Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony - Interviews

Brandi Carlile Americana’s Rising Star
By Peter Zimmerman
May 02, 2011

Brandi Carlile may not yet be a household name, but chances are you’ve heard her music before. While she’s been on the scene for a relatively short amount of time, much of her first album found its way onto many pivotal Grey’s Anatomy episodes. All of a sudden this emerging female singer-songwriter from outside Seattle, WA, flanked by the inimitable twin duo Phil and Tim Hanseroth, exploded onto the national stage. Armed with a few acoustic instruments and voices of such power and magnitude seldom heard, Brandi and “The Twins” have established themselves as venerable forces beyond simply folk music and into the broader reaches of Americana, country, rock and bluegrass.

If there’s one word that could characterize the beginnings of Carlile’s career, it would be “earnest.” The songs on her debut album tackle the difficulties of love and heartbreak with the emotional weight of someone way beyond her mid-twenties. While the lyrics left much to be desired, Carlile’s intent on tapping into a cultural and emotional consciousness was not only admirable but wholly engrossing. Songs like “Tragedy” and “Fall Apart Again” are particularly good examples, showcasing a keen sense of melody and harmony matched with equally affecting depth and spirit. The follow-up sophomore album The Story only further cemented Carlile’s deserved spot among her pop/rock contemporaries. Digging into grandiose, huge melodies and choruses buffeted by searing electric guitars and heavy basses, Carlile experimented with more aggressive folk, while also deepening her interest in the fragility of the ballad. The Story proved that Carlile had much more to say than could be seen on her debut album, and its rawness provided the album much needed validity in its aims.

Since then, Carlile has released the brilliant Give Up The Ghost and has developed a live act paralleled by few. It’s hard not to speak in hyperbole when discussing Carlile and her career, because in so many ways she continues to improve and grow as an artist. Her songwriting has both tightened and experimented with new territories. Her lyrics have become more emotive and powerful. But most of all, Carlile continues to shine with the authenticity that at first came across as sheer earnestness, but now is a matured sagacity that is utterly compelling.

Glide Magazine had the chance to speak with Brandi a couple days ago about the upcoming release of her new live album, Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony. During our conversation, Brandi opened up about all aspects of her career, ranging from beginning in Seattle up to the new studio album she’s already recorded. In the meantime, we also touched upon her strong bond with the Indigo Girls, her love for recreating synth-based 80s music and why she’s carrying on Dolly Parton’s well-deserved diva flame.

You're about to release a live album you recorded at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony back in 2010. How long had that collaboration been in the works?

More than a few years. I’d played with them back in 2008, so the collaboration had been talked about for a long time. In the meantime, we put out Give Up the Ghost and we got some more symphony charts done, with Sean O’Loughlin and Paul Buckmaster (arrangers). And so we decided to just go for it.

Did you go into these shows hoping to make a live album, or was it a desire to play your music with the Symphony? Or perhaps was it both?

Probably both. I’ve always wanted to make a live album, and I always wanted the fourth album to be my live album. I had ideas for how that would be done. I’d thought we could record an entire tour and then put together a compilation of highlights and songs and then name the record after that tour. Or that we’d pick a really special venue, do some shows there and then name the record after the venue. But once we got our first symphony charts, I was totally convinced that that was the right live album approach-- to do a symphony record. There’s something very simply but classic about that.

How did you construct the setlists for these shows? With the consideration that you had to give Paul and Sean (orchestral arrangers) songs early on to accommodate writing the charts, how did you choose what songs to perform?

Yeah, we had to choose all the songs we wanted to do and then give them off to the people arranging them. And then they send these pseudo-string files back to you that sound like what you’d hear in a video game. But you can tell what everything is and that it’s going to be really cool, but you have no idea how it’s going to sound like on stage.

Even though you make a setlist and you have all these recording considerations when approaching a live album, it’s amazing how much of that gets thrown to the wayside when there are 3,000 people in a room. That becomes the most important thing, and you go into this sort of “fight or flight” mode and the show becomes what’s happening right there on stage in front of that audience. The recording, then, becomes something that is on the backburner. So, I didn’t consider the recording of the live album in any way, except that I knew that we were playing two nights at Benaroya Hall, and I wanted to switch the setlist so that each night-- each individual audience-- had its own experience of the show. I knew I also had two nights to play a lot of the songs to get takes for the record. But we wanted to make it a unique experience for each show.

I had to consider a lot about how our live show would fit in with the tracklist for a live album, and especially one with a symphony. Do we choose to do harder songs for us, cover songs, standards, the bigger hits-- it all was there in the process of putting it together. But ultimately it became about the show itself and less the recording, because if the show was good and the audience fell in love with it, then that would show on the recording. The people buying the album could then appreciate that experience, even though they weren’t in the audience.

I want to head back a bit to the beginning of your career. You got your start playing around Seattle, and then signed to Columbia in 2004, with your debut album being released in 2005. it's been pretty non-stop since then. What was your thought process in signing to Columbia? Had you already entertained offers from other labels?

We’d certainly been talking about it. We’d played a bunch of artist showcases for labels, but to be honest we weren’t really taking much of that into consideration. We were just figuring out how to make sense of ourselves, and how to come together as a band. But we were playing around for labels just to see what would happen, and we ended up playing for Rick Rubin. And when we did reach out to those other labels, they all passed (laughs). The labels did start to get on board, though, and we’ve always been appreciative of that.

It’s intriguing that you signed with Columbia, because there is such a rich depth of great indie labels in the Pacific Northwest region.

