Erin McKeown

What do you do after you've made three critically-acclaimed albums that explore nearly every genre of popular music? What do you do after you've learned how to play all the instruments yourself If you're Erin McKeown, you make We Will Become Like Birds, the 27-year-old's fourth studio album. It's a work of simple and elegant beauty so original that no one but Erin McKeown could be responsible.

"I had driven myself crazy with possibilities over the last three records I had made," says McKeown, referring to 1999's Monday Morning Cold, 2000's Distillation, and 2003's Grand. "I love music so much, and it is so much a part of who I am, that the temptation to do everything has always gotten the better of me. With this project, I deliberately set out to narrow my focus. What would happen if I concentrated on one thing for a whole album What would happen if I could get my mind to stand very still for 12 songs" she says with a laugh, only hinting at how difficult that proposition might be.

Settled into her home studio, McKeown took to her four-track and composed bass, drum, guitar and keyboard parts for all her new songs, mapping out the emotional parameters of separation and strength, intense sadness and raw possibility.

Demos in hand, McKeown set out to find a partner for the project. She found her perfect foil in Tucker Martine a producer, engineer and composer who has worked previously with Jim White, Modest Mouse, Bill Frisell and Laura Veirs, in addition to his own very large catalogue of original music. "What I love about Tucker is his energy. You literally touch him and he is electric, brimming with enthusiasm and creativity," explains Erin of her experience co-producing the album with Martine.

McKeown next decided that there was only one place to make this record: New Orleans. "Last year was my first time visiting the city, she explains, and I was lucky enough to be shown around by a good friend who lives there. It felt like a gift, to get to know this incredible place. New Orleans has the unique quality of being both a hugely sad and an ultimately joyful place. That's how I saw it anyway, and that's how I saw my album as well."

With the ability to play all of the instruments between the two of them, McKeown and Martine might have entered the studio and created the entire album themselves. However, it was decided from the onset that these songs would benefit most from inspired performances by a real band. Giving generously of themselves, studio heavyweights Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, David Bowie), Sebastian Steinberg (Beth Orton, Soul Coughing), and Steve Moore (Laura Veirs) drums, bass and keyboards, respectively joined McKeown and Martine for a week-long session at Piety Street Recording, a former mental institution and post office in the city's historic Bywater neighborhood. "I gave the guys the demos, then stepped back and let them do what they do best. I just became the guitar player," recalls Erin. Basic tracks were recorded live to tape, a process new to McKeown. "I'd always worked on the computer and didn't much care for the analog vs. digital debate, but here it made the most sense to keep us intuitive and instinctive."

Building on a quick start, McKeown and Martine finished off the songs in the next two weeks, inviting two more collaborators Argentine electronic artist Juana Molina and American singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey. "I've known Peter forever, and his voice slays me every time," says McKeown of Mulvey's tender baritone on "Delicate December." Juana Molina was a newer find. "I met her recently at a show in Seattle and fell completely in love."

Sift through this catalogue of credits, and you will come back to McKeown and her songs. Ms. McKeown's songs have been heard in the feature film Uptown Girls, on FX's Nip/Tuck, MTV's The Real World, Showtime's The Ranch, and Dawson's Creek. Her festival appearances include: Oxegen2004 (IR), Bonnaroo 2004 (TN), Glastonbury 2003 (UK), Crossing Border 2003 (NL), and Bumbershoot 2001 (WA).