Brandi Carlile: Accepting Imperfections in Ourselves

By Jeannette Madden
Staff Writer

I caught up with Brandi Carlile before her upcoming appearance at the historic Fargo Theatre August 28 in support of her newest album “Give Up The Ghost.”

While the phrase ‘give up the ghost’ refers to death or dying, it can also be used to describe the passing of stages in life, of transformation. According to Brandi, ‘The songs on this record are time travelers instead of glimpses into the present and onto the road.’

Brandi has been playing for years with band mates and twin brothers, Tim [guitar] and Phil [bass] Hanseroth, as well as cellist Josh Neumann. However, ‘Give Up The Ghost’ also features the work of Victor Indrizzo, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers multi- instrumentalist Benmont Tench, drummer Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls and the man himself, Elton John.

Brandi sounds southern but actually hails from Seattle, Washington. She has a gift for making people comfortable, and by the time we were done talking I felt like we were family, which I don’t recall ever feeling after talking to an artist. I just hope that feeling comes across in what you are about to read…

Brandi Carlile: Hi Jeannette, how are you?

High Plains Reader: I’m okay. I had a little too much fun at Ingrid Michaelson and Keane last night [lots of laughing].

Brandi: Where’d they play at?

HPR: They played at First Avenue.

Brandi: Oh my gosh, right in Minneapolis there?

HPR: Yeah, I live in Minneapolis. I’m just starting to feel better [more laughing]. I’m sorry, probably TMI, but thank you for asking.

Brandi: That’s why I love people in the Midwest. They always answer honestly.

HPR: That we do. Okay, let’s get started. Can you tell me about your influences?

Brandi: I grew up totally influenced by country and western music, the Grand Ole Opry culture, particularly Patsy Cline. My mom loved Tammy Wynette and we all loved Brenda Lee as well as Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and then the boys too, obviously. Johnny Cash, my grandfather loved Jim Reeves, Willy Nelson. As I became a teenager I tried to have a country western divergence and went into this rock and roll realm, which I thought was really edgy, but it was really only like Elton John, Queen and the Beatles. Now, it’s kind of full circle, with my love of rock and roll and my deep, familial connection to country.

HPR: Do you have favorite songs on your albums? I’ve been listening to ‘Give Up The Ghost’ and for some reason “Oh Dear” reminds me of The Wizard of Oz and I’m just loving that.

Brandi: Oh does it? Somebody told me that the whole album reminds them of The Wizard of Oz.

HPR: That’s trippy.

Brandi: Do I have a favorite song on my albums…yeah; my favorite song at the moment is “Before It Breaks.” My favorite songs are typically songs that lyrically were never meant to be songs. They were just unrefined, unabashed thoughts and that’s what “Before It Breaks” is.

HPR: Did you write it with one of the [Hanseroth] twins or did you write it yourself?

Brandi: I wrote the lyrics myself. Then, once I had the melody kind of figured out, I asked the twins with some help with chord structure and the chorus. They’re always so good at that.

HPR: I see that the twins are singing more background vocals on “Give Up The Ghost.”

Brandi: Yeah, we always have loved doing the background vocals. We have just been shameless about harmonies…I mean like Crosby, Stills & Nash and Peter, Paul & Mary shameless about them! Beach Boys, Beatles, you know, Alabama. Just harmonies that are dense and thick, just beautiful. A big resounding chord of vocals. For so long that became uncool, I think, in the 90’s and the late 80’s. And we were like, ‘We don’t care. We’re twins and a girl; we’re going to sing harmonies.’

HPR: Sure.

Brandi: Our first couple of records [“Brandi Carlile,” “The Story”] we didn’t feel really feel the freedom to tap into that harmony place that we all love so much. But on this third record we went Carter-Family crazy on it.

HPR: [Laughing] Do you do more harmonies in your live shows?

Brandi: Yeah, we do tons of harmony in our live show. Actually, more than even on the record.

HPR: Tell me about performing. What does performing do for you?

Brandi: For me? Well, it’s really one of the only times in my personal life to sort of step aside and let whatever music is come through me instead of being created by me and it’s an interesting way to be. I remember one time, early on when I had finished making “The Story,” K.D. Lang called me up on the phone, who’s one of my favorite singers, so cool, so supportive. She’s like, “Quit screaming when you sing.” [Laughing] You know what I mean? And, I just laughed because I was like, “Well, like I can control it,” you know?

Backstage, I can warm up my voice and I can be like a finely tuned machine, an opera singer, and then get onstage and just scream and yell like I’m in Nirvana. What that is, it’s just a total relinquishing of composure in place of music.

HPR: Wow. So, just like forgetting about everything, I suppose.

Brandi: Yeah, anything can happen. It’s hard to accept imperfections about ourselves. It’s inevitably a better experience for anybody watching.

HPR: And you do covers in your live shows.

