Songstress Cat Power is back - and better than ever - with a new album

After a six-year wait between albums, indie rock’s Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, is back with Wanderer and trades her turbulent years for a calmer voice of reason.

On her 10th studio offering, the Miami-based singer/songwriter plugs into her signature blues repertoire and asks Lana Del Ray to come along for the ride on the lead single Woman.

When Del Ray asked Cat Power to join her on tour for the LA to the Moon tour earlier this year, it seemed the unlikeliest of couplings but Marshall says they’re kindred spirits now.

“It’s really uncommon to forge friendships on the road with women,” Marshall says. “Traditionally when I started playing music it was very much a boys’ club. Women are just now understanding their own identity in the world they live in and when you can make those heart connections you hold them close.”

Del Ray appears as a backing vocalist on Woman but isn’t in the video clip. It’s a song that reinforces girl power around a sea of blues riffs and dusty folk.

After releasing 2012’s Sun, Marshall was depleted emotionally and physically. She managed to write a top 10 album, but she felt defeated by the end of it.

“A day after releasing that album I got really sick,” Marshall, 46, says.

“I worked so hard for Sun but it totally nearly killed me. My record label wanted a hit record, but there was so much pressure to do that. It still remains one of my favourite records but it’s not what indie rock is about.

“When it came to making this album [Wanderer], I set myself a boundary and focused on integrity and not caving into that way of doing things. I owed it to myself to go easy.”

Marshall was diagnosed with angioedema, a stress-induced and potentially fatal swelling in the body, an event that turned her life around for the better in the end. She was forced to quit drinking and smoking,  and focused on reiki and homeopathic complementary medicine in a sea of prescriptions to get her on track.

“I am all about focusing on good energy, heart chakras and being kind to myself,” says Marshall, who recently attended Rodarte’s New York Fashion Week show with Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon.

“A few years after that healing process I ended up falling pregnant – I guess I was the healthiest and happiest I had ever been,” she smiles. Marshall, who has a three-year-old son and toured with him since he was three months old, says the experience has grounded her.

“I raise my son on my own and don’t think there’s a more important job in the world – I mean raising girls is hard, but I got to make sure he looks after the ladies,” she reasons.

“I really needed a good buddy and to be grounded. It’s not just for my own sake but for the sake of my music, too.”

 WANDERER IS OUT VIA DOMINO RECORDS ON OCTOBER 5