Heather Kropf wrote all the songs on her first record, "Sky," on piano, then used keyboards to record. She flipped that process for her new effort, "What Else Is Love," and there's a noticeable difference in sound.
"It's definitely an urban record," says Kropf, who unveils the music at Cefalo's in Carnegie on Saturday. "I wrote all the songs while living in Pittsburgh. I was going for something that expressed what I felt about my experiences living here."
If Kropf's musical assessment is accurate, then Pittsburgh is pretty good place to live. "What Else is Love" is a sexy, sophisticated record that sounds like it could have been recorded in New York's East Village with crack sessions musicians.
Kropf didn't have to go that far -- the album was recorded at Heid Studios in Aspinwall -- and she found more than enough talented musicians, including guitarists John Purse, Dale Cinski and Keith Hershberger, percussionist Jim DiSpirito, drummer Joe Waslousky and bassist Randy Venturini to produce the sound she desired. "Double Take" and "Wish" are spry, lithe pop songs, sort of a cross between Aimee Mann and Jill Sobule.
But the centerpiece is the title track, Kropf's femme fatale vocals beautifully accented by a spare middle-of-the-night backing track that longs to be in a movie soundtrack. Which might be the direction she needs to go given the type of music Kropf is making is usually relegated to the hotel lounge circuit.
"There's just no market for pop music, or pop bridging jazz," she says. "I haven't found the people who want that music, or I haven't been able to market what I do. I have some friends who write these great little pop songs, but they don't perform. It's my impression that people want 'entertainment,' and what I do is not necessarily entertainment."
Even if there's no home for her music, Kropf thinks she has found a home in the area. Lyrically, the songs are framed in "rootedness," Kropf says. When she came to Pittsburgh 10 years ago, she didn't think she would stay long. But a decade later, she's still here, and content.
"I grew up on the West Coast and I moved to Indiana and then I moved here," she says. "I've always been a restless person and don't like the idea of staying in one spot, but things sort of worked out here. For me, the kind of person that I am, it's been a really interesting journey to commit to people and places longer than just the point they're interesting to me, getting past the first flashiness of it. The subtle things that happen when you spend time with people and places. Most of the songs are looking at that."
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