Brandi: Yeah, lots of them. I love them.

HPR: You do a duet with Elton John on “Give Up The Ghost.” How did that come about?

Brandi: Well he’s really one of my greatest heroes of all time. When I was 11 or 12, I totally fell in love with his music. It was always this special change moment for me, where I changed from country and western to start to love rock and roll and pop. And when we were making this record I felt that similar charge, that this was just a really pivotal time in my life and I asked him to sing on a song, “Caroline,” I wrote about my niece.

HPR: So you just actually asked him.

Brandi: I did, I sent him a little email. He called us back.

HPR: Do you think you will ever leave Seattle?

Brandi: No, I don’t think so. If I ever did leave Seattle, it would be to live in, either where my grandparents come from, either the south or the far north, up where my Uncle Sonny lives. My Uncle Sonny lives in Minnesota but he just calls it “up north.” I love Minnesota, though. I’ve been there so many times that it feels like a place that my family would come from.

HPR: I know around here, they like to say “almost Minnesota’s own Brandi Carlile.”

Brandi: [Laughing] You’re right! I remember my Uncle Sonny’s town. He lives in a place called Waubun.

HPR: You’re right, that’s definitely up north. I would imagine people there sound like they’re from Canada. So, tell me about The Looking Out Foundation.

Brandi: The Looking Out Foundation is just this local humanitarian effort the twins and I have. It’s like an outreach foundation. We donate a dollar a ticket and then we do these kind of, I guess they’re called benefits, but I don’t want to take any credit for it because it’s our fans that do it every year. It’s againtoday.com. It’s a fan site but it’s really a lot more than that. It’s more like a community of like friends and activists, basically, that put on these foundation benefits, two of them a year. They make more of the money for our foundation and the things that we do.

The things that we do, a lot of them are based locally, like we do a lot of work with our local food bank, which is really struggling right now. We go into like Seattle women’s shelters, domestic violence shelters, hearing and vision impaired shelters, senior centers, and teach self-defense. There’s this woman-owned and -run self-defense organization in Seattle that we work with.

And the Seattle Police Department, we’re involved in a project with them, the What If Project, where they are collecting memoirs from women in the women’s prisons and making educational documentaries for kids in schools based on one question, which is if there was something that someone could have done to keep you from ending up here, what would it have been? It’s just really this compassion-based effort to help keep kids out of trouble.

And you know, we do some environmental stuff, we do personal outreach when families are having troubles with things, sometimes we’ll step in and help.

HPR: When I was preparing to talk to you, I asked for some questions from your fans. I got two that I thought I would run past you. The first is do you think your music being featured on Seattle-based television show ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ opened doors for you and do you watch the show?

Brandi: I watch the show borderline incessantly [laughing]. I will like TiVo it when I’m gone and record it on my DVR and then come home and like get in bed with my dog and watch it for 8 hours.

And I do think it opened doors for me. Music in television and music even in advertising is a really great thing for people who discover music in different ways than most people do. If you’re like this indie record freak and you find indie music through all the facets that you deem to be cool, then you’re already a valued member of the community. You’re already a valued fan.

But, if you don’t necessarily buy CDs and you don’t really listen to the radio and it’s not on at work and that’s not how you discover new music and you’re watching your favorite television show and you see a scene or a moment that really resonates with you and you hear a song playing. If you’re able to discover new music that way it can only be good.

HPR: Or, if you’re like me and your teenager has control of all of the music you hear…

Brandi: That’s right. And as a songwriter it’s like for all the reasons that people choose your music, radio or the reasons that you get signed to a record label, they’re not superficial but being chosen for a sync license means a programmer is listening to your music for all of its content. Lyrics, the instrumentation, how the song emotes and as a songwriter it feels good to know that someone is really dissecting your music and chooses it, for whatever reason.

HPR: My second fan question is do you think you could get into a middle aged gray haired guy and would you like a personal tour of Northeast Minneapolis in his minivan when you play the state fair in Saint Paul, the day after you play the Fargo Theatre?
Brandi: [Laughing] Yes and no! But that’s a sweet question. Tell him thank you.

HPR: Thank you so much for your time. I know how busy you are and I appreciate you taking time out to talk to me, and Fargo thanks you too.

Brandi: Fargo, by the way, it will be my first time in Fargo.

HPR: This will be your first time in Fargo?

Brandi: My first time and I’ve always wanted to go there because I’m a big fan and a good friend of Johnny Lang.

HPR: I’m so glad you associate him with Fargo because Minneapolis tries to claim him
as a hometown son but we all know he’s actually from Fargo.

Brandi: Well, I’ll say that Johnny got me all fired up about going to Fargo.

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If You Go

What: Brandi Carlile, Watson Twins
Where: Fargo Theatre
When: Sat, Aug 28, 8pm
Info: 701.239.8385