After 9/11 there was an article that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor Aug. 8, 2002, in which the writer puzzled over Bob Dylan’s silence in the wake of the tragedy. It reads, “One likely reason for Dylan’s silence on 9/11 lies in an interview last November in Rolling Stone magazine. He quoted The Art of War by ancient Chinese scholar Sun Tzu ‘If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle’—and then he added: ‘Things will have to change. And one of these things that will have to change: People will have to change their internal world.’” In response to Dylan’s existential battle cry, a group of young female singer-songwriters are making the new folk music scene. Twenty-something women like Colbie Callait, Sara Bareilles and Tristan Prettyman, Del Mar native and Encinitas resident, would rather write songs about personal change than political conflict. They sing about love, not war.

Tristan Prettyman’s latest record, ‘Hello,’ released April 15, is completely apolitical. It’s a diary of the changes that have occurred in her since ‘Twenty-Three,’ her first record. ‘Hello’ is a ‘break-up’ record that marks a transition from her first relationship, documented on ‘Twenty-Three,’ to how she has grown since. She wrote some angrier music at one point between the two records, but after healing a bit gained a mellower perspective on ‘Hello.’ The sound on ‘Hello’ is melodically heavier than ‘Twenty-Three,’ with a bluesy feel and more accompanying musicians. Her voice sounds mature; at times even husky. On ‘Twenty-Three’ her vocals were lighter with more of a pop sound. As Prettyman admits, “My voice definitely came out of its shell on this [new] record.” She was heavily influenced by the Great Dylan and other folk singers of the ’60s. “I definitely listened to a lot of my parents’ old records, like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and The Band and The Faces…I wanted to explore all the music from that era because I think that’s the music that has ever sounded the best…especially for the singer-songwriter, folk music era. The music is more about the music and people getting together in a room to play than making it perfect.”

Folk singers of the’60s would have ‘hootenannies,’ or impromptu jam sessions where they would all share ideas. Now we call them ‘collaborations’ and instead of smoky back-alley coffee shops, they are done in a studio. On her first record, Prettyman struggled with the whole teamwork thing. She tried to work with someone who kept changing her lyrics and found it frustrating. Now, she realizes that working with like-minded musicians and producers has helped her find her new voice. Prettyman concedes, “It’s been nice to have another person’s outlook on the writing process and see how they approach it.” Sometimes she bounces ideas off of family or longtime fans, like for the title track on ‘Hello.’ Prettyman laughs, “I wrote that in the Seaside parking lot getting coffee with my mom and I was like ‘Mom, check out this song!’”

She also traveled all the way to London to collaborate with handpicked producers in order to record ‘Hello,’ which took place over the course of 11 days. Prettyman spent a total of two months in the city making and editing the record. Seeing the world, if there is an opportunity, is also a vital part of coming-of-age. When Prettyman talks about time she spent in London living in a rented flat, she gets teary-eyed about the community that she connected so strongly with. She sighs, “The thing I loved about being there the most was that everyone in the studio became like a family. We were never sick of each other.” When asked if she would ever leave Encinitas she laughs, “I thought about it, yeah….But I need to surf…I think I would like to have a flat [in London] or something, if I ever could.”

Prettyman craves the freedom of the ocean. Surfing as a culture and a sport is a utopian community of eternal sunshine and youth, absent of heavy responsibility. It’s the perfect thing to do when you need a break. When she comes back into town, she says, “The first question out of everyone’s mouth is; ‘You been surfing?’ Yesterday I went surfing all day and my manager was calling; ‘Where were you?’ And I was like, ‘I’m surfing!’”

When Prettyman is back home the freedom she has here allows her to be more creative. Especially since she decided to move out on her own. Stumbling from a break-up, she left her first boyfriend’s house and went back into her parents’ place in Del Mar. Soon afterwards, she moved into a house in Encinitas. She reflects, “[It was] the best decision I could have ever made, living by myself…It’s intimidating to look at it when it’s ahead of you…having all that alone time...I found myself staying in more and just really getting to know me…I didn’t really focus on music then either, it was really more of a personal growth period. Once I got more situated and solid I had a better understanding of who I was and then I was able to approach music with more confidence.” Living alone has been essential for Prettyman in order to create her music. She likes to work at home. “If I can’t fall asleep then I can play at four in the morning. All of my demos are actually called the ‘dining room demos’ because I would just sit on my exercise ball and just play at the computer. It’s actually really always been at the dining room table.”

While returning to her roots is idyllic, sometimes Prettyman struggles with how her home-town life fits into the bigger picture of her growing career. Acquaintances around town are always surprised that she is a musician. They see her in concert and as she tells it, “They say, ‘This is so weird, you’re like two different people.’” But the stage is the place where Prettyman says she feels most comfortable. “When I’m on stage, people can really get to know me like how my close friends and family know me.” Then she backpedals a bit, “I think it’s a chance to be another person for a minute but I guess still be myself.” When asked if she feels like she leads a double life she answers without hesitation, “Yes, I just wrote a song about that.”

Maybe her life still feels awkward as she teeters on the edge of a career just beginning to take off, but her music certainly jives with what’s happened inside her heart. ‘Hello’ documents the ins and outs of her love life. The track ‘Echo’ is an oddly cheerful melody with bitter lyrics written about her ex-boyfriend. Prettyman sings ‘No use in trying to make me stay/when I’m already on my way/‘cause when I go you’re gonna hear it echo.’ ‘War Outta Peace,’ Prettyman’s favorite song on the record, is about conflict in a relationship, “love is a crazy dream/is it what you want/is it what you need/we go back and forth/making war outta peace.” She comments, “I remember writing this while I was in a relationship and thinking ‘this isn’t a good sign.’” The title track for ‘Hello’ is about a guy friend, also unavailable at the time, with which she shared a minor flirtation on the telephone. She sings, “And hello./My God you’re beautiful/and it’s true/everyday I stumble/getting caught up on you.” She tells the story; ‘He said, ‘I dare you to write a song about me’ so we hung up and I was like ‘did you say dare?’”

Prettyman is already moving past ‘Hello,’ as she is now involved in a new and improved relationship. She cringes when talking about having to sing her old material while on the road. Prettyman explains, “Sometimes to sing the older stuff it feels like 12th grade.” She says, “I finally feel like I’m in a super solid relationship now that is actually legit, it’s fluttery and fun, but everything just feels a little bit more legit and grown up I guess.”

While Tristan Prettyman has grown as an artist and a woman since her first record, at just 25 years old, she’s not done yet. None of us ever are, or should be, really. That makes her music relatable, because if we aren’t in her place right now, we were once. What’s exciting is not just her talent now, as ‘Hello’ will surely take her career to the next level, but also her potential. As she continues expanding on her art, her music will reflect the changes in her soul. For an artist of her ability, it’s a lot for her fans to look forward to. And how will she handle her future success? She gets charmingly flustered and squirmy thinking about it. “I don’t know. I feel like if that’s going to happen it’ll be this record, but it feels different to me. It sounds different. The last record was really different and it was one side of me, but with this record I feel like I really went out on a limb to say whatever and have an attitude and I was able to let things out and not really care about what people say. It was a sigh of relief that I could get it out.” •