I wish I had had more of a indie-minded or business-minded consideration, but at the time I was 23 and I didn’t even realize that those labels were regional. They were just labels to me. I didn’t have a very strong heritage attached to the indie culture in Seattle. So, when we made our demos we just sent them out willy-nilly and Columbia, upon first signing with them, felt like a good fit for us because they seemed to care about our development as a touring band. They gave us incredible tour support-- both monetary and genuine artistic support. They would come to all of our shows, which was amazing. But they were also really hands-off about certain things. They never tried to force me to put on makeup or to dress up for photos. They were really careful to let us develop-- me as a person and then us as a band.

We had recorded a record on our own, which Columbia totally got and we released it as Brandi Carlile. They had very little bearing on the scope and direction of the album. They just totally went with it and put it out there. They were supportive of our development as a band, and they were supportive of this little record that we had put out on our own.

Which became quite a big record after it was released on Columbia.

Yeah! Grey’s Anatomy picked up a lot of the songs, and the album ended up doing quite well.

Not only that, but you toured aggressively behind Brandi Carlile, which definitely turned a lot of heads.

You’re right. We toured non-stop for that record, but I felt enlightened, like it was the greatest thing that had happened to me in life. All my life I’d always wanted to tour. But we had a bit of an unusual situation with our label that I know most other bands don’t have. Columbia really put us on the road. When we signed, we were not road weary. We hadn’t really ever gotten into a van and toured for a long time. They really put us out there. They gave us those legs, and we kept thinking and realizing that our record deal is (and was) so fucking indie!

It’s even more impressive, then, that your strength on stage comes from a more recent development than I think most would ever imagine after seeing you perform. So much of the pre-press behind The Story and Give Up The Ghost focused on your desire to capture a live sound in the studio, which in retrospect you’d developed in a relatively short window from touring the first album. It’s great of Columbia for figuring that out and letting you go with it.

Or figuring nothing out and just not paying attention! (laughs)

Do you still have those old demos kicking around? Do you ever pull them out for a listen?

It’s so funny you mention that, because I found our old demo yesterday. I had a get-together at my house and I was digging through a junk drawer looking for a DVD and I came across a little CD-R press case with our demo inside, with a little sticker of our name stuck on it and pictures of us looking like punk rockers with short hair. I popped it in to listen to it and it just sounded totally ridiculous. (laughs)

On that first tour from 2005-2007, you opened for such musical greats as Shawn Colvin, Tori Amos, Ray LaMontagne and Chris Isaak, but it was playing with the Indigo Girls that seems to me to have been a major turning point in your career. If I’m wrong, go ahead and correct me! But if I’m not, I’d love to hear about how that came to be-- how that artistic relationship was created.

You’re not wrong at all! It was a total turning point for me in so many ways. First of all, they turned out to be great mentors to me. You know, when they were signed to Epic for all those years they really had an indie-minded career, out on the road fearlessly for over twenty years, and it’s that work that will sustain them for years and years. In so many ways they had influenced so many of our shows before we’d even met them. The first songs I learned on guitar were Indigo Girls songs. The first songs where I really concentrated on those very complex harmonies were Indigo Girls songs. So, when we met and started playing together it was really intense. It’s not like they just jam with you, or you get to open for them. You talk with them, and you talk for a long time. They really take that interest in you. They have a tendency of bringing new artists under their wing whenever they get the opportunity, and so they’re admirable for that.

They also seem to draw a lot of strength off of those new ideas. Within their fan base there’s a group who want to hear the most rare and obscure songs, those who are digging the new music but then there’s the group that want to hear the classics from their back catalogue. So, in having to negotiate that, collaboration can often be a fantastic outlet for creativity.

It’s keen of you to notice that, because that’s exactly what they’re all about. They derive a lot of energy from the new things they play and the people with whom they perform. They’ve also trained their fans over the years to have a palette for new music, because Amy (Ray) has her own indie label where she releases a lot of up-and-coming musicians and bands, and Emily (Saliers) is always looking for new music to bring on the road. Their fans are now used to the fact that they’re always going to be introduced to great new stuff at an Indigo Girls concert. They’re not just going to grab a folky artist from their generation to go on tour-- they’re going to seek out a bizarre, great indie and/or queer singer instead. And they’re going to collaborate with them! They’ll get to sing a third harmony part to “Galileo” or “Closer to Fine” and all of a sudden that song’s going to have new life and new energy. They’re really smart that way.

You’re no longer just opening for the Indigo Girls-- you’re co-headlining with them. It’s clear they’re incredibly proud of your success, and it’s been great to hear your collaborations with them on your own stuff, like “Cannonball” on The Story, Amy singing backing vocals on “Looking Out” and the duet with Emily on “Let it Go.” Will you do a more formal collaboration in the future, or will it be more shows together?

In fact, I just did a studio collaboration with them last week! We did five songs together. It was really, really fun. We got some of the coolest vocals-- I can’t wait for you to hear them.

It’s been quite a few years since Brandi Carlile started turning heads, and now you’re having other major recording artists, like Adele, cover your songs. How does that feel for you?

I get such a kick out of that it’s shameful. My ego just comes in and I just love it! To hear someone else sing my lyrics just makes me so, so happy. I love hearing people cover the songs and all their different takes and personalities.

Your band does a lot of different covers each night that aren’t exactly the most conventional of readings. Your enthusiasm for presenting new takes on older songs would indicate positive feelings about the revolving nature of artistry-- of people breathing new life into songs.

I think that our generation of singer-songwriters-- not all of them, of course-- but it seems they’ve become increasingly snooty about covering other people’s music, (laughs) because we think that our own feelings and our own thoughts are such an integral part of what our art is. It’s so counter-cultural to the way American music was built over generations of folk music, and how our country has cultivated standards and a canon of sorts. It really worries me, because I don’t want our generation of music to be the snobby generation of music. We have standards right now that we should be cultivating and making the great songs of our time. Not only is it a responsibility, but it’s a pleasure to sing those songs, at shows, on records, wherever. Maybe that’s why I get such a kick out of other artists singing my songs, because maybe I think there’s a chance, in some way, that people will then find other songs and explore.

