Making music is a labor of love. Maybe you secretly pick a little guitar on the porch with your hound. No one else knows. At the other end of the spectrum, you could be one of those stars who board a private jet while a road crew with 12 semis traverses the highways to make sure you’re set up for the Royal Albert Hall gig.

In between? There are thousands of musicians out there with various goals. The point? There’s no right or wrong way to pursue this labor of love.

New London singer-songwriter Daphne Lee Martin falls into that category of artists whose dreams are to take their creations to the next level and make a living — hopefully with a national or even global following.

To that end, Martin’s fourth album, “Fall On Your Sword,” is out today from hometown Telegraph Records, and in support she leaves on her biggest-yet tour that takes her to dozens of cities across the U.S. and lasts until the end of the year.

“Fall On Your Sword” is an ambitious, panoramic and flowing record — almost a song-cycle of dark cabaret, though it’s dangerous to so quickly characterize the record. It’s a work that begs to be listened to in old-school, start-to-finish fashion, and the album contains fluid elements of tangy pop, 3 a.m. jazz, tropical horns, bubbling rap (which is not the same as the spoken word bits), Deep South gospel, “Wind and Wuthering” ambience — and poetic narrative lyricism lilting along on the breeze of Martin’s bedroom melodies. Already, publications such as American Songwriter, GIG Soup and Elmore Magazine have been effusive in their praise of the project.

Central to all of this is that “Fall On Your Sword” is Martin’s first attempt at production, and despite the album’s complexities, it never sounds like an exercise in “everything and the kitchen sink.” Indeed, Martin’s direction simply takes advantage of the tunes’ potential and, as such, she utilized almost two-dozen familiar musicians including SuaveSki, Violent Mae’s Rebecca Kessler, Sue Menhart, Danny Motta, Matt Covey, Graham Thompson, David Dorfman, Gary Buttery, Brad Bensko, longtime keyboardist Isaac Young and others.

Last week, whilst packing for the tour, Martin took the time to answer some questions. 

Q. What compelled you to produce “Fall On Your Sword” rather than rely on an outsider, and how did the album change during the course of the recording as you learned and experimented?

A: “The producer for the last two records had his hands full and was starting down a different path than I wanted to follow, so I started tracking on my own at home and ended up learning how to use (digital audio workstation) Logic 9 as I went. I liked what I was creating on my own and just went for it. It was right about then that (keyboardist) Isaac Young joined up with me and the heavier organ sounds and the brighter horn-based parts that I’d always wanted made more sense in the balance of the songs. Pretty organic — and very fun to discover all of those elements at the same time.” 

Q. Is there a thematic context to the record? If so, discuss a bit what drove the creative impulse. If not, how did you get them to flow so wonderfully together?

A: “I wanted to write songs that weren’t directly from my own experience for the first time, with an eye toward songs based on stories we heard as kids — fables, myths, fairy tales, Bible stories and such. And, like a handful of the songs on the last two records, all of the songs on ‘Sword’ are based off specific pieces of literature. Cara McKenna’s ‘Willing Victim’ pulls from Neruda, Kerouac and Colette; ‘Yet the Sea’ pulls from the Ecclesiastes and e.e. cummings; those sort of things. There are also musical themes and threads. ‘Laughing Place’ has a bit of a reprise in ‘Willing Victim,’ and the chorus can be sung over a section of its sister song like a catch, and you start so see the way the songs intertwine. I wanted to make a record that, like a great film, will keep giving you new ideas and candy you hadn’t discovered in previous listens.” 

Q. I think it’s fair to say this is your most adventurous and stylistically (ambitious) collection of songs. Did you consciously seek to apply different arrangements to already existing songs, or do the respective tunes simply reflect your ongoing evolution as a writer?

A. “Yeah, that seems to be a theme for me. How far can I push the next one? It’s hard to explain. It’s not like I wake up in the morning and say, ‘Hey, how weird can I get today?’ Believe me, I’d love to be able to push myself in a more commercial direction and write a ‘hit’ one of these days. But until the Muse decides to give me that, I get the weird. And I’m OK with it, for sure. Hell, Tom Waits is my favorite writer and he never let being weird get in the way of writing a good song. Why should I?” 

Q. How will the songs work in a live setting?

A. “I’ve found that a number of them can be treated very differently than the album version, and I love that human shared experience thing with my bandmates. Again, I see it as a sign that the story and the writing is compelling and that each person who touches it gives it a little more color and feel. But I also like to be able to strip these songs down to a voice and piano or guitar and have the message still come across. The live sets are a different animal, I absolutely let the ponies run when we play this stuff live, and I’m amazed at them every time. It makes me want to re-record the whole thing live!” 

Q. You had 22 different local and regional players and singers contribute to the album. You’re about to leave on a massive tour in support of ‘Fall On Your Sword,’ and a lot of the shows will be solo acoustic. How do you convey the intricacies of the new album and yet travel in a stripped-down, economically feasible context?

A. “As my friend Logan Vath says, ‘it’s just words and chords.’ Having a sexy sax solo is great, but at least in this kind of music, telling a good story is first — which is a lot harder than it looks! If people want intricacies, the album is a great way to go. If people want to feel the stories, I’ll bring them out every night with the tools at hand. The music business is a tough place. Selling something ethereal like a live show is tricky and my wonderful crew can’t live on beer and high-fives alone. I really do look forward to the day when we’re playing the kinds of rooms where we can bring more talent out on the road. We all do love it and want to be out there.”

NEED TO KNOW

Who: Daphne Lee Martin

What: Releases her fourth solo album, "Fall On Your Sword"

When: Out today from Telegraph Recordings, New London

For more information: daphneleemartin.com