Jessica Pratt is happy to be back home in Los Angeles, having been away touring Here in the Pitch, her latest album inspired by the ever-dynamic city that she calls her home. As Pratt settles into springtime in L.A., the crystalline, spectral folk-pop artist tells us it was a very wholesome tour but that herself and her band are very excited to come to Australia.

It’s been some ten years since Pratt has visited, and her husband-bandmate has never been at all. Touring with a partner isn’t always easy, she says, “but for whatever reason, my husband Matt and I have a freakishly harmonious relationship when it comes to working together. That’s not to say there aren’t moments – like anyone – you occasionally just want a room to yourself, but we’ve spent a lot of time on the road and we genuinely get along. It's been surprisingly smooth.”

I’m curious to know if romance is a recurring theme in some way or another for Pratt, given the connotation of taking your husband on the tour. Prat tells me, “maybe in a distorted way. I feel like the emotions in my music are always a little fractured. It’s never a straightforward expression of something.” I suggest that perhaps there is a modicum of truth that she refracts through a prism in different directions, veiling the truth and taking light in different directions.

"I feel like the emotions in my music are always a little fractured. It’s never a straightforward expression of something."

For those that fell in love with Here in the Pitch, or earlier records like On Your Own Love Again or Quiet Signs, they will be relieved to know that Pratt is excited to start writing new music. “I'm actually very excited to start writing some new stuff. I've had some success, but it has been sort of interrupted here and there by various things [...] I'm trying to get better at writing in my time off, as opposed to saving up and waiting until I have these like large chunks of uninterrupted time. I'm not going to force anything, but I think I've been successful in ways that I wouldn't have predicted so far.” As for her process, Pratt admires the Nick Cave school of thought, suiting up and showing up to do the work regardless of how one feels. “I find that it feels very chemical, almost. Like, some days when I write a song and I feel really good about it, it almost feels like my neurotransmitters are firing in just the right way that day. I have no idea what caused it to be that way, so I feel like I don't have very much control over it. Showing up as much as possible to try to land those days, I guess, is part of the process.”

Often we hear of artists praying to their muses or experiencing some divine or transcendental intervention, but there is something in Pratt’s voice that makes this unique, chemical self- generating and internally sourced inspiration feel almost obvious, now that she mentions it. However, she tells me, “I'm not saying that I never feel like there are some outside forces working within, but in terms of the days where I just can't really explain it, sometimes I'll feel like an anticipatory energy. It's like I have something coming, and then I'll write something, and occasionally it will really work out. And that is very odd to me.”

Although Pratt experiences the outside forces, there is never a direct cause and effect and she’s glad that there is mystery to her own way of working, her focus is the output not the impetus.

Mystery is important to Pratt. When asked about her changes in style or focuses over her musical career, she acknowledges changes, but admits that to list them would be a "demystifying sort of thing to do". Yet, in terms of instrumentation, there have been shifts that are informed by “a feeling of being established, like not necessarily being able to pinpoint exactly how or why something comes to be, but suddenly something is materialising". Pratt works with intuition to feel out what style of production would best suit each song and sometimes her demos make it obvious.

"I'm not saying that I never feel like there are some outside forces working within, but in terms of the days where I just can't really explain it, sometimes I'll feel like an anticipatory energy."

In addition to Pratt’s unique mind, when writing, she tries to absorb things that will contribute to this mental space that she feels is conducive to the record, one notable external inspiration was Genesis by Wendy and Bonnie. “I listened to that record a lot, and I feel like there was a certain mood and innocence there that really sort of remained in my head the whole time I was making the record, right?” When not making records, Pratt loves to spend time with friends, read and absorb herself in nature, revealing she is planning her first trip to Yosemite – even though she is not a big camper. She tells me that she is also very keen to explore some of Australia’s National Parks when on tour here. Pratt is feeling privileged to be able to play the Sydney Opera House and be a part of his rich history and is feeling lucky, just as we are to have her in Australia and have tickets to her show.

Tickets and ticketing information for Jessica Pratt's Australian tour are available at www.jessicapratt.net.

Upcoming tour dates:

• Wednesday 28 May at Sydney Opera House for Vivid LIVE.
• Friday 30 May at The Naval Store, Fremantle for ARRIVAL.
• Sunday 1 June at Theatre Royal, Castlemaine.
• Tuesday 3 June at The Princess Theatre for Open Season Brisbane.
• Thursday 5 June and Friday 6 June at Melbourne Recital Centre for RISING Festival.
• Saturday 7 June at Odeon Theatre, Hobart for Dark Mofo.