But it all comes down to mortality, doesn’t it? (laugh)

We sing a lot of songs from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, from artists who we feel are really valuable. For instance, Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is an incredible composition, in my mind one of the best songs ever written, and it will probably be one of the standards of our generation, because it moves so many singer-songwriters my age to cover that song. Literally, it’s a different song when each person sings it, but it’s also a household song now. Who knows-- in 100 years it could be the National Anthem. (laugh)

Your cover of “Forever Young” on this new record with the Seattle Symphony is especially poignant. The stripped-down piano really benefits the song and draws attention to the melody and lyrics. Is that a piece you find particularly compelling?

You know, we do a few of songs from the ‘80s, like “Forever Young” and “Mad World.” But that was kind of a dark time for singer-songwriters who play acoustic instruments. It’s amazing to go back to that work and find pieces that can be reproduced acoustically that still does justice to the original work. So much of that era was about electronic sounds and synthesizers, which can make it difficult to work with. However, when you do it, it sounds really great, so that’s been a great challenge for us.

It’s an interesting point to make, especially because oftentimes people will discuss the ‘80s as an era of “masking” solid work, where beautiful songs lay beneath synthesizers that could be distracting. But the thing is, that doesn’t make it any worse, it’s just that the music was wearing a different coat at the time, if you will.

Absolutely. It had a very different coat on. For people my age, we’re children of the ‘80s. We’re the Goonies, Labyrinth, Billy Crystal generation. So all that ‘80s music we sort of blocked out as if it was a traumatic experience, but in fact it is the soundtrack of our childhood. When we hear it now in this decade with a different sound, it really moves us because it was there when we were little. It didn’t sound in a way that is totally palatable, but over the past two decades it’s still there. It’s still vibrant. Hearing “Forever Young” acoustic on a piano, you can realize what a beautiful song it was and is, and how much it moves you.

You’re known for doing quite a few covers during your live show, but I found it an intriguing choice to include four covers on this new album, just in terms of licensing and royalties-- all those things that often impede artists from really capturing a show.

You know, no one has mentioned that yet, and you’re right. It was a big conversation when we were putting this record together. If half the songs are covers, how are we going to get any publishing off of the album? How are we going to be profitable? But at the end of the day, we had to choose between a traditional album and the show we did, and we chose the show. It’s honestly what happens at a show, so it should happen on our album.

The authenticity of the experience is central to capturing a great live record, and being true to yourself as artists make this album even more compelling. Choosing to put those songs on there also communicate further because they clearly mean something to you, and so when there’s that good intention and genuine fervor, they’re going to mean something to your audience as well.

We were influenced by artists before us. We came from somewhere, from something. So, why pretend like everything we have came directly from ourselves and ignore these songs and these artists that had such a huge hand in shaping who we are as musicians and people? That’s another reason it was so important for us to keep those songs on the record.

Not to jump the gun too quickly since you are about to release this live album, but I’m also interested in when we might be hearing some new studio material from you.

We recorded our latest studio record in the entire month of March. It was an absolutely incredible experience. Thirty-three days, eighteen songs. I cannot wait for you to hear it. I’m completely flipping out over the recordings.

Is eighteen songs more than you usually record during an album session?

It’s quite a bit more. We should have gotten ten songs done in that amount of time! It didn’t feel like we were working that hard. We were so focused and the environment was so incredible-- we could have a whole other long conversation about that. We ended up working sixteen, eighteen hour days sometimes recording all these songs. It was such a great feeling.

We recorded out at Bear Creek outside of Seattle.

You’ve worked previously with T-Bone Burnett and Rick Rubin. Are you producing the new record? Are you working with them again? Or did you find someone new for the sessions?

We got to co-produce this record, actually. We worked with this incredible woman-- Trina Shoemaker. She’s a Grammy award-winning producer, mixer and engineer. She’s just totally incredible-- just nutty! She’s worked a lot with Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball, Whiskey Town, Queens of the Stone Age. She also worked under Daniel Lanois for quite a while.

Did you seek her out, or have you known her for a while?

I sought her out. I’ve known of her for a while. I’ve been a fan and always wanted to work with her. I love the sound she got with Sheryl Crow, and I said to myself that I was going to work with that lady someday. (laugh)

It must be a very exciting time for you. You have a new album recorded already, a live album coming out next week and you’re about to go on tour for quite a while. That brings me to my last question, which is about touring. You do so many shows each year and travel all over. Do you have any rituals that you do to keep you sane while on the road?

It’s all ritual. The whole entire thing is ritual! I wake up, I go out in my pajamas and sit with my band and we talk about our day. We drink a lot of coffee. Everybody goes into soundcheck, I get dressed, I go into the venue. And by the way, I get up so late in the day that there really is not much time between waking up and having to be ready at the venue for the soundcheck and the show. I then go into the venue, put on some Gregory Alan Isakov and I curl my hair for about forty-five minutes.

That’s some real Dolly Parton country diva shit, right there.

Someone’s gotta hold the torch, right?

That’s right!

http://www.glidemagazine.com/articles/57131/brandi-carlile-americanas-rising-star.html

Q&A: Brandi Carlile rocks the symphony with ‘Live at Benaroya’

By GENE STOUT

Seattle singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, whose voice is among the most powerful and stirring in the Northwest, calls her new CD “a rock ‘n’ roll symphony album.”

“It really is the meeting of two worlds, two different kinds of artists who got together for completely different reasons,” Carlile says.

“Brandi Carlile — Live at Benaroya Hall With the Seattle Symphony” is due in stores Tuesday, May 3. You can order it here.

