transitioning from Nonesuch Records in 2009, Veirs produced the self-released Flame in the living room of the Portland home she shares with longtime producer and partner Tucker Martine, bringing in My Morning Jacket’s Jim James (as well as other longtime collaborators) to flesh out her homegrown recipe. The result is a collection of hushed odes to the sweltering haziness of summertime—a theme reinforced by the record’s title, which gets its name from a particularly juicy variety of peach Veirs found at a local farmers market. Before her Feb. 27 appearance at Schubas, Veirs spoke to The A.V. Club about her love of “improv quilting,” making musically inclined babies, and how to keep domestic squabbles at bay when your lover is also your producer.
The A.V. Club: Not only are you well into your tour, but you’re also a few months pregnant. How’s that going?
Laura Veirs: I’m due in two months, so I’m pretty big now. And it’s going well. I’ve already toured for three months pregnant. I did the first, second, and third trimester touring, and this is the easiest one. I can’t get up and down as quickly as I used to be able to, but I’m just a bit tired.
AVC: This seems like a smart way to introduce your baby to your music.
LV: I read a little bit about that, actually. There’s this professional classical player that was pregnant and practicing this really difficult passage over and over again on piano. After she had the baby, when she would play that passage, he would look up and recognize it. I think they actually know that the babies learn the patterns, because they can hear a lot from in there.
AVC: July Flame has only been out a short while, but have you felt a difference in the response as compared to previous albums?
LV: It’s felt even better than any other time, to be honest. It’s really gratifying, because it took me a lot of time to figure out the “best” way to release it. I was transitioning away from Nonesuch, and not sure whether I should try for a similar label or an indie label or start my own in earnest. Eventually my friend Chad put his name in the hat and was like, “I’ll run your label,” and it was clear that he was the one to go with. Because we’re running it ourselves, it feels even more satisfying that people are reacting well to Flame. It feels very homegrown. We recorded it in the living room and then mixed it in the basement. And Chad, who lives a block away, is running the label, and the warehouse is five blocks away where all the CDs are.
It’s just very self-contained and feels like a neighborhood business, versus where I was before. I loved Nonesuch. They were great, and they didn’t meddle with the creativity part at all—which is rare. But at the same time, they were a giant corporation. So to have it very contained within my friends and family, it’s been really nice.