Only when the topic turns to guys and their heartbreaking ways does Sonya Kitchell sound like any other nineteen-year-old girl. In all other respects, the Massachusetts-native singer/songwriter conveys a sense of purpose and self-awareness that belies her youth.

She evoked aspects of that sophistication on her eloquent 2006 debut, Words Came Back To Me. Yet, as illustrated on her current sophomore effort, This Storm, Kitchell has broadened her creative canvas to explore a wellspring of sound and substance. “I wanted to make a record that felt more expansive,” she says, “and more interesting musically and [one which] had a little more depth politically.”

Her versatile talent and fortitude resonated early on with Herbie Hancock, in whom she found an invaluable source of insight and assurance. “He’s been a really big mentor and person in my life in the last year or so,” Kitchell says. She’s toured at length with the jazz legend as well as having worked with him on River: The Joni Letters, his 2008 Grammy-winning Album of the Year.

Presently headlining her own tour, Kitchell discussed This Storm with BC Magazine's Donald Gibson, expounding on the craft and conviction with which she invested the work.

This being your second album, how do you measure your progress as a songwriter?

A lot has changed. And one of the more obvious changes is that when I wrote my first record, a lot of the songs I hadn’t yet experienced. There were life things that I was writing about – from and about the people around me or things I projected or things I imagined or things I’d seen – [but] hadn’t lived myself. As two or three years went by, I started to live all of those songs and understand them more deeply. And then on this record, it was more from personal experience.

Also, it’s very important for me that songs make people feel and that there’s a political element in records, because I feel there is a lot that needs to be touched upon right now and a lot that’s going on that needs attention. That’s always been a desire of mine to focus on. And I think on this record, moreso than on the last one, that’s present. Hopefully, on the next record, it’ll be even more present. But as a writer I’ve been able to incorporate that a little more this time.