{"id":2275792,"date":"2026-02-10T14:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2275792"},"modified":"2026-02-10T14:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:11:11","slug":"tess-liautaud-on-the-new-zealand-roots-scene-and-the-songs-from-blue-mind-americana-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/tess-liautaud-on-the-new-zealand-roots-scene-and-the-songs-from-blue-mind-americana-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Tess Liautaud on the New Zealand roots scene and the songs from Blue Mind \u2013 Americana UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

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photo by Charlotte Blokhuis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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From the first, rhythmically strummed notes of Blue Mind, <\/em>Tess Liautaud, the \u014ctautahi-based Franco-American singer-songwriter who has immersed herself among the characters on the New Zealand roots music scene, creates a lush, twangy, rock and country-soul sound of joy and warmth on her October 2024 sophomore album. Give yourself a break, stay in for the night, go outside when you\u2019re lonesome, step into the light<\/em> she sings effortlessly, the sentiment perfectly matching the music. Her americana flair is imbued with an easy grace; her skills as a singer shining just as brightly as her musicianship.<\/p>\n

The ten songs on the record display the deftness with which Liautaud and her band can shift tempo and style from the emphatic to the absorbing. The title track and \u201cIt Was Meant to Rain\u201d are co-writes with Adam Hattaway of the Haunters, who is also her guitarist. Elmore Jones and Michael Kine from the same band are also on board. The first thing that strikes you about Liautaud is the emotion in her delivery, which highlights her skills as a narrator, drawing out small details that enrichen the songs, whether comparing a burning cigarette to two lovers turning to ash on \u201cHere Go the Lovers,\u201d to either asking a lover to stay for coffee (\u201cI Wanna Know\u201d) or a dark, sickly coffee stain running down a guy\u2019s shirt in \u201cBlack Machine.\u201d\u00a0Her voice almost trembles as she sings, and you can feel the conflict between knowing she\u2019s in a bad relationship but also being unwilling to throw in the towel.<\/p>\n

Liautaud draws on her experiences growing up in America then living and playing music in Liverpool and France, prior to settling in Christchurch, NZ. There she found a welcoming scene with musicians that fit her vision and helped her to embrace who she was. She was asked to be interviewed for Americana UK, while also providing background and inspiration for the tracks on Blue Mind,<\/em>\u00a0and the result poured out through email like water sluicing from an overburdened dam.<\/p>\n

Americana UK: <\/strong>Your first album was more folk-y than Blue Mind.<\/em>\u00a0What changed your approach to a more rootsy sound?<\/p>\n

Tess Liautaud: <\/strong>My first album drew from more solitary times, movement, and introspection and going everywhere with my acoustic guitar in my van during my first two years in New Zealand (Aotearoa). It also was inspired heavily from the energy that isolation and covid lockdowns brought, which gave me space, pausing, yearning etc.<\/p>\n

Blue Mind<\/em>\u00a0was a time of new direction, actually realising there was a direction, having a much more clear framework and people, a whole environment to work with. I was also more supported in the creation. This second round I had a wider community of talented people who knew how to get me to where I wanted to be. The more rootsy sound was natural; the energy coming from those songs felt like moving forward. The feeling I got when I moved to Christchurch of this whole living underworld of music was maybe transcribed in there, a sense of opportunity and excitement, wanting to make a bigger bang!<\/p>\n