Indeed, defining Kimbra as a pop artist would be misleading. She's always pushed genre conventions with jazz overtones, augmented chords, odd time signatures, and a love of metal such as Meshuggah that leads to some wild performances, but it sounds like this album will have even more wide-ranging influences.
Working with producer Rich Costey (Sigur Ros, Santigold, Nine Inch Nails) at El Dorado Studios in Burbank, she also enlisted the help of an eclectic list of musicians. Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth, UMO's Ruban Nielson, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, members of Dillinger Escape Plan, Queens of the Stone Age, Mars Volta, and Prince's band, along with Bilal and John Legend. And after legendary composer-arranger Van Dyke Parks invited her to perform with him and Silverchair's Daniel Johns at an event in Adelaide, they also contributed to the album.
They're all impressive artists, but one does wonder if all those different voices and inspirations could be overwhelming, too.
"There were so many people to work with, so many choices, and I did say yes to everything, because the people who were interested in being a part of my project were amazing people that I've admired since I was a kid. But then there comes a point where you have to start focusing, and working out your own voice, and your own aim.
"I think the decision was not so much, 'I want to work with a whole bunch of people', but 'I want to learn from all these people', because I can gain so much by seeing their processes and the way they do things. The plan is that I would like to be able to entirely produce my own records one day, so I feel like the process towards that is trying to get as much insight as possible from other artists."
Working with Parks and Johns in particular was a dream come true for Kimbra - she had posters of Johns on her walls as a youngster, and Parks has long been on her list of favourite artists - but she managed to get past her fan-girl feelings pretty quickly.
"It's always kind of weird for the first few sessions when you get to spend time together, but it's funny, once you get past that something just breaks, and it's just two human beings who both like music, hanging out.
"It's funny when you get past that point of seeing them as someone you've put on a pedestal, and actually [see them] just as a friend, and as a collaborator.
"Having said that, even now, having spent a lot of time with Van Dyke and Daniel, I see them as real geniuses, and people who really have an ability to channel in such a pure way with no restrictions in the way they see things. It's been magical to work with them."
Of course, she did manage to get out of the studio for a bit of international travel, including two particularly memorable trips. First, she went to Brazil last year to play at the Rock in Rio festival alongside the likes of Justin Timberlake, Jessie J, and George Benson, and she performed a track with Brazilian percussion group Olodum, who originally recorded with Michael Jackson.
"Working with Olodum was a total trip! I knew the video for They Don't Really Care About Us really well from watching it as a kid, and we jumped up on stage and did the same song with them. We were able to ignite the people of Rio with this song that had kind of acted like an anthem for them - it really was incredible."
Her second trip was a non-musical one, but inspiring all the same, as she went to Paris Fashion Week to collaborate with French haute couture designer Franck Sorbier when he decided to name Kimbra godmother (Marraine de Coeur) of his latest collection.
"He's an incredible designer, so it was a big honour to have him ask me to work with him. He designed his new collection taking some inspiration from my music and the visual aspect of my stage show, and he included this huge 5m tall wooden giant on the catwalk that I got to do this little performance with. It's really cool to connect with all these people who are thinking outside the box, whatever their field may be. I'm hoping to be wearing a dress of his at Womad, so people will get to see a bit of his work there, too."
She's also looking forward to teasing the crowd with music from her new album. "Me and the band are excited to start freshening up our set. I definitely feel like a set should never be completely the same, so it'll be some new exciting things. But I also feel like I haven't even performed Vows very much in New Zealand; we haven't been there enough, so we'll definitely be performing those songs too.
"And we're looking to come back later in the year for some more shows."
Who: Kimbra
Where and when: Performing on Friday, March 14 at Womad, New Plymouth
- TimeOut
