New arrangement

Singer Natalie Merchant edges into Pops collaboration

(DANIEL DE LA CALLE)

Natalie Merchant was nursing a cold when we rang her up earlier this week to chat about her EdgeFest appearances with the Boston Pops next week. The former 10,000 Maniacs vocalist vowed she'd be well in time for the gigs, which pair the orchestra with a pop-rock artist. They represent the exact direction the singer-songwriter would like to take her career, now in its 26th year.

"It's been part of my master plan for aging gracefully in the pop music world," she says with a laugh. "The next couple of albums that I had planned had a lot of orchestral aspects to them so it's a perfect fit."

Since the 2003 release of her album "The House Carpenter's Daughter," a collection of traditional folk and protest songs, Merchant has been enjoying spending time with her daughter born that same year. We checked in about her plans with the Pops and what's next.

Q: How did you hook up with the Pops?

A: I have to confess I called them. I had heard about the series from [previous participants] the Cowboy Junkies and from one of the editors at Paste Magazine, and I called to tell them it would be something I would be interested in, and they called immediately back and said, 'We'd love to have you.'

Q: Do you have much experience doing the pop-orchestral crossover?

A: I've only performed with an orchestra once, but I've recorded arrangements for strings and woodwinds quite a bit over the years on albums. But I don't have a lot of live experience.

Q: So does that mean you're excited, nervous, or both?

A: A lot of both [laughs].

Q: Who wrote the arrangements for the songs you'll be doing?

A: I did actually write two of the arrangements, for [new songs] "Autumn Lullaby" and "The Man in the Wilderness." It's pretty frightening actually for your very first orchestration that you've ever written to be performed by some of the best musicians in the world [laughs]. But I thought, why not?

Q: How did you choose the songs?

A: I wanted to do a combination of songs that I've recorded previously that had arrangements with symphonic instruments and then some of the newer material because I've really been on an extended maternity leave for five years, so I'm ready to start debuting some of that material. So I'm debuting six new songs and six old songs.

Q: As far as the new material is concerned, do you have any idea how you want to release it? Are you with a record company?

A: No, I am free! Free of my 19-year period of indentured servitude. I mean, I really benefited from being on a major label, but at the same time everything that came out of my mouth during that nearly 20-year period belonged to them and that's a strange feeling to have to ask permission to sing. So it's really wonderful, I can do anything I want.

Q: So the question is, what do you want to do?

A: The last five years I really haven't toured or recorded, but I've continued to write and I have about 20 songs that are ready to be recorded on a traditional Natalie Merchant kind of record. But like I said, I'm moving toward the idea of working with symphonic elements. So that's one of the plans, to make a record like that. And the other plan is I've been using a lot of found text for inspiration and writing music based on poetry, and I would like to do probably a couple of volumes of that.

Q: Sounds like you're busting at the seams with new stuff.

A: It hasn't been properly recorded, but it's all demo-ed. It's exciting to have all of this new material, because I usually didn't have a backlog with the Maniacs or my solo career. When I would get 12 songs written, I would go in the studio. And it would usually take me a long time to get those 10 or 12 songs, but that's because I was constantly touring. You get a lot more done when you're sitting still [laughs]. And I think when you become a mother, you economize. You learn to use what time you have very wisely.

Q: Final question: You're playing EdgeFest. Will it be edgy?

A: I'll be on edge [laughs]. I have to be healthy by Tuesday. But don't make me seem like a deer in the headlights. I am a professional; I will survive.

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com