At just 19 years old Sarah Jarosz is a name your going to be hearing a lot from in the next few months. The folksinger has already been Grammy Nominated and is being championed by Mumford & Sons. Jones begins her UK tour next week and you only have to listen the cover of Radioheads “Tourist” to understand what this 19 year all is all about.

How have things been going with the tour, you have the album released June 6th in the UK?

TD: Yeah, the albums not even out in the UK. This is the last date in a month long European tour, this is the last show, and we’ve done about 22 or 23 shows, something like that. And it’s been really cool, we’ve not done a European tour for quite awhile as I took time off from everything basically as my wife and I had a child. I didn’t want to travel for at least the first year; I postponed an album as it took me forever to write, I was just in a different mode. So we’re back on the road and it feels great.

We’re kind of screwed up anyway musicians after awhile, after you get it in your blood, if you can’t do it, you know getting on the road and play…it’s like a drug addict [both laugh]. The audiences have been really cool.

Have they liked the new stuff?

TD: Yeah I have actually, the new albums not even released in some of these places but when your doing a tour like this your meeting your hardcore fans so they have it anyway and have had it for a long times, and that’s always cool.

It’s cool to hang out with some of the guys that come to the shows, you get to know some of them again. Also to see some of the cities again.

Tell us a little about the new album, has having a child mellowed you or made it easy/hard to get back into the song writing zone?

TD: It depends on what album your thinking, there is one album where going to release called “Songs” which is basically a complication of all different songs from the previous records, but there is a new record called “Waiting for that one clear moment”. And this was the one that took me a long time to write as I didn’t feel like writing songs at all, i didn’t really want to sing it was kind of hard to something else. I had just done a movie score which was an instrumental thing, which was so cool, I was just into it. So to go back to writing songs felt a little weird, so the songs are kind of weirder, not so, the sort of like little pieces I guess, that’s how I see them anyways.

It was hard to get back to them once I had been a family guy for a couple of years, its such a different frame of mind, yeah it was hard to start writing again.

How do you write your music?

It’s different from time to time I think and it changes as your go along as well and you find new ways of writing. But usually it starts with some idea, a musical idea not a lyrical idea, may be part of the melody or the chord structure. Are you a musician yourself?

NA: No not at all, I lack even the very simplest ability, which is why I review.

[Both laugh]

TD: Nice. As I say it is different every time but there is a certain structure to it usually, I tend to come up with some sort of hook-line or guitar part, as a a guitar player primarily. And then I build on it, it takes…am a slow writer, takes me may be months to finish a song. I’ve experienced the times when I’ve gone into the studio and recorded prematurely and I feel like it’s not finished. I mean you can always go back and do whatever the hell you want to do afterwards…I try to wait till it is all done, the structure is there and everything.

And then the most fun part is the producing part I think. The detail part, I love that part, i can sit for days and work on little sounds and small things that make it interesting or bind it together. what ever the hell. Writing is cool, but producing is more like a craft you want to get the song to a place that your happy with, if the idea isn’t as strong as it was in the beginning then it’s only going to turn our so so.

That little tinkering part, i don’t know, it’s kind of like working with a jigsaw puzzle , you put all these parts together. i try to work in a holistic way, I don’t know how to say, I like working with every idea until your just spent. And obviously that is going to sound like crap so many things and sometimes they cancel each other out.

So the last part starts we deduct stuff to try and find out which are the essential things for a song, a song is, the most important thing for a song other than structure, is a certain character or characteristic that can be a sound, like a song you have only used on one song so it becomes the signature of that song, something like that. I love working with music, it takes time but you don’t really think about it you know like ‘oh I’ve worked 8 hours on this tune.

Do you find it difficult to take criticism when you have spent so much time on a song?

TD: Erm, it was harder before when I was a little bit younger. I don’t know why but you kind of take criticism differently when your younger, but as you grow up it gets a bit smoother. Now I can take someone saying “this is a piece of crap” and my world doesn’t crumble because of that. It used to, I’d die is someone tore the shit out of one of my albums, your not catering to everyone. It would be weird if everyone loved my music, there would be some odd influence going on.

Have you ever heard a story that has influenced your writing?

TD: Yeah definitely. Inspiration comes in a thousand different forms and shapes and it just has to be something that gets your railed up a little bit fired up inside and gets your bloody boiling a little bit. As soon as your insides comes to life then that’s inspiration enough so you can draw something from it, and that can come from anywhere, it can come from stories, from newspaper, or just a picture, movie, book, or even an interview. Something that sets your insides on fire, you know if there is nothing going on then what I write becomes crap, static and boring. If you feel numb…its a bit boring. Thats not what you want to put on a record, to feel the same as always, you want to get something started, and gets some impressions.