The album includes many of her most popular songs, among them “I Will,” “Shadow on the Wall,” “Dreams,” “Turpentine,” “The Story,” “Pride and Joy,” Elton John’s “Sixty Years On” and her stunning Leonard Cohen cover, “Hallelujah.”

There’s also a breathtaking version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” by twin brothers Tim and Phil Hanseroth, longtime members of her band (on guitar and bass respectively). Other band members include Josh Neumann (cello) and Allison Miller (drums).

And there’s a new song, “Before It Breaks,” that’s among her best recordings.

The album features arrangements by Sean O’Loughlin (who has arranged for Chris Isaak, Feist, Blue Man Group, Belle & Sebastian and others) and Paul Buckmaster (Elton John, David Bowie and Miles Davis). Buckmaster, who won a Grammy in 2001 for his arrangement of Train’s “Drops of Jupiter,” also worked with Carlile in 2009 on her third album, “Give Up the Ghost.”

Carlile, who got her start playing the Paragon and other suburban Seattle clubs, performs a free “in-store” show at 10 p.m. May 3 at the Queen Anne (Seattle) Easy Street Records before launching her spring tour May 5 at the Tower Theatre in Bend, Ore. Then on July 29, Carlile performs as part of the ZooTunes concert series at Woodland Park Zoo. Read about the series here.

Carlile’s next record is a studio album, recorded recently at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Wash.

I talked to Carlile, who still lives in Maple Valley, Wash. (where she grew up), by phone this week. It was like catching up with an old friend.

Q: This was the second time you had performed with the Seattle Symphony. Was it complicated to set up this concert and record it?

Carlile: “Actually no. We used a local recording engineer and producer, Martin Feveyear. He’s the owner-producer of Jupiter Studios. Very, very talented man. He mixed ‘Brandi Carlile,’ my first record, as well as ‘(Creep) Live From Boston’ and ‘Live From Neumos.’ He’s mixed all of our live EPs. And, of course, he’s done demos with us. He works tirelessly.

“I actually never even spoke to Martin before the rehearsal for the first show. And I got there and he had set up all the recording equipment. He’s really talented. So, no, it wasn’t complicated to record. As far as rehearsal goes, that’s a whole different story.”

Q: How so?

Carlile: “The rehearsal process is really understated. It’s funny because it’s not really needed. It’s not needed for us anyway. Because we know how to play the songs, and the (symphony) charts don’t change the songs structurally at all. But the symphony charts are something that you’re not used to hearing. And then the symphony doesn’t need the rehearsal because they sight-read. They sight-read better than we could even imagine. So when we get there, they already know how to play our songs better than we do.

“The purpose of the rehearsal is really, honestly to prepare the band for exactly how powerful the concert is going to be. When the symphony jumps in during those moments where all of a sudden you’re singing a song you sing every night and then 30 more musicians start playing, it’s so powerful that it causes you to take pause, and you can’t take pause. And that’s what the rehearsal really is for.”

Q: It’s almost like a tsunami, then.

Carlile: “Yeah, kind of.” (She laughs)


Brandi Carlile
Q: The famous Paul Buckmaster did the arrangement for “Sixty Years On.” I understand you had been trying to come up with a unique way of singing Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” one of your favorite covers, when your manager suggested that you contact Buckmaster.

Carlile: “I kept trying to explain to (my manager) the dark string arrangements I liked from Elton John’s ‘Tumbleweed Connection’ and other early albums. And he said, ‘You should get Paul Buckmaster to do some of these.’ Well, that was way beyond my imagination at the time. So I thought, ‘What if we just get our hands on the charts for ‘Sixty Years On?’ And that’s what we did. We opened the show with ‘Sixty Years On.’ ”

Q: You recorded with Elton John about a year and a half ago. Have you been in contact with him recently?

Carlile: “Every once in a while I shoot him a little email or letter. I sent him a little letter when he was in all that trouble for the ‘Jesus is gay’ statement. So I shot him an encouraging, supportive letter. Everyone once in a while I pick up the phone and wish him happy birthday or something. But I chicken out almost every time. I’m not much for keeping up relationships with my celebrity acquaintances. It makes me so uncomfortable.”

Q: Of all the wonderful songs on this album, are any particularly special or personal?

Carlile: “Oh, yeah. Because my songwriting over the years has become like so much more sacred to me. When I started out, I was definitely writing about experiences that I hadn’t had yet. The songs were just based on my influences, songwriters that had written songs before me and that were more experienced and 20, 30 years older than me.

“So it wasn’t that I was writing from a place that was derivative. I was writing from a place that was expectant. I’d sit down with my guitar and come up with little riffs, little notes and patterns that I loved, and then I would write lyrics for them.

“And now I really don’t do that because I get my (excitement) from performing, and I understand my art in a deeper context. And typically when I write songs now, they are lyrics first and then I have to kind of revert back to my song structure days and figure out how to make those lyrics into a song. So the lyrics I write now are way more important to me.

“When we were doing ‘Live at Benaroya,’ the song ‘I Will’ was hard to get through. I’ve always get a big lump in my throat when I sing that song. And also ‘Before It Breaks.’ So I’m just a different songwriter now. And the older I get, the more difficult it becomes to deliver those songs casually.

Q: You said in another interview that some of the standards you do are becoming standards of your generation. Which songs in particular?

Carlile: ” ‘Hallelujah’ is going to be a standard that our grandkids, our great-great grandkids will learn to sing in church. It’s one of those really, really special songs. The thing that’s going to make it that, besides that it’s so great, is that everyone knows about it because hundreds of songwriters have been moved by that song and have covered it. And that’s just something really important that we do in every generation.”

Q: When did the Hanseroth twins begin singing their drop-dead gorgeous version of “Sounds of Silence”?

