 Courtesy of the Artist Anglo-Dutch singer-songwriter Gitta De Ridder made a welcome return on March 23rd with her new album For Everything A Season. While the songs on the all new collection reflect a personal journey of experiences, they are truly universal, connecting with the listener via glowing melodies and poetic lyrics. Recently, de Ridder graciously took the time to answer her Essential 8 where she shared the story behind the album's title and the song "All In Love", talked inspiration and struggle, her professional bucket list, and much more. Is there a story behind your album’s title? When I had most of the songs for this album written I was thinking of ways to release something in parts over a year, to give myself a goal and structure, and to try approach it slightly differently than I’d done so far. Initially the album’s working title was ‘Seasons’ but as all the songs started to fall into place the current title suited the journey much better. When the concept started to come together I had recently gone through a divorce which wasn’t pretty and it really got me questioning myself and everything around me. This deeply formed and moulded what the album and the themes through it became. It’s a story of life and relationships and the seasons we move through in those. Of connection and disconnection with others and ourselves. Why did you chose to anchor the album with the songs you did? I went to stay at my friends farm in The Netherlands for a few weeks on my own in the winter of ’16 and at that point I had about 15 songs contending to be on the album and quite a few ‘spares’. I spend a few days sitting down working out the full flow and order to realise where the ‘gaps’ were that needed something else put in. I then spend a few days setting myself a ‘song a day’ target to write extra material. Differently to how I normally work I sat down with a metronome to try pull myself out of the usual rhythms I default to when writing songs. Some of the later additions to the album such as ‘The Wheel’ ‘Here’s the Plan’ and ‘Forever in Your Heart’ actually made everything make sense to me in term of pace, flow and colour of the whole and the seasonal parts. I demo’d the full album at the farm. There was a drumkut and a massive ‘reverby' barn, I still love how the demo versions of the album came out with some of the tracks reminding me vaguely of ‘The Police’ and some other unexpected references. It’s so funny to hear the massive difference between those early demos and the final record and I’m endlessly pleased with what Stephen and I managed to record in the days at the studio and how the final record ended up sounding. I couldn’t have imaged it in such detail beforehand. Where do you draw inspiration from when writing? Many of my songs are quite personally inspired such as ‘All is Love’ which I wrote as a wedding present for my sister and her husband. Or ‘Here’s the Plan’ which is rooted in the sense that it can actually be really hard to understand oneself and open up to those around you. However more and more I feel inspired by the world around me and the greater dynamics between people, cultures and all that makes us human. The next album I’m working on definitely moves the themes from mainly focussing on inspirations from my own life to more of a ‘part of something bigger’ feeling. I guess though the songs come as they come and I try not to direct the words too much and let them form themselves. So I suppose it’s whatever seems most relevant to some part of me at the time that will choose to come out.  Which song of yours gets the best crowd response?
I think people really enjoy ‘All is Love’ as there is a sing-along bit and it’s a theme everyone can connect with. I suppose it’s not only a fun song but also one with a message that speaks to people’s hearts. I always love playing it and I feel it brings a smile to people’s faces :-) Favorite thing to do on a day off? Especially lately while working from home a lot I find myself craving walks in the forest or just sitting down with a book. I also love going to museums as they always seem to be very inspirational and many a song of mine was inspired by museum-visits. I suppose dinners with friends and family would also feature very highly on that ‘favorites’ list. Have you met any of your heroes? If so, how did it go? Funnily enough very recently I went to see ‘Iron & Wine’ play the Hammersmith Apollo. I’m not quite sure how it happened but I ran into a lovely film-director I had met at a gig of mine a while before who happened to have backstage passes, hence I ended up meeting Sam Beam briefly after the show. Upon going home I got a bottle of wine pushed into my hands by him. Which was awesome. And I’ll treasure that bottle for a rather long time before I drink it I reckon. He was lovely, there were also quite a few people for him to be talking to and I didn’t want to be too awkward about it all but obviously in our short chat I did the ‘oh gosh you’re such an inspiration to me’ to which he went ‘ah cool thanks’ and then I thought to myself, oh well… what can you say right… Hey Sam, can we please play a song together some time? I’d really love that…. That’s what I should have said but I chickened out and why would he agree to do that at this point anyway… oh never mind I suppose :-) What has been your biggest struggle so far? Looking back on all the ‘failed’ attempts and getting my career going with different bands and projects the biggest culprit was not knowing what I wanted. Not feeling truly honest in what I was making. Or generally just not being organised enough to properly get things off the ground. It’s a hard game to play which takes a lot of commitment and risk taking and I still don’t quite know whether I’m doing it right. I guess what I am doing is the best that I can, trying to stay close to my truth in the process. But it’s easy to find oneself comparing to others successes, or wishing you’d do better than you’re doing or generally ending up with a sense of overwhelm and tiredness. I know this is what I want to be spending my life doing and what gives me a reason to get up each morning, only sometimes my focus shifts to the negative and that isn’t helpful. My biggest challenge is definitely in finding a good balance with personal life and work life and letting go and relaxing every now and then without feeling ‘guilty’ about it. Is there a professional “bucket list” item you would love to check off? I’ve been wanting to do a bigger ‘Europe’ tour for quite some years now as I’ve played in Italy, Greece, Zwitserland and Germany before but never been on the road for longer periods of time. It seems that’s getting rather in sight now as I’m just in the process of moving out of my London home and into a re-build truck-home with my partner to go tour around. For the next 6 months we’ll mostly be in The Netherlands and in the UK (as usual) and after that we hope to drive off to Southern Europe for winter to start the tour from there early ’19. Let’s see what happens hey :-) Website/Facebook/Twitter/Purchase
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