Tristan Prettyman, one of our favorite California singer-songwriters, is on her way to Nashville with a new record, so staff writer Elizabeth Middlebrooks had
a little heart-to-heart with her to chat about "Hello," being green and all she wants for Christmas.

Versus Magazine: I loved your album "23," and I know that was a really big year for you. How's 25 treating you?
Tristan Prettyman: It's been good! All the years have sort of blended together since 23. I'm back on the road; I made a record.

VM: Tell me about your new record "Hello." I haven't heard it yet, but
is it similar to or very different from "23"? What's your inspiration
this time?
TP: It's a little bit different from "23." This one is a little more
bluesy, a little more gitty, a little more sexy - overall, I think it's
a great reflection of me and my personality. I went to London and met the producer I worked with, and that set the
tone for the whole process. We had the same goals and processes for
songs ... We didn't have expectations. I just wanted to make a great
record.

VM: Are you still doing work with G Love and Special Sauce?
TP: A little bit, yeah. (My band and I) are out on a headlining tour now, but before this we opened for them on their tour.

VM: I understand you contributed your song "War Outta Peace" to a DVD by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Can you tell me some more about that?
TP: They approached us and wanted to use the song and said, "Instead of
paying you, we'll offset the cost that it took to make your record."
They offset the energy used in recording, producing the CD, packaging
the CD with carbon certificates. I really wanted to do recycled
packaging, but it's expensive and the record label said no to it, so
this was a great way to be green with the record.

VM: Are you looking forward to your upcoming Nashville show?
TP: Oh yeah, Nashville's awesome! The record comes out that day too, so that'll be good.

VM: What's your favorite Nashville venue to play and why?
TP: Well, we usually do 3rd & Lindsley, but I love the War Memorial (Auditorium); that's my favorite.

VM: Where's your favorite venue of all time?
TP: Of all time? Well, we played a pretty sweet venue (on Thursday
night) in Indianapolis - the Varsity Theater. When we got there,
everybody had a really good feeling about it. There were a lot of
tables and couches. It was just really cozy.

VM: Does your guitar have a name?
TP: No, none of my guitars have names. But I wrote quotes on it, lyrics from other musicians. ... It's still personalized.

VM: What do you do when you're on the road and can't surf?
TP: I go crazy. Really, I do. I try not to think about it too much. I
roll around in the snow and make snow angels. That's almost as good.

VM: My winter anthem is "All I Want for Christmas Is Us." Will that ever be available anywhere besides your MySpace?
TP: I hope so. I'm not sure if Jason (Mraz) runs it on his MySpace, but I put it on mine. I told him last year we need to make it available for people to download on iTunes or something, but we just have that one recording right now.