Carlile: “I first walked backstage and heard them doing it about a year and a half ago. Every time I would hear it I was stunned. They were doing a lot to warm up their voices up before a show. It would draw the openers out of their dressing rooms. They’d be like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ It’s just creepy. They sound like the same voice and their vibrato is exactly matched up. They sound like angels.

“So I said, ‘You guys have to start doing this in the show.’ And they were like, ‘Well, you have sing harmony or pick up a guitar.’ And I said, ‘No, no, no. I need to sit on a chair backstage and watch you do it.’ They really had a hard time with it. They’re so unassuming. They hate to be in the spotlight. I said, ‘Please, you guys, this has to become a part of our show.’ Then everyone fell in love with it. Now they’re learning a couple of new songs to do by themselves.”

Q: Your song “The Story” was covered last year on “American Idol.” What did you think?

Carlile: “I get such a kick out of it. I’m never more proud of our songs than when someone else is singing them. It doesn’t matter if someone does them better or worse or just different. All that matters is that someone else cared enough about that song to learn the words. When I heard that song on ‘American Idol,’ I was really proud about writing it.”

Q: Last year, you were invited to join the lineup for the Lilith Fair tour, which unfortunately was cut short. But you didn’t play at The Gorge.

Carlile: “I wanted to play there so bad because it’s been such a big part of my life. I went to all the Lilith Fair shows at The Gorge. I went to Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rod Stewart, Page and Plant, Matchbox Twenty and tons of other shows while I was growing up. So I really wanted to play there.

“But I did get to do a couple of Lilith Fair shows in California last year, and it was a really moving experience. It was just a huge thing for me.”

http://blog.seattlepi.com/afterdark/2011/05/01/qa-brandi-carlile-rocks-the-symphony-with-%E2%80%98live-at-benaroya%E2%80%99/

Brandi Carlile on Her New Live Album, Admiration for Elton John and Thoughts on Lady Gaga

A concert "becomes a Church," says the singer-songwriter, who releases 'Live at Benaroya Hall With the Seattle Symphony' this week.

You could say Brandi Carlile is in a league of her own. A stark contrast to heavily produced pop singers like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Ke$ha, Carlile’s focus is on music over image, history over headlines, grit over glam. In this age of American Idol, when building your audience organically is the hardest route to stardom, the openly gay Carlile did just that with 2007’s "The Story," which broke the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to become a sort of sleeper hit.

On her latest release, Live at Benaroya Hall With the Seattle Symphony (out May 3), Carlile pays tribute to her own musical influences by performing songs like Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Sixty Years On,” by her idol, Elton John. She’s joined in her hometown of Seattle with a 30-piece orchestra, but whether playing a bar or a concert hall, it still comes down to one thing: connecting with the audience, as Carlile explains in a recent interview with THR.

THR: What was the biggest difference in playing with your band and with the Seattle Symphony?

Brandi Carlile: It’s like this clash of two worlds. They’re playing music for a completely different reason than you’re playing music. You’ve got these rogue, trained, rock and roll warrior types -- like my band that’s getting up at three in the afternoon. You come to this beautiful venue and you have to do something together. It’s a pretty powerful experience.

You never really rehearse with the symphony. The string arrangers create the charts and send you demos so you can approve them. But they actually sound like a video game because they can’t really duplicate all the string parts in the computer program. It’s really funny sounding. I actually play them at dinner parties and stuff because it sounds like Zelda.

THR: How did you determine which songs to include?

Carlile: I feel like a lot of the singer-songwriters in my genre and in my generation have gotten more and more snooty about covering other people’s songs. They believe that creativity is the intersect of expression. I believe in that partly, too, but it’s kind of countercultural to the way that music has established itself in our country, from Country Western and Bluegrass to Delta Blues. People sing each other's songs and they cultivate standards. That’s the reason why we have folk music and folk stories. History is told through song.

Not to sing the songs of our influences so that our great grandchildren have standards seems counterproductive in how we tell the history of our generation. So, I don’t want our generation to be this dark spot in history. I feel like we have a responsibility to cover music. I know that’s a big answer. But the thing is, people might balk at the concept of having four covers on a live album, but we probably did six covers that night. It’s a big part of our live show. It was only honest and right to accurately depict the amount of cover tunes we would do in a show.

THR: Something that differentiates your live shows is when you unplug and get the entire venue to be absolutely silent. Why is it important for you to do that?

Carlile: Because as the venues get larger, the band shouldn’t change. You should always find ways to connect. It’s easy when you’re playing at a bar that holds 400 people -- you’re rocking out, you drop a guitar pick, a kid notices it in the third row and they laugh at you and you wink at them. You’ve made a connection with somebody. That changes in the theater. To walk out in front of the lights and stand there in the dark, where everybody can see you and you can see everybody else and there’s no smoke and mirrors, you lock eyes, you exchange a few words. Somebody tells a joke and you laugh and throw your pick. You’ve then made a connection with everyone in the room and it brings them together. Then people aren’t shy to sing along, or clap their hands or to greet each other. It becomes a church. It’s important to establish that no matter how big the venues get. If they get so big that I can’t find a way to do that anymore then I just won’t play them.

THR: What’s going on with your new studio album?

Carlile: The new album is recorded. I spent 33 days in the studio in Bear Creek with Trina Shoemaker. It was hands down one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve only gotten five songs to the label so far. We recorded 18 but they’re all being mixed. So, I don’t really know what their feedback is going to be on it yet. My personal feeling about the record is that it’s like our purest, most exciting work to date. It’s absolutely jam-packed full of energy.

THR: Have any ideas for an album title?

