‘It’s the excitement of a new chapter... and also sticking it to him a little bit’

Warpaint’s Theresa ‘TT’ Wayman on the ups and downs of love and her first solo album

IF you listen back to Theresa Wayman’s performance on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour last month, you might hear the Warpaint guitarist play a wrong note at the start of her track I’ve Been Fine. She quickly regained her composure and the slip-up wasn’t noticeable. That is until she admitted to it later that morning when we meet in a central London hotel to discuss her first solo project, LoveLaws.

Wearing a long dark overcoat over a white jumper, Wayman’s dark hazel eyes look tired – not just as a result of the early radio start, she reveals, but also due to jet lag after a journey from her base in Los Angeles via New York.

It’s 14 years since she started Warpaint, an art-rock quartet who have always embraced electronic and experimental sounds.

The 37-year-old isn’t the first of the group to release solo work (bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg already has an album out) and Wayman is clear that this isn’t the sign of a split, but more about being able to explore their individual emotions in full through their art.

“Because Warpaint is a collaboration, everyone’s putting in a piece of themselves but it’s not the whole thing,” she says.

“If someone had branched off really early days, it would have been freaky but it feels OK now.”

LoveLaws has been a long time coming. Some of the songs were written in 2011 but the entire journey has been brewing since Wayman was a teenager.

Recorded during breaks between Warpaint’s touring schedule, the single mother (she had a son in 2005) co-produced the record with her brother Ivan, with support work from Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Bat For Lashes) and Beastie Boys collaborator Money Mark.

A blend of guitar, bass, synth and drumbeats, the delicate album’s sound is drawn from Wayman’s early interest in using emerging technology and shows off her talent as a multi-instrumentalist.

“I really click with that way of making music,” she explains.

“It doesn’t make it easier to write a good song but it’s easy to get your ideas out now.

“It works for a lot of people because it’s more simple but I don’t know what it was that made me wait until now.”

Still, she’s quick to defend herself against criticisms of adopting anything just because it may be in vogue and cites Bjork and OutKast as artists who inspired her into music.

“The desire to do electronic music is not something that comes from how popular it is now.

“It’s been in my blood since I was a teenager, which was late 1990,” she says, adding a self-satisfied “So there”, with a smile.

Released under the TT moniker (a nickname given by friends), I’ve Been Fine explores her return to happiness in the period after heartbreak. Wayman, who has dated James Blake, is happy to reflect on the album’s romantic connotations, but sidesteps whether it focuses on her split from the British musician.

“It’s the excitement of a new chapter rather than the sadness of what you were, or what you just left. And also kind of just sticking it to him a little bit ... ‘Hey, I’ve been fine, don’t worry about me’.”

The album also goes further, examining the ups and downs of love as Wayman struggles to find time for other people in a demanding industry.

“If I were to get time off from Warpaint, I can’t just fly and hang out with someone,” she says.

“I have to go home and be with my kid and I want to be. So how does someone fit into that scenario? I’m not free.”

Pouring those emotions into music has helped her find a lot more balance and patience, and she now finds value in spending time alone.

If I were to get time off from Warpaint, I can’t just fly and hang out with someone