Is it hard to go on the road now you have a young family?

TD: Of course it is difficult…this is what I do. If had been something else that had been my profession or job of providing for my family then you do it. Of course it’s hard, I don’t work in an office and come home and 4pm, we travel all over the world so when you really miss them, you know when your thinking your not going to see them for a few weeks, or your on the other side of the world. So it is hard obviously but then again things, positive things come from that as well when you feel these things as it’s good for writing as am feeling something.

Finally, what has been the most important thing that you have learned from the start to now?

I don’t know if am the right person to say anything about these things, my way of working has changed a lot,. I used to be a lot more neurotic and when I was younger i was always thinking I wasn’t going to get very old I was going to die young. You know all these en

But it made me write and work a lot, what if i did die tomorrow and I had these unfinished songs, that can’t be, I was always trying to finish everything I started and that was a good thing. And now am more chilled.

I guess the only thing is that everything takes a lot of work and it might be a cliché but it’s true…there are these short cuts into everything now, being rich, famous, but those who really do it put in the work and the time to make it right. I think as an artist or a musician your whorl needs to change all the time, you need to get new imputes…you become stale after a while, what are you going to do draw inspiration from the same source your whole life? It might work for someone but for others they need a constant rejuvenation.

For me I can’t let the comfort life take me… if I do am fucked.

To mark the UK release of the critically acclaimed animated film “Chico & Rita”, which also brought together two of Spain’s most respected and talented creative spirits – Javier Mariscal & director Fernando Trueba – TNC got the unique opportunity to talk with Javier about his labour of love “Chico & Rita”.

Nicole Atkins has already made a massive impact in the US with her music that has featured in national commercials and even seen her appear on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman. I can not underestimate how incredible Nicole music is. It is rare that we get an artist who not only stuns us but gains our respect though the first listen.

Her second album “Mondo Amore” is released in the UK later this month.

What made you get into singing/writing has it always been something you wanted to do?

I have been singing since I was very young but it wasn’t until I got into Joe Cocker and Frank Sinatra in high school that I discovered my style of singing. It became a mix of blues and soul with Sinatra phrasing. I got inspired to write my own music in college in North Carolina when I befriended a large group of southern songwriters. They taught me how to put my own music together but it wasn’t until I moved to the East Village in NYC and befriended musicians in the Anti-folk scene like Langhorne Slim and Regina Spektor, that I learned how to be more open with my genres and poetry.

Who has inspired your work, how do you approach writing you music?

Lately I have been inspired by artists like Nick Cave, Lee Hazelwood and Howling Wolf. For their darkness, directness and soul. I usually approach my songs by starting with a vocal melody and letting the color of the melody direct the mood and lyrics which I work on after.

What comes first the melody or the lyrics?

They both come at separate times. Not intended to work with each other though later down the line some of them were meant for each other without the intent at the time of them being born. I’m constantly working on poetry and the melodies seem like little gifts from somewhere else.

Your new release Mondo Amore is stunning are you proud with the final result?

I’m very proud of Mondo Amore. It took a long time to write and many obstacles to get it to actually be released. It is the first thing I feel that I have made that is completely mine. An album that has my true intent and vision and story without any meddling from outside sources.

Has it been easy for you to allow your music to be used in commercials?

I have had a few of my songs in commercials. I wouldn’t say its easy. I always put a lot of thought into the vehicles that I allow my songs to go with. I do think that commercials and television are very valuable ways for artists to get there songs heard in an age where the music video is dead and media is saturated with game show singers and mindless atonal pop. So if you can get people to hear your song via a car commercial or something like that, it can only be good for your music. The money doesn’t hurt either.

You were over in the UK in 2008 and appeared on Jools Holland. How did you find the UK audience?

I loved the audiences in the UK. They are enthusiastic and they interact with the band and dance. I find music fans in the UK to have a gorgeous and vast musical vocabulary.

What has been the most surprising comparison you have faced?

Some review of one of our shows the other night said I was like a female Jim Morrison. That was surprising to me in a good way. I’m still not so sure I’m buying it though.

Of your new album what song really sticks out?

The Tower because even though its only a 6 minute song it’s like an entire movie. It builds the lyrics and music from the beginning of the foundation of the tower with a whisper and finishes it with a howl when the story unfolds and the tower tumbles completely destroyed

What have you got planned for 2011, you managed to get much rest, any festivals planned?

We have some shows planned with the Avett Brothers and the Black Keys with Booker T. After we’re playing the Bonnaroo Festival over here in Tennessee and will tour extensively more throughout the states and after over to your side of the pond. We get no rest. I love it.

What advice would you give someone trying to break into the music industry?

If you would like to be a career artist, stick true to the type of music you have in your heart. Be a part of your local scene and put writing and playing first.