Cate Le Bon is on the other side of heartbreak and heading to NZ

. Returning to Joshua Tree to finish it felt like an important part of completing both the record and the healing process, she says.

“I spent a lot of time zipping around, just constantly working on different projects, which has been really wonderful, but it’s nice to pause and take stock. I think I was resistant at first because change is hard. I came to realise it’s exactly what I needed, and it’s given me a lot of strength and time to, I suppose, meditate on life.”

Michelangelo Dying, whose visuals are inspired by American avant-garde artist Colette Lumiere’s installation Recently Discovered Ruins of a Dream, is an immersive record, Le Bon says.

To capture that, she’s bringing a troupe of trusted and dear collaborators and friends to New Zealand in June.

“I did wonder if I had shot myself in the foot bringing a big band down to New Zealand, but yeah, it’s happening, and I’m not going to question it”.

Le Bon and her band will be supported by H. Hawkline (aka Huw Evans), a close friend and fellow Welsh musician who’s also the musical director and bandmate of New Zealand artist Aldous Harding.

Evans has done all of Le Bon’s album artwork and also directed the music video for her new song, ‘Heaven Is No Feeling’.

He was also the first person who asked her to produce a record – something she’s loved doing on request by artists she feels emotionally connected to, including Wilco, Devendra Banhart and St Vincent, but doesn’t want to do full-time.

Welsh music hero and former member of Velvet Underground, John Cale, who Le Bon feels lucky to have worked with a few times, features on the song ‘Ride’.

The first time, she was taking a year off music as she learned how to make furniture in the Lake District when an email arrived saying John Cale was looking for her.

“Immediately, my stomach fell because I was like, ‘Oh no, what have I done? And also, what the hell is happening?’

“I was trying to explain to Graham, who is the [woodworking] teacher from the small village, who John Cale is and why he means so much to me. It was two worlds colliding”.

Although “not a big crier”, Le Bon says she did cry then and also when she first heard the 84-year-old Cale had added the line ‘It’s my last ride’ in his vocals for ‘Ride’.

“He’s one of those people that, as soon as he’s out of your sight, he can’t really believe that he exists. I was terrified of asking him to sing on Michelangelo Dying, but he thankfully sent the vocals within a couple of days.

“We were in the studio, and we put the vocal files into the session. I knew I was about to hear John Cale singing on one of my songs, but it still came as a complete shock to me when I heard that voice.”

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