STARPOLISH: What was one of your earliest
experiences with music?

 BRANDI CARLILE: Well I used to go see my mom sing at
this place called the Northwest Grand Ol’ Opry out where I live and one night
before my mom came on this little girl, nine-years-old, came on and sang “Code
of Many Colors.” I told my mom that I wanted to do that and that I could do
it.  So the next weekend I went up and sang “Tennessee Flat-Top Box” by
Rosanne Cash and from that weekend on for years I was always singing at the
Northwest Grand Ol’ Opry.  Then in Junior High School I started playing
instruments and joining bands and writing songs and then the natural progression
to here was just doing that. 

STARPOLISH: Did you really have a crush on Elton John
and have a picture of lyricist Bernie Taupin hanging on your wall as a young
girl? 

CARLILE: I don’t know if you’d call it a crush as much as an
obsession (laughs).  I just loved Elton John and Bernie Taupin too.  I
thought that they were just the two most talented people on the face of the
Earth.  Bernie Taupin’s the reason I started writing lyrics.  See the
Northwest Grand Ol’ Opry where I was singing was really my only exposure to
music because I lived out in the woods.  So it was always country
music.  One day they let this guy come on and sing Elton John songs. 
He sang “Skyline Pigeon” and he sang “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”  That
