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August 4 - August 11,2002 |
From ballet to top of the pops
Teenager Vanessa Carlton successfully turns to pop music
By Kerry Doole
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Former ballet dancer-turned-pop-singer Vanessa Carlton
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As an ambitious young teenager, Vanessa Carlton was determined to reach the top of her chosen field, ballet. When she stumbled on that dream, she picked herself up and turned to her other creative passion, music.
Now in her early 20s, Carlton finds herself hailed as a rising young star. Her song "A Thousand Miles" has been one of the biggest hits on radio this summer, and her debut album, Be Not Nobody, is selling well.
Vanessa came to town on a promotional trip recently, and Tandem sat down with her at the chic Metropolitan Hotel. Her schedule has been so hectic she has had little time to reflect upon her newfound success, she tells us. "I don't have the same perspective that everyone around me has. I am doing what I'm doing. I am working so hard every day and sometimes I have to tell myself to just chill out a little bit."
In our conversation, Carlton emerges as extremely self-confident, almost verging on smug. That attitude served her well in the recording of the album, as a less confident artist might have been paralysed with nerves at the prospect of working with a full orchestra at the sessions.
Not Vanessa. "By the time I got to the studio with Ron Fair, my producer, I was so together. I just knew what I wanted. I was never intimidated. It was always 'this was what I was supposed to be doing. I have worked real hard and I deserve my orchestra, my songs deserve it.' I never felt any pressure, and just had a beautiful time recording the album."
Carlton is a skilled pianist as well as a singer and songwriter. Her mother is a piano teacher, which meant that, growing up in the small town of Milford, Pennsylvania, Vanessa was exposed to the likes of Mozart, Satie and Debussy. That background helps account for the strongly atmospheric melodicism of her material, a key strength. "You can't hear the music of composers like Debussy and Satie without being moved deeply, and that is what I wanted to create on my album."
Early piano training has now paid off for Carlton. "I think I was very lucky. I would play notes that were written on a page but I'd never be afraid that I was going to get punished for playing notes that weren't on the page. That helped set me up to write original songs."
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