InterviewsMusic

Brandi Carlile on “Bear Creek,” her personal style and if she’ll ever get married

AE: What is it with you and social media? You don’t do your own Twitter or Facebook. Is it something you’re not interested in or have you ever thought about it?
BC: [Laughs] Yeah, I’m such a Luddite, right?

AE: Well, it’s just obvious when the post is “Brandi’s doing this today!” and I’m like “That is not Brandi.”
BC: You’re right, you’re right. But, check this out: I’m getting into it right now.

AE: What? Are you gonna be on Twitter?
BC: I think I might. I’m starting to get into it. I’m acquiring from my friends who are doing it, you know. I’m a little bit slow to that whole thing. I’m like Elton John. I’m always ten minutes late to everything cool, from clothes to food to music to technology. But I’m starting to really get into it. And the reason, Trish, is I’ve been on the road forever and being a bus is like being on a timecapsule — it really is. There’s no air, there’s no light. There are a lot of things about me that haven’t, that have been neglected over the last ten years. So I’m totally out of touch. I don’t have a single app. Even things that have to do with my personal life and my family and facing up to stuff because being on that bus is like being on a timecapsule and it gets really comfortable after a while. Waking up at 2 p.m., going straight to sound check, have dinner, play a gig every day for the last eight years has made me not notice a lot of things. So I’ve been off the road now since Christmas — so that’s like six months I’ve been off the road and it’s the longest break I’ve ever taken in my career. My being off Twitter is the result of that.

AE: Are you bringing your girlfriend on the road with you?
BC: Oh yeah!

AE: What is your fun when you’re bored on the road?
BC: Well it’s cool that she’ll be with me because she’ll get me up and off the bus, you know. She won’t tolerate sitting around. She’ll absolutely have me out going on walks and going to find a lake or a pond to fish in in something like that and on days off I go fishing. But I’m going to start getting up earlier and getting out in the towns that we’re staying in and just keep my head right. I don’t want to be in just band-tour-focus mode.

Brandi with girlfriend Catherine Shepherd (Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

AE: You seem like you’re very fit — do you work out?
BC: Yeah, yeah. Thank you for saying that, Trish.

AE: [Laughs] Well, I’m just saying.
BC: I focus on the core stuff because I think it has to do with vocal cords now. I think when people have vocal problems, nine times out of ten — it has been this for me, that’s how I know — is that the problem isn’t singing to hard or volume or singing wrong or straining, it’s affectation, which is trying to make your voice sound like something it naturally isn’t. And it’s overcompensation for a weak core. So if you’re going to push and have volume when you don’t have a strong abdomen, diaphragm, you’re going to lean heavily on your throat and your sort of head-chest. And if you have a strong core, it naturally comes from there, so I try to work out my core as much as I can before I go on tour.

AE: Do you do anything on the bus?
BC: [Laughs] Some days. Some days you might catch me in my yoga pants working out.

AE: What are you looking forward to about touring with Dave Matthews? it seems like it’ll be a little bit of a different crowd than typical Brandi Carlile show.
BC: The crowd is absolutely — it’s so diametrically different than my crowds that it’s an absolute pleasure. I opened for Dave the first time, properly, last year in New York and his crowd was, literally, unbelievable. They were so kind, they justt constantly yelled out encouraging things and listened to the songs. They almost give you instant feedback, they just sit there and yell feedback, like “That was really good — you should do more country tunes!” “I like what you did with your hair!” It’s really sweet. They’re awesome. And I think that’s because Dave, himself, is a compelling and engaging person when he’s on stage, they really feel like they’re part of his family.

AE: In all fairness, I feel your fans are always yelling out marriage proposals and things so it’s not like you don’t get that, too.
BC: Yeah, you’re right. My crowd is the same in that way, they’re just as encouraging and things like that. This crowd — I don’t know how to say it. They’re really different from my crowd. They have this traveling Grateful Dead mentality. They remind me of what it would be like to be a deadhead.

AE: Do you consider yourself a country artist? It seems like you’re not positioned that way, but a lot of your songs, if not full-on country, have a hint of it.
BC: If I am, then it’s only what it should be. Country music, aside from being a genre, I think it’s naturally just a lifestyle. People call country music, country music like it’s just something on the radio or the way people dress, but it’s just rural music, really. Anything that has rural themes falls into that category. So I basically live on a farm with chickens so I don’t know how I couldn’t be a country artist.

Photo by Frank Ockenfels

AE: So now that Washington is in the process of legalizing gay marriage, do you think you’ll ever get married?
BC: Yes, absolutely.

AE: You’re that kind of girl; you’re the marrying kind?
BC: Yeah, I am! I’m that kind of girl. For sure. And I’m doing a video tomorrow for Musicians for Marriage Equality and I’m doing a lot of work within channels of Washington state to make sure that passes this time. I’m so aware of this issue and I’m really pleased about what Barack Obama said and I do believe that this is a civil rights issue and that humans can move on past it.

Bear Creek is out today. Follow her on Twitter and tell her @afterellen sent you.

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