'I KNOW I'm an English singer-songwriter but this really is a love letter to Edinburgh," says Eliza Carthy of her new album, Dreams Of Breathing Underwater. Seven years in the making, this rich and wonderfully textured record boasts an array of Scott
ish collaborators, from Eddi Reader to Salsa Celtica, and McFall's Chamber to Mystery Juice. For Carthy it is a reflection of a decade spent living in the capital.
"It was my home for 10 years, and I really do miss it," says the 32-year-old daughter of original folk revivalists, Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson. "I really didn't want to leave Scotland, and I may yet go back."
So what made her run away to the neo-gothic arch in Sherwood Forest where she is currently based? "It's a very nice soft landing after a very nasty divorce," she says in her deep Yorkshire burr, which has become lower and lower over recent years. She nearly lost her singing voice, but we'll come back to that. A fortnight after arriving in Edinburgh, Carthy met fellow fiddler Ben Ivitsky, who also played in Peatbog Faeries and La Boum!. They were married, Ivitsky joined Carthy's band, and he plays or sings on Dreams Of Breathing Underwater, which he also co-produced. No wonder their break-up has been so complicated.
Although Carthy left Scotland last October, she has spent the past few years living out of a suitcase. "It's an awful thing to have to go through," she says. "We're having a year off from each other. It's pretty exhausting working with your partner anyway, let alone working with your ex and going through the process of splitting up."
Not that this – only her second album of self-penned songs, though her eighth as a solo artist – is a break-up record. It's surprisingly upbeat considering it has come out of what Carthy describes as "a crazy amount of frustration". Twice nominated for the Mercury Music Prize – once just two years after her mother, who lost out to Pulp – Carthy signed with Warners. She made her first album of original songs with the label, and then as she got to work on Dreams Of Breathing Underwater everything started to go wrong. "Everyone kept getting fired at Warners and eventually it was us that got fired," she says, bellowing with laughter. Carthy has a wicked sense of humour and relates her tales of woe with gusto. She must be the most foulmouthed woman in folk, and Stewart Lee probably put it best when he described her as "not the messiah but a very naughty girl".
"The Warners experience was very stressful," she says. "I fell out catastrophically with my manager and it took about three years to fire him, during which time I didn't have much work. I was spending a lot of time at home getting p****d and watching videos and not having a very good time."
Carthy, who has been touring with her parents since she was 14 and singing since she was speaking, began to lose her voice. She puts it down to overuse, damage from smoking and stress. "There was a period when I almost completely lost my voice for a year. There was a lot of me crying off because I had a cold, coming on stage sucking a lozenge, and apologising for being hoarse. Actually, though, it was my stress levels and not being able to sing. It still is frustrating."
Carthy's voice is as gallus as ever on the album, however. 'Two Tears', based on the rhythm of a Sussex waltz and the Tom Waits song 'Strange Weather' is less weepy and more defiant. "It's quite savage," she says. "It's got some blood and guts in it now, some anger. You have to go through that stage when you get your heart broken." 'Oranges and Seasalt', inspired by Forties show tune melodies, is a mischievous paean to getting sozzled on tequila, while 'Mr Magnifico' is a haunting spoken word poem about a man "not entirely made up… I think he drinks in the Holyrood Tavern".
For a folk singer who has in the past belted out traditional songs over drum and bass beats, it's as experimental as you could hope for with its blues, mariachi brass, and squeezebox.
"I'm really happy that I've come out with a record that is full of life," she says. "It's not all misery and guts and there's a lot of real joy in it. Even though quite a few times I've nearly come a cropper, I've enjoyed the risks that I've taken and I've taken them for honest reasons. I'm still here, and life is good."
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Dreams Of Breathing Underwater is out tomorrow, Topic Records
www.eliza-carthy.com