Rachel Platten hasn’t been on tour in a while, but when she hits the road in support of her new album, she knows exactly what she’ll put in her dressing room.
“I have candles, a humidifier, warm water, ginger honey, fresh flowers,” the singer-songwriter, 43, reveals exclusively in the new issue of Us Weekly. “I basically would like to feel like Anthropologie has come in and redecorated.”
The “Fight Song” artist is gearing up for the Tuesday, September 3, release of her fifth studio album, I Am Rachel Platten, and she’s eager to play her new songs for her fans. While it’s been seven years since she released her last LP, she hasn’t forgotten the routine that gets her in the right mindset for a show.
“I start off with an hour and a half of vocal warm-up with my voice coach of 20 years,” Platten explains to Us. “And after warming up my voice, I’ll do my own glam. I have loved that lately. I find it really calming and relaxing. I like to sit on the floor, spread out my makeup, totally unorganized, put on some music that I love and do my own glam.”
As the start of showtime approaches, Platten says a prayer she learned from fellow musician Jewel.
“[It’s] a really powerful and beautiful shift from, ‘This is about me and being perfect and people loving me’ to ‘How may I be of service tonight?’” Platten says. “‘May I just be the vase that holds the flowers? … Prepare the audience for the love and the healing that’s gonna come through this music tonight.’ I just ask to be of service, really. Then I’ll gather the band, we’ll gather around, hold hands and acknowledge how grateful we are to be where we’re at … and we’ll ask as a group to be of service and then we’ll kind of remind each other, ‘Let’s go and have fun. Let’s just be kids out there. Remember that we were once just little kids who wanted to play music.’”
Platten keeps the scene similarly low-key after the show, skipping raucous afterparties in favor of chill hangout sessions with her band.
“There’s always some quirky and magical thing that’s happening,” she says. “Whether it’s a magician [who] happens to be in my dressing room … or an opera singer from Italy was there and at my L.A. show and sang for us. … Let’s all just have fun and laugh a lot. And none of us are big drinkers, so it’s usually like, ‘Let’s chow on some chips and [drink] kombucha and tea.’ It’s really like the nerdiest thing you can think of. That’s our vibe.”
For more on Platten’s tour life, watch the video above and pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.