Five Questions With ... Brandi Carlile

Five Questions With ... Brandi Carlile
By Mike Pritchard
Posted Jun. 1, 2010


It’s not easy to musically pin down Brandi Carlile, who plays the House of Blues Thursday, June 3. The gifted singer/songwriter brings a lot of country and folk influence with her on stage, but can also let it rock pretty well.

She’s a veteran of the Seattle bar scene and cites such diverse influences as Patsy Cline, Elton John and the Indigo Girls. This year, she’s scheduled to appear at the revived Lilith Fair this summer. But if you think that pins her down, get ready for some surprises. Atlantic City Weekly caught up to Carlile by phone and she answered five questions.

Your childhood was spent in rural Ravensdale Wa., which is where you developed your love of music and performing. Was it just because there wasn’t that much else to do?

Where I grew up there was a long dirt road that separated us from any kind of neighborhood or city. We really spent most of our time doing things around the house or in the yard, making forts and yes, playing a lot of music. So yeah, there wasn’t a whole lot to do. Just go to school and hang out with you family. I picked up the country music from my family and my extended family. My mother was a country singer and then my mother’s father and uncles and grandmother were all country musicians. And my grandfather on my dad’s side was a bluegrass dobro player too. So it was just something that really ran in my family.There were a lot of family jam sessions and mainly, when my mom had her own band, they'd have practices and they’d let us sing with them all the time, and that was really a lot of fun.

Many of your influences, from Cline to Elton John and the Indigo Girls, are known for the lyrics of their songs. And you, as a singer-songwriter are carrying that on. How would you describe the connection between your music and the lyrics?

For me the lyrics are totally imperative. I remember when I first started working with the twins (Tim and Phil Hanseroth) they were both so production minded and they’re so musical — the infrastructure of a song is really important to them. But also musically, when we’re listening to something they’ll be saying, "Wow. listen to that kick drum, or listen to that bass," but all I’ll be thinking about is what the singer is saying and what do the vocals sound like. So it’s this funny combination. For me the lyrics and the vocals kind of lead the way. And to them it’s the instruments and other things. I think that’s why we’re a good team.

Speaking of the Hanseroths, they were a rock band on the Seattle scene when you joined up with them. How did you get together and then develop your current sound?

When I met them, I had been playing all over town in bars and open mikes and I had been making demos [and] I kept bumping into this rock band and we sort of became acquaintances and I went and saw them a few times and I just thought they were great. I loved their harmony. So then I just came to a point one day where I really wanted to have a rock 'n’ roll band. And their band had broken up and I thought, 'Well, I’ll call the twins.' But unbeknownst to me, their band had broken up because they wanted to go back to their roots and play acoustic music. So we sort of both met each other at a crossroads of wanting to go in a different direction. So that contradiction of them wanting to go acoustic and me wanting to plug in is what sort of created our sound.

One of your biggest hits, "The Story," was featured in the TV show Grey’s Anatomy and was also featured in a GM commercial that ran during the Olympics. That’s a pretty interesting way for an artist to gain exposure.

I know. When I got a record deal, I figured that what happens is you make a record, they put your record out and maybe the radio starts playing your song. And you tour and that’s how it works. But for us, it was like we did it in total reverse. We started working and made a record. Then we got a record deal. Then television started playing our song and that generated radio play. So everything happened to us in a different order and I never could have imagined it helping us the way it did. I’m honored and proud of having been a part of that movement: television shows ... giving artists who weren’t mainstream a lot of mainstream attention. It’s been good for a lot of artists.

What was like working with Elton John on "Caroline" off your latest album Give Up the Ghost?

The song was actually written on a ukulele, and didn’t really have his sound at first. It was only when we put drums on it that I realized it had this ragtime, kind of honky-tonk sound on it. And I said to myself, "Nobody in the world could play piano on this except for my great grandmother, who’s dead, and Elton John." It was really incredible. I sent him an e-mail and he called me and after a few months we got together in the studio. I got to be there when he recorded the piano and vocals. We spent about three or four hours together and talked about a lot of fun stuff. He made me laugh. And he really taught me a lot of things. It was just a really incredible time … and he really came through. He really knows how to play that sound.

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