Krystle Warren returns for a special occasion at Californos

Krystle Warren isn’t a household name in her home country — yet. But the Kansas City native, who lives in Paris, sings like a star, summoning Nina Simone’s bewitching depths and Roberta Flack’s intimate phrasing while sounding like no one else. On her recent double LP, Love Songs, she fuses neosoul and modern jazz into a singular songwriting voice.

Warren is on a rare U.S. tour in support of Love Songs (the first half of which, A Time You May Embrace, came out in 2012, with the second, A Time to Refrain From Embracing, awaiting digital issue following its vinyl debut a few months ago). Ahead of her Friday performance at Californos, I called her on the road.

The Pitch: Tell me about the concept behind Love Songs.

Warren: I think it really started because while we were recording the first album, Circles [2009], I knew that I wanted us to do a double record afterwards. I tend to have these crazy, ambitious ideas, and the fellas [the Faculty, her band] are kind of used to it. When I thought about what the double album would be about, I started thinking about the Byrds and Pete Seeger, with “Turn Turn Turn.” The lyrics are taken from Ecclesiastes, and I thought they would be a nice bookend: A Time You May Embrace represented the happy aspects of the relationship, and A Time to Refrain From Embracing represented the loss of the relationship and the loss of intimacy.

A lot of my tunes are informed by my own relationships — it’s pretty rare that I’m able to bring something together that I haven’t experienced myself. So writing about my exes, you know, they became different people on the record, and I became someone else on this record. It was very cathartic, in a way.

As far as making the twist on a love song, I think I accomplished that by perhaps making it a bit more modern. The sound isn’t something that’s so typical of a lot of the new stuff that comes out these days. It’s not forced. It’s sincere. I think that’s what makes it different. These are sincere love songs.

I read that you had more than 100 songs written for Love Songs. You must be sitting on a crazy amount of unused material.

[Laughs.] I like that. Yes. I’m writing some new songs as well, when they come up and when inspiration strikes. The great thing about Love Songs is that it gave me a guideline, basically, to write. All these songs had to have the common thread of love and relationships. For the next album, I don’t think I’m going to be doing something conceptual — not on this grand a scale. Maybe some of the old songs will show up. I’m not saying that all of the songs are good, either.

Tell me about the move from Kansas City to France. How did you end up there, and why is that a good fit for you?

Basically, I left Kansas City in 2003 and lived in New York for five years, and within those five years, my band — Krystle Warren and the Faculty — we recorded our first record with a French label called Because. We signed with them and got a relatively decent advance. I got the fuck out of New York and moved to San Francisco for just under a year because I was spending most of my time in Paris — at some point, I was flown over and never flown back. [Laughs.] I wasn’t expecting to be there as long as I have been, but then five years there, I ended up meeting my better half, and now we’re married, so it’s pretty much home.

You’ve done huge tours in Europe, the UK, Australia, but you don’t seem to have a huge online presence. Your bio feels kind of mysterious.

Yeah, I purposely don’t put any of that bio stuff out there. I don’t think it’s very important. The important stuff is people getting turned on to the music, and I’m lucky enough to have some really loyal supporters who are constantly turning people on to it. I feel very lucky in that respect, to have people who are as emotionally invested in the music as I am. I feel like that’s enough of a bio, to show that I’ve been able to do what I do and connect with people professionally and emotionally on some level.

Californos is kind of a random venue choice for you. What will that show look like?

It is random. These things always come together sort of randomly. In the end, I think we’ll be able to create something in the space that can support the music we do, which is this hybrid of genres.

I’m also really excited for the players. My band, the Faculty, is an ever-changing ensemble — there’s a rotation going on, depending on what time zone I’m in. I’m really excited about the Kansas City show because it’s reuniting me with some dear friends: Beau Bledsoe [guitar], Brad Cox [keyboards] and Brad Williams [drums]. And then there’s two players that I haven’t played with before: Marcus Williams [trombone], who usually plays with Janelle Monáe, and Hermon Mehari [trumpet]. That’s pretty exciting to me, getting to play music with all those brilliant musicians.