Grace Potter is making her way back to Jersey.
The Vermont-native rocker has spent plenty of 2015 on tour in support of her debut solo disc, the Hollywood Records release “Midnight.” Her touring schedule takes her back through our area for performances on Wednesday, Dec. 2, at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood and Friday, Dec. 4, at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park.
“That’s one stop that’s always fun for us,” Potter said of her Garden State return. “And, as we round out the tour from the fall, we get closer and closer to my home and Jersey’s the perfect pit stop. I absolutely love it.”
In particular, Potter is looking forward to taking the stage at the historic Paramount Theatre on the Asbury Park Boardwalk — and she has a feeling the Jersey Shore crowd will be down for a good time.
“It’s just a classic venue,” Potter said of the Paramount. “I always look at pictures of theaters to try to figure out before the show if it’s going to be one those (nights) where everybody’s seated in the audience or whether it’s going to be standing, and it seems like people party there.”
Grace Potter has shows coming up in Englewood and Asbury Park. (Photo: Courtesy of Josh Reed)
After crafting four solid LPs over the course of a decade with her regular rocking backing band the Nocturnals, Potter changed things up significantly with the solo effort “Midnight,” which dropped in August. Created in Hollywood with producer Eric Valentine, the album is a radio-friendly collection of danceable, pop-leaning numbers.
“Ultimately, it was the music that guided that decision (to go solo), and it wasn’t really a decision until it had to be one,” said Potter, explaining that initially “Midnight” began life as the fifth Grace Potter and the Nocturnals album.
“But there was definitely something different. There was a shift, energetically, in the inspiration that I was pulling from and the lyrics I was digging for,” she said. “I was really pushing harder, from the narrative perspective. As a songwriter, it was coming from this really personal place, and I was really crossing my T's and dotting my I's, more than I usually do with the songwriting.”
The resulting record is pleasantly unpredictable, as songs bob and weave between rock, pop, country and electronica, weaving one incredibly eclectic tapestry. The “Midnight” sound particularly shines on “Delirious,” a song that bends blasts of dubstep and electronic beats with a coda that is pure, wailing rock ’n’ roll roar.
Grace Potter returns to the stage in New Jersey this December. (Photo: Courtesy of Rich Gastwirt)
“It was so satisfying, taking those crazy turns and those really big risks,” Potter said. “That song is a great example, and in fact I very much think of that song as the bridge from my previous self to my new self. There was definitely a moment making that song in particular where it was like, ‘OK, we’re really going for it here.' ”
Potter is far from the first rock singer to boldly switch genres; she cited artists like Neil Young, David Bowie and Blondie as inspirations behind the “Midnight” process.
And Potter, a devout Bruce Springsteen fan who has covered the Jersey native son’s “Atlantic City” and “I’m On Fire” in concert, brings to mind Springsteen’s “Human Touch” and “Lucky Town”-era sabbatical from the E Street Band in the early-’90s with her decision to take a break from her Nocturnals.
“Bruce’s collection of music that clearly doesn’t sound like the E Street Band is a really good example of somebody who, I think, as an artist, has a good handle on their own music and sense of self and sense of identity and a responsibility to their fans to not call an apple an orange.”
GRACE POTTER
WITH: Oh Whitney
WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2
WHERE: Bergen Performing Arts Center, 30 North Van Brunt St., Englewood
TICKETS: $29 to $69
INFO: 201-227-103, www.bergenpac.org
AND
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4
WHERE: Paramount Theatre, 1300 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park
TICKETS: $27.50 to $67
INFO: 732.897.6500 , http://apboardwalk.com/