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Canadian musician Martha Wainwright has revealed she is currently penning a third record and is using the music she wrote for a New York ballet company as her starting point.

Last week, a heavily pregnant Martha played a show at London’s Barbican Hall supporting the release of an album of her interpretations of Edith Piaf songs on Monday 9 November.

Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, A Paris was recorded during three performances in New York during the summer.

Prior to that, in 2008 she released her sophomore album I Know You're Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too.

As for a follow-up, she told 6 Music News she is moving house and setting up a little home studio to try and finish off some songs.

"If all goes well maybe I’ll have something out by this time next year of my own material again, because as much as I love Piaf, I don’t want to get stuck in a caricature role of doing other people’s music.

"I’ll wait for my time in Las Vegas and a show like that. I’ll wait until I’m a little older," she laughed.

Album morphosis

Martha admitted she has written and finished a few tracks, which were conceived from a project she was involved with in the summer.

"It mostly was inspired by work that I did for an incredible choreographer called Christopher Wheeldon and his company Morphosis in New York, with the New York City Ballet that he works with.

"The last couple of songs that I have written seem as dark as the ones before so so far there hasn't been much ga ga goo goo."
 
Martha Wainwright

"He had asked me to write some music for his ballet company and that first composition, it’s called Tears of St. Lawrence is sort of the beginning point of the next record," she explained.

She said one of the songs has particular resonance for her: "Tears of St. Lawrence is the title of one of the pieces of music and I like that image because it’s a distant meteor shower that actually took place in September this year, but also it has special meaning for me because the St. Lawrence river is the river that I grew up on in Montreal."

Going gaga

This year, as well as the Piaf record Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, A Paris, Martha appeared in the Royal Ballet’s production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s 1933 ballet The Seven Deadly Sins.

Back in 2006, she sang two songs on the tribute album, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, and is no stranger to collaborating with other artists at her live shows, inviting beatbox artist Shlomo to join her onstage at some festival dates in 2008.

Martha hopes the projects she has taken on in recent years will help her when she focuses on original material.

"It’s a lazy tactic that I have that I just hope and pray that by singing these great other artists that somehow I will be graced with their talent when it comes to writing my own songs," she said. "I’m not sure if it is working yet but I’m hoping so."

Around Christmas, the singer’s first child is due, but Martha admitted she has told her husband, producer and bandmate Brad Albetta, to "put the kibosh on it" if she tries to make a children’s album.

"At the same time I want to be influenced by the things that happen to me in my life and I always have been influenced by the things that have happened to me," she said. "The last couple of songs that I have written seem as dark as the ones before so so far there hasn’t been much ga ga goo goo."