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In House With Tristan Prettyman: Jason Mraz Breakup Leads to Creative Surge

Gino DePinto, AOL

The old adage goes "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" but in the case of Tristan Prettyman, fury has been transformed into something more palpable, something more palatable -- a new record. When her fiancée Jason Mraz unexpectedly told The Daily Beast that he and Prettyman were no longer an item, Prettyman was left with little choice but to tell her side of the story.

"I was engaged to a musician and he put a song out, and it was not the story that I remembered it being. And I remember being home, and I was just so like furious, and I also felt pretty helpless as well," she says, sitting in Spinner's New York office. "All the sudden this song is being put out and people think this is what happened and I don't have a voice, and I'm so used to having a voice because I play music."

Although Prettyman was reconsidering if she even wanted to keep making music, she said the emotions surfacing from her breakup became songs almost of their own accord.

"I didn't want to blog and I didn't want to tweet and I had like fans coming at me like, 'Is this what happened?' And I remember thinking, 'Save it for a song, save it for a song.' There's a lot of songs on the record that don't leave a lot of room for guessing, and it's because a lot of the times I would find myself in that moment of panic and not knowing what to do, so I would immediately just write a song.'"

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The songs on Cedar & Gold, her forthcoming album that will be officially released on Oct. 2 are certainly infused with heartache and raw emotion. Tristan worked with acclaimed producer and songsmith Dave Hodges on some of the tracks for this record, a process that helped her branch out as a writer.

"I love starting with an idea that I already have, just because I'm more comfortable that way. You know when you're writing songs about yourself you get stuck in habits, and chords that you automatically go to, and its really nice to have other people around to sort of guide you off the path a little bit and go places that you wouldn't normally go. So it was really great, we ended up writing about five songs."

As the album came together, Prettyman's desire to play music and perform returned in full force. Although she admits that she fell into music on accident, her real feelings about her vocation came to light when she had to undergo surgery on her vocal cords.

"That came at an interesting time as well, because I'd taken a break from music and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to keep playing music. But at the same time I started noticing I was having some problems with my vocal cords. I tried for like six months to kind of cure it without getting surgery, and it didn't go away, so I ended up getting the surgery. It was definitely scary. But that whole situation really made me appreciate having a voice, and it kind of smacked me in the face, like 'don't take this for granted. This is your instrument, and you need to take care of it.' And I wasn't. Every time I sing a song now, I'm thankful."

The "Love, Love, Love" singer is even more thankful for the chance to finally share her extremely personal album with the public.

"I'm so excited to play. I'm really excited for my fans to hear it and I just want to tour. There's like a moment that happens on tour where everyone knows the songs really well and you're not even thinking about chord changes or what harmony you're supposed to sing and it all kind of gels together and it just becomes this amazing, you're just feeling it, you're in the moment and I think that's what I look forward to the most."

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