Michelle Branch was feeling under the weather, but that didn't stop her from having a live streaming chat with her fans -- and even performing two songs -- on Tuesday, Dec. 21. The singer, who's had a number of pop hits before breaking into the country scene as one half of the duo the Wreckers, was ready to provide updates on her new solo music. Branch revealed that she's planning to record her upcoming album in January.
"I guess the way to debut new music isn’t necessarily when you have a cold and you’re choking on tea, but we’ll see," Branch said before playing an acoustic version of a tune called 'Spark,' one of the dozen songs she has written for the new album. “If I have my way this record will be out this year … or else.”
If Branch seemed eager, she had good reason to be. In 2007, she went into the studio to record a post-Wreckers album titled 'Everything Comes and Goes,' which has since never been released.
“I hate talking about genres. A good song is a good song. Part of why 'Everything Comes and Goes' wasn’t released was some people thought it wasn’t country enough,” Branch said in the chat.
She added, “This record is definitely more in the vein of my first record,” which is a pop album. “This record has been all about having fun and being creative again, and not feeling like I have to write a specific way for a specific genre.”
Still, the singer-songwriter seemed pretty sure that one unreleased 'Everything Comes and Goes' song, 'Through the Radio,' should find its way to the album she's currently working on. Branch intends to recut the track to fit in with the new recordings.
Perhaps just as exciting for Branch was her recent run-in with the legendary Paul McCartney, whom she got the chance to meet through a mutual friend, Abe Laborial, Jr., who's McCartney's drummer.
“I finally met Paul McCartney. I did it. It was so fantastic," Branch, a long-time fan who was named after the McCartney-penned ballad 'Michelle' (found on the Beatles record 'Rubber Soul'), gushed. “In London, of all places, I got to go see him play and I got invited to an aftershow. I told him that my name was Michelle, and he started singing 'Michelle,' which was amazing ... I said, 'Thank God you didn’t name the song 'Alfred,' so he started singing 'Alfred' and making words up to 'Alfred.'”
Watch the Full Michelle Branch Webchat
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