Lianne La Havas’s new album is called Blood, and in one sense the title refers to the mess made by amour gone bad. But it also relates to her own search for family identity.

The dulcet-toned U.K. singer was born to a Jamaican mother and a Greek father, and a recent one-off vacation with Mom proved unexpectedly revelatory.

“I wasn’t on any kind of quest,” insists La Havas, calling from Montreal, one stop on a tour wending westward. “It was really just a holiday. Half my family is Jamaican, and having grown up around the culture, it was important for me to see it in its natural context. That was the first time I was able to do that. It wasn’t until I came back to England that I fully realized the significance of the trip, and what it told me about myself. I wasn’t searching for anything, but I found it anyway.”

On that trip, she happened to run into producer Stephen McGregor, son of reggae great Freddie McGregor, and the two clicked when it came to album ideas.

“I liked him so much, I decided to arrange another trip, just to work with him,” she says. “I did have maybe three songs under way already, and I made some trips to L.A. to see Matt Hales [Aqualung], my long-time co­writer. Then he came back to London, where we started writing and exploring more. After developing the material I went to Jamaica and my concept for the album was confirmed, really. It was the first time I’d ever recorded in a tropical country, and it was a very laid-back experience. I had begun writing about my family but also exploring rhythms more. My style was changing, and Jamaica added a lot to my writing, and my outlook.”

The singer’s previous Warner Brothers album, 2012’s Is Your Love Big Enough?, was an intimate, confessional affair, anchored by her up-front guitar-playing, clever wordplay, and jazzy melodic ideas. Blood features bigger dance beats and a broader, soul-based sound. The single “Unstoppable” is appropriately forceful, and “It’s What You Don’t Do” displays a playful R & B swagger. The Jamaican connection on “Green and Gold” is self-evident.

Last year, La Havas also had several musical rendezvous with Prince and recorded a number of tracks with him, and with other A-list adventurers.

“When it comes to both writing and recording,” La Havas insists, “I always go with my gut feeling, to see what feels right for my music at that moment. It’s not about having more beats or less guitar, or who I’m singing with, or anything like that. There were no demos for the record. The album is full of songs that are exactly what they were meant to be on the day we made them.”

For this tour, she’ll still be playing her trusty, metal-bodied James Trussart Telecaster, “and several other guitars you haven’t seen”, she adds. But now her five-piece backing group also has another axe-wielder.

“He knows all my parts, so I’m free to move around and go with it, in the moment. All the songs were built around how they made your body move, and that’s what makes music work for me.”

Lianne La Havas performs Sunday (October 11) at the Commodore Ballroom.