PALOMA FAITH KNOWS FIRSTHAND, that the road to love is filled with
many a roadblock, wrong turn or dead-end. On her third release, A Perfect Contradiction, due in the U.S. on Tuesday, October 7, Faith takes a long hard look at her relationships in love, exploring the emotional obstacles, which led to a broken and disillusioned heart. It’s quite a dichotomy that in person, Paloma exudes a positive spirit, childlike speaking voice and superb sense of fashion. Underneath this bubbly and sometimes carefree exterior, there is a mature and intelligent woman with a phenomenal singing voice who can capture both the anguish of heartbreak and the positive glow of love. Contemporaries such as Adele and Jesse J. have continually acknowledged
her for her gift of song. For A Perfect Contradiction, Pharrell Williams and Diane Warren reached out to Paloma with songs that would perfectly fit into the scope of this new collection of material. Faith, known for writing all her own lyrics and music, couldn’t resist to be added to the list of phenomenal artists singing a Diane Warren original, with a power ballad titled “Only Love Can Hurt Like This.” While Pharrell adds the soulful funk vibe of a long gone wrong with “Can’t Rely on You.” Yet, Faith penned the majority of the songs with “Love Only Leaves You Lonely” and “Trouble With My Baby” exuding the sorrow and the sass of address- ing her past issues head-on. Fortunately for Faith, she is now in a healthy and happy relationship. Here, for The Rage Monthly, Paloma opens her heart to talk about the evolu-
tion of A Perfect Contradiction, expresses the personal meaning of some of the songs and shares a surprising connection with Dame Shirley Bassey. Paloma Faith is a remarkable entertainer who isn’t afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve for art’s sake.
When it came time to write the songs for the album, how would you describe the pull of your emotions in creating these songs? I think the reason why I called the album, A Perfect Contradiction, which sum-
marized it well, was because I met somebody that I was really taken with. I’ve not had a connection with anybody in my life in the way that I felt about this person. I feel like since I’ve been in that relationship, I’ve been happier. It’s the happiest I’ve ever been in adulthood, basically. I spent most of my adult life wishing that I was a child again. Now, I’m really happy to be an adult because I’m in a relation- ship with that person. I feel like, because of that, it illuminated for me and gave me space to reflect
on some of the harder moments of my life in adulthood. It created a really nice pull between light and dark, which is what I’ve got on this new record. It’s quite euphoric and up-tempo but with still that same realistic/tragic level on the lyric. I think you can hear that perfect contradiction between darkness and light. Yes, definitely. I love what you do with “Love Only Leaves You Lonely.” Is that harder to sing range-wise? Yeah, it’s pretty tough because it’s all really powerful all the way through. Not
really range-wise, it just has to do with the energy of it; it’s all pushing… it gets quite desperate. But, I feel that has to do with the performance of it. I don’t shy away from it or hold back, I really go for it. It’s beautiful and it is sad. Thank you. I wrote that at the end of a relationship. I felt a bit beaten because
I’ve had a series of quite long-term relationships. Since I was 13-years-old, I’ve been in monogamous relationships that lasted two or three years. Every single one fits under that bracket. I always give it my best and I feel like the more that I’ve done that; quite actually, I don’t even know why I go there anymore. That length of time is long enough to be very vulnerable and for somebody to know you inside out. It always ends. I felt like I was perpetuating it myself almost… that kind of loss and abandonment. I was feeling a bit stuck. I concluded basi- cally, at that time, that was all I’d ever be able to achieve.
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