Two days after the release of her first national album, Kristin Diable is still adjusting to the pace of her new life.
She’s hardly home anymore, on the road on and off since last October, traveling from Knoxville to to Tampa to New York … and then back to her home in New Orleans.
She’s slowly getting used to spending a full day setting up for a performance that only lasts minutes; to spending months away from her family, friends and boyfriend; and then to coming home to dirty laundry and stacks of bills—all that mundane “life” stuff that takes at least a couple days to catch up on.
“I had no idea [touring] was so labor intensive, actually,” she says. “It’s nice to be in your home and sleeping in your own bed, even if you have a crappy bed.”
But Diable also knows she needs to be away from home right now. That’s what this time calls for. Things are happening for her.
On Feb. 24, she released Create Your Own Mythology. The record has already earned her press in Billboard and Southern Living, and a preview on NPR’s “First Listen.” She also co-wrote and stars in Forever Waves, an independent short film out later this year (directed by 225 contributor Jeff Roedel).
It’s been a long road. Diable’s music career started at age 5, when she’d sing into her Playskool recorder. Her first song was called “Oreo.” The lyrics: “Oreo, not the cookie but the kind of love you’d like to have around all day.”
“But I really don’t know what that meant,” she laughs. “It was a love song. And maybe because Oreos are like, dynamic and different and have different textures, but I don’t know how intellectually deep I was thinking about it at 5.”
She and her sister performed their first show was at a YMCA battle of the bands in Baton Rouge. On some level, even then she always knew she’d be a star. Her plan was to sell a million records by the time she was 21. That ambition drove her to New York City at age 19.
“As a young kid growing up in Baton Rouge—you know, a smaller town in the South—you have big ideas and you’re curious about the world. I think you can’t help but want to go to some other places to see what it’s all about,” she says.
“I think I kind of just wanted to scope out the competition, too. Like—I think I have a shot at this, and I love doing it, and I think maybe I’m talented; I’m not sure. But I’ll go to New York, and I’ll see where I fall in the pecking order.”
After six years in New York, playing unpaid gigs, taking extra jobs to make ends meet, and turning down record deals that just weren’t right, Louisiana beckoned her home. She traveled to New Orleans on a writing sabbatical for a month, never intending to stay. She very quickly found a band to play with, a house to live in and started getting paid gigs. And suddenly it just made sense to stay.
Being back in Louisiana allowed her to focus full time on discovering her soulful sound.
That sound is reminiscent of a modern-day Stevie Nicks. Diable, often dressed in bohemian printed kimonos, boots and fedoras, with her long, blonde hair falling in waves, even has a style similar to Nicks’.
She’s also been compared to blues-country singer Lucinda Williams. Diable glances up at a backstage pass at a pin-up board by her desk. It’s from a show she played last November in Nashville, opening for Williams.
“I was really savoring that moment. It was definitely one of these experiences that’s kind of like a little pat on the back—like OK, you’re doing something right. … Keep on going. Keep on pushing.”
As she keeps on, she’s cognizant of how much she’s grown. She’s not that little girl who wants to sell a million records anymore. She’d rather create music with purpose and intention. Unlike her debut “Oreo,” the tracks on Create Your Own Mythology are written by a woman who’s seen love, heartbreak and death.
On May 1, Diable plays Jazz Fest. She and her band have played almost every year since she returned to New Orleans in 2009, but she still lights up when talking about it. This year she’ll be moving from the smaller stage she’s played in years past to the Acura Main Stage.
“I’ve seen so many of my favorite musicians on that stage … So to be in that kind of company on that stage, it’s an honor,” she says. “So I guess we’d better rehearse!”
And after that show, she’ll be able to climb into her own bed, finally home for the night.