Carlile: A tentative idea, but I love Elton John and I’m so influenced by his early records that are so thematic, especially since he and his band would go to a studio and lock themselves up for three weeks and them come out and name the record afterwards. That’s what I was thinking about doing on this record -- because the studio played such a pivotal role in the recording of the record. It was a giant barn in the middle of nowhere that’s been turned into a really cool recording studio. Bear Creek is actually a creek that’s cutting right through the yard. So you’re recording and there’s this creek rolling past you. You’re looking up at this 150-year-old barn. It was just a really special time. So, I was thinking about maybe following in those footsteps.

THR: Any idea on when we it might come out?

Carlile: No idea but I’m ready to get out and promote that record. Those songs are like haunting my dreams right now. There was a soul influence in the sessions, there’s definitely more rock and roll like a Pink, The Who, Rolling Stones-kind of edge to some of the music, which is something we’ve never really tackled before.

THR: Will we see any covers on the album?

Carlile: No covers yet, but you never know. Maybe the record label will let me tack on a bonus, but probably not after having four covers on Live at Benaroya Hall.

THR: Changing course, what do you think of Lady Gaga and the impact she’s had on the music industry?

Carlile: I think it’s heavy on the industry, not heavy on the music. She’s made more of an impact on the industry than on the music itself. I’ve seen how she’s influenced a lot of kids musically. I always think that’s impressive. I like that she’s on the cutting edge.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/brandi-carlile-her-new-live-183888

sempre interessantes as entrevistas da Brandi, sabe bem o que diz... gostei e concordo com quase tudo

Falta ela dar mais informações sobre o novo album de originais, como por exemplo a data de lançamento, talvez por esse facto não estar nas mãos dela mas sim da editora. As vendas do album que acabou de sair também deve influenciar na data de lançamento, boas vendas podem fazer com que saia mais depressa cá para fora o próximo aproveitando a "embalagem"...
São apenas suposições!

Boa a seguinte entrevista. Responde a algumas coisas que gostariamos de saber, como é o caso da opinião dela sobre o cover que a Sara Ramirez fez da música "The Story".

An interview with Brandi Carlile
Posted by Lesley Goldberg on May 3, 2011

Brandi Carlile’s influence on the music industry is popping up everywhere lately. Most recently, the out singer-songwriter’s most well-known single, "The Story," was covered by Sara Ramirez as part of the Grey’s Anatomy musical event. Now Carlile’s latest album, Live at Benaroya Hall With the Seattle Symphony, a live release that sees her perform alongside the Seattle Symphony for her hometown fans, comes out today.

AfterEllen.com caught up with Carlile to discuss sharing the stage with a 30-piece orchestra (she got chills performing Leonard Cohen’s "Hallelujah") as well as how the Grey’s Anatomy fan feels about Ramirez’s interpretation of "The Story" and its use in part of a lesbian story line.

AfterEllen.com: As a Washington native, what was playing with the Seattle Symphony like?
Brandi Carlile: Well, you get there and you realize in fact they don’t need to rehearse. But that the rehearsal is to prepare you for what’s going to happen when you’re standing there singing a song that you sing every night and all of a sudden 30 more musicians start playing with you. It’s so incredible. It’s this wave of really emotional sound that it causes you to take pause. You can’t afford to take pause during the show. So they want you to know at noon what’s going to happen to you. You get choked up. You get emotional. It’s so exciting that my heart rate speeds up and I forget words. Stuff happens because it sounds enormous.

AE: How did you determine which songs made the cut?
BC: We had a lot of discussions about whether this was an album or whether it was a show. At the end of this discussion, we decided that we already have albums; that we really want this to be a show because we want people to know what a night with us is like. We play cover tunes.

AE: Any chance we’ll see a live DVD of the whole show?
BC: No. It wasn’t video taped. The recording process was done before I even got there for rehearsal. They had everything ready to be recorded before I ever even arrived at the venue. So, I actually didn’t notice it being recorded, which is a good thing because all of my performances are really pure. There’s certain notes that instead of screaming them I might have sung them because I knew they were being recorded. But I completely spaced it and just ended up being totally guttural and normal throughout the whole night.

Video taping wouldn’t have done that. That would have been something that would have been hard for me to ignore. I just really wanted this to be a great show. Even the photographers asked if we could have the lights up a little bit on the first four songs and I said no to even that because shows are sacred to me.

AE: Shifting gears a bit, Grey’s Anatomy has always featured a lot of your music.
BC: That show has been incredibly instrumental, so to speak, throughout the course of our careers. I think we’ve had like nine songs on that show. Some of them we wrote or recorded or constructed just for the show. I mean that’s how involved I’ve gotten in it. I really love that television show.

AE: Did you see the musical episode? What did you think of Sara Ramirez’s take on "The Story"?
BC: I did see it. I get such a kick out of hearing people sing my songs. It makes me so happy to think that somebody else would care enough about something that I wrote or something that I sang to cover it. I think she’s a hell of a singer; probably the best singer ever to do the song that I’ve seen as far as covers go. As a fan of the show, it definitely was a huge moment. I was overwhelmed at the opportunity to have been a part of it.

AE: With Sara and "The Story," how did you first find out?
BC: The people from the show told me that it was going to happen. I was super excited about it. I saw all the things that she did with it. She’s probably my favorite character on Grey’s Anatomy. The only thing about the whole thing that kind of made me so sad is that of course I watched every version of it that she did on, like, Good Morning America. She always said that she was doing a song by (bassist) Philip Hanseroth.

It’s kind of sad but I got over it. The only reason it is sad is because I do enjoy the show so much and her character particularly. Maybe if she does it again sometime she’ll represent. If there’s one thing about people covering "The Story" that I’ve always wanted to hear it’s that nobody goes for it at the end. They always just kind of go back to the first version. She really went for it and she nailed it. So, I’m really happy.

