Vanessa Carlton: My obsession with gardening is influencing my performances
American singer Vanessa Carlton was in her early 20s when her first single A Thousand Miles was a smash hit around the world, but despite her early success, she believes she is only now hitting her songwriting stride in middle age.
The 45-year-old, who will soon perform in Sheffield, released her album Veils in April this year, her first record in six years, and Carlton says the work was like therapy for her, having felt defined by her earliest songs, which also include recognisable tracks such as Ordinary Day and Pretty Baby. A Thousand Miles earned her three Grammy nominations, and is without doubt the song she is best known for, but recently the singer has been branching out, providing the film score for 2025 romantic drama Wish You Were Here, and even making her Broadway debut in the Carole King musical Beautiful.
However, away from music, it is gardening which is taking up most of her free time. “I just love being around sitting in my garden, just want to watch the birds,” she exclaims. “I am obsessed with gardening right now...but I feel like I’m able to bring what I see in the garden, what I experience in my garden, to my performances.”
She says that Veils allowed her to create a fantasy world which she could escape into, much like her garden, and credits the record with making her feel better about herself. “For Veils, I’m in my mid-40s, and I as a woman (am having) such an incredible time. I thought my 20s formed who I was, however, I don’t know, there’s something about hitting your stride in your 40s that I really felt like approaching this record for me was sort of creating or crafting this world that I sort of wanted to live in for part of the day.
"Also writing about all the veils that we have to pull up to get through to these other places in ourselves. Honestly writing that record and making it was, for me, it made me feel better, it was like part of my medicine.”
Before her debut single, and subsequent album, shot to the top of charts across the world in 2002, Carlton was training to be a ballet dancer at the prestigious School Of American Ballet in New York City, something which clearly still influences her work today. She says her work scoring Wish You Were Here reminded her of her time as a dancer. “That was just a dream,” Carlton says of recording the soundtrack. "What was so cool about scoring a film is that you’re working for the director and the producer, and you’re really there to deliver on this vision.”
Carlton, who was born in Pennsylvania, has now been performing for more than 25 years, a far longer career than most ballet dancers enjoy, but she says she personally finds art that is made by those with more experience to be the most interesting. “I think art in general, and particularly musicians, if you’re doing it right, you hopefully get better over time.”
Carlton will perform at Tramlines Festival, Hillsborough Park, Sheffield on July 24. Visit tramlines.org.uk/tickets/