AE: What did you think of the song being used in such an instrumental part of a lesbian story line, especially leading up to Callie and Arizona’s wedding?
BC: It made me so proud. That’s a powerful song. That’s a powerful subject matter that they’re dealing with. Like I said, when they said that they were going to use the song on that show, I intentionally didn’t read the script about where the song was going to be placed because I didn’t want to know what happens. I watch that show every week. I’m following that story line and I was just really kind of excited to be a part of it.

That’s subject matter that we’re dealing with all the time in our community. All the parental stuff and the stuff around (gay) marriage and civil unions. That’s relevant and that show’s tackling it and I’m just impressed as hell that they are.

AE: The big wedding episode is coming up May 5, so hopefully we’ll see more.
BC: If you know anything about it don’t tell me. May 5 is the day I leave for tour, dammit!

AE: Maybe Sara can send you a screener.
BC: Yeah. Maybe. I’ll tell you what. If I ever come to L.A., maybe I’ll ask her to come out and do it as a duet with me. Wouldn’t that be so fun?

AE: Speaking of lesbians on TV, did you happen to watch The Voice? There was an openly gay Washington resident who landed on Cee Lo Green’s team: Vicci Martinez.
BC: I know Vicci. That’s so awesome. I’ve been hearing about her forever, even before I got signed. Once I got signed, I had all these residencies at places and then I got signed and had to stop playing all of them with like no notice. Vicci filled a lot of those spots. I saw her play a couple of times. I didn’t know she was gay, first of all. Second of all, I’m so proud of her and excited that she’s gotten out of town and is doing something.

http://www.afterellen.com/people/an-interview-with-brandi-carlile

onde descobres estas preciosidades???? espectáculo

Pesquisando no google! Mais nada...

ok, sou um bocadinho preguiçosa eheheh

Gosto mais de vir aqui e ser surpreendida

Espero que seja sempre pela positiva!

Claro que sim

Uiiii mto bom!!

então quando diz que a Lady Gaga foi um impacto na industria e não na música, UAH, não podia concordar mais eheheheh

Brandi Carlile (The Extended Interview)

Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Posted by Jason Gonulsen at 10:54 AM

I'm not sure I can take it
I've nothing strong to hold to
I'm way too old to hate you
My mind is full of razors
To cut you like a word if only sung
But this is my song

Those are lyrics from "My Song," the first Brandi Carlile song I ever heard live, and it's the one that made me fall in love with her music. I don't know what I was expecting when I saw Carlile perform for the first time, but it wasn't an immediate burst of powerful lyrics about being bitter, about getting older...about not getting what you want in life. If anything, I was expecting a quiet evening, or a "mid-tempo" evening of music -- maybe one or two moments that really made me think. But, I learned quickly that Brandi Carlile is mostly about heart and emotion, and you're always thinking; there's little surrender in her artistry.

And the more I see live music, the more I'm convinced that Carlile is one of the best live performers out there. I've yet to see of a show of hers where the intensity and focus hasn't been anything less than stellar, and that's not even commenting on her voice, which is quite heavenly and has infinite range. Carlile and her band are a special live act, one that I'll gladly travel any distance to see again and again.

Which brings me to her live album, Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony, released yesterday. Live albums can be hit or miss in my book, but not this one. Carlile's is an impressive moment captured in time; it features a full symphony, her unyielding band, and a perfect collection of her songs, like "Before it Breaks," "The Story," "Dreams," and "Turpentine," to only name a few.

If you can't make it out to see her on her upcoming U.S. tour, Live at Benaroya Hall is a fine consolation prize. I recommend turning up the volume and closing your eyes.

Luckily, we were able to catch up with Carlile over the phone before the release of Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony.

So, Brandi, the last time I saw you was at Bonnaroo last year...

Oh, I'll never forget that show, that was fun.

It was a great, rocking performance. But, your live album is a little different. You're performing with a full orchestra. What sort of mindset do you and your band need to get into for a show like that?

Well, it's an experience that's so refined all day long. Because, first of all, you have to come up with the charts for the songs. You work with a composer who composes these charts for the symphony, and it's complicated -- sometimes, there are thirty to sixty instruments involved in this. So, you come up with the charts, and then the symphony gets the charts like a month in advance, and they learn these songs. And, they are a different kind of a musician than we are, you know. We all started playing guitar to...you know, to get girls. And they started playing instruments to go to college and please their parents. So, they have totally different perceptions of why they play rock 'n' roll!

You get to the venue, and it's so highbrow all day long. You have a highbrow rehearsal, you have a highbrow schedule, and it's so refined. And then you get out on stage, and it's still your fans, and your audience, and they're nuts, and you go nuts. It's this meeting of raucous rock 'n' roll culture, with this refinement -- and what you come out with is something that's huge, very regal and profound, and it makes for a really great performance.

Definitely. And the sound of the live album -- it's so clear. It's a different experience for the listener, I think. Is that what you were going for?

Yeah, well, you know, there's depth to it, because there are so many musicians involved in this. And everyone is having their own experience. And there is an underlying element of "liveness" that I've always believed in, when it comes to the art of recording, anyway. Which is that, you can feel when something is recorded live, and it's something that definitely gets captured. What it is, is it's the knowledge that anything could have derailed at any moment. In a lot of recordings, you don't get this, because they're constructed in such a way where there is no risk involved. When we record a song live, anyone can break a string at any moment, and there's this on-edgeness about that energy. And that's what makes a live album so exciting.

Well, when I heard that you were releasing a live album, it made total sense to me, because I fell in love with your songs when I saw you live for the first time.

Cool.

Yeah, that's when I understood you as an artist. Hearing that, is that a compliment to you?

It is a compliment, because at the end of the day, we're a live band. And, that's all what we ever really wanted to be, so, we're constantly in the process of learning how to capture that, and how to make recordings as a live band that is rough around the edges. So, if your first introduction to us is a live show, and that brings you to our songs, that makes so much more sense to me than your introduction to us being our songs bringing you to the show. That's why I love the concept of the live album, because this will be the first thing we've ever done that is truly and exactly who we are.

And you tour pretty much all the time. When do you ever find the time to write new material?

You know, you end up writing a lot when you're on the road. You have a lot of time, but it's not the kind of time that you need to really relax. It's just time and space -- waiting for sound check, waiting for the show to start. And, a lot of times, you fill that space with a guitar in your hand, and you end up writing songs. We've just recorded, actually, nineteen songs for our next album -- we finished it! Of course, all nineteen won't make it, but... (laughs) Do you write songs?

Ha, I wish I could!

Well, when it happens, it happens. It's like, when it comes to you, it almost doesn't matter where you are, you have to write it down. You can be in your sleep, and you wake up and write it down on whatever piece of paper you can reach from your bed. So, as far as whether you write on the road, or at home, or at some retreat you go to -- you can't make it happen.

On your current tour coming up, when people hear the presentation of the live album that's coming out, do you think they will be anticipating that kind of sound, even if there won't be an orchestra?

No...I don't think so. Even if they are, we can get pretty close to at least being able to emote that much. Even if the strings aren't there, we do have a cellist on stage, and he'll probably pick up a lot of slack. It's less about that and more about the environment you create. We know there has to be an element of weight to our performances in the next year. I think we'll be able to pull it off, but we'll let you be the judge of that! (laughs)

Well, I'll be down catching you in Gruene, Texas at Gruene Hall.

Oh yeah! Gruene Hall is amazing, I love that place!

I'm really looking forward to it. That place...and I'm no musician, but I would think that would one of the best places to play.

Yeah, and it's legendary, too.

You've played there once, right?

Yeah, it was amazing, I loved it. I've been trying to get back there. I've been asking my agent, "can you guys get me at that Gruene Hall again?"

It's like an old barn in the middle of nowhere.

And it's half-open, too. What it is, it's an old dance hall.

I can't wait.

Yeah, me too. See you there!

Well, I have a couple more questions for you. When I first heard your live album, the one song that struck me was "I Will." And the performance if it, I thought the lyrics really stood out. Can you talk a little bit about that song, and how it is to perform it? It's a wordy Brandi Carlile song!

You know, I've been writing a lot of songs like that lately, actually. It comes from a really deep place in me as a songwriter. I don't typically write those songs very often -- those songs come along like once a year. And, they're the kinds of songs where the lyrics are what are totally overtaking my mind. Like, all those things are there, and I need to say them. And I try to make them rhyme, and I try to make all of the different play on words and the vernacular sit within something that's slightly musical. But, then I have to construct music around it, like a platform for this kind of lament.

It's difficult because a lot of times these things don't have choruses or verses, and I have to add them later, and stuff like that. But, they always end up meaning the very most to me, because it was something I had to say first, and that's what "I Will" is. And I've been writing songs like that lately, and like I said, they are fewer and farther between, but they end up being the ones that stand out to me through the years as my favorites.

From an emotional aspect, it's one of my favorites.

It gets heavy when I sing that one, too. There are others like that -- "Before It Breaks" is like that. I tend to get heavy when I sing that one, because I'm so nervous when I play the piano. But, "I Will," when I'm singing it sometimes, I go back to the place that I was in when I wrote it, and I feel a little overwhelmed with whatever it is.

You know, one of my favorite moments in a Brandi Carlile show is when you're playing "The Story," and you get to strap on an electric guitar and rock out!

Yeah!

How does that feel on stage, Brandi? Because that's one of the bigger moments in your show, I think.

I don't know, it feel great! Because I love playing that electric guitar, and I'm going to try to play it a little more on tour than I have been in the past. I like being turned loose at that point in the song. What it does, is it really gets me ready for what I'm about to do, which is scream at the top of my lungs! (laughs)

Yes!

And, it's a little harder to do that with an acoustic guitar, but you can make it work. My favorite moment in the show actually comes just about thirty seconds after that, when I'm getting ready to do the big, "All of these lines" line...

Sure.

And the whole audience just stops breathing for a second, because they wonder what's going to happen -- is she going to hit the note, is she not going to hit the note? And there's this element of nerves, and it overtakes the room...and it only happens for three seconds a night, but it's a golden moment of what live music is to me, where everybody is listening, everybody is wondering if I'm going to be able to do it. And, I get nervous, like, 'Am I going to be able to do it?' It's just this exchange of energy, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. As many times as I've sang that song, it's still my favorite song to play.

http://www.speakersincode.com/2011/05/brandi-carlile-extended-interview.html

Fantastica entrevista
Aki tao umas fotos freskinhas, freskinhas tiradas ontem pelo sortudo k la teve

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jktang/sets/72157626526911359/

em grande ainda bem que sou preguiçosa, vocês descobrem tudo

eheheheheh

Como não vos kero desiludir... aki tão 40 minutos de puro deleite xD

Não tem parado, é só entrevistas muito bom Xena

Ya n tem parado mesmo!E ja andam on tour! Ela ta e mto magra... :/

Já chegou o cd xD lol a tshirt n me serve ahahah

Pensei nisso quando pedi e mandei mais para cima, antes larga que pequena, mas agora já não sei

Fica para recordação ou não deve faltar quem queira comprar e mandas vir outra maior, digo eu claro!!!!!

Pois o problema e k o XL equivale kuase a um S loool . O meu erro foi k mandei vir XL de mulher se calhar devia mandar vir L de homem: A minha sobrinha fica com ela disse logo k era pa ela lool depois mando vir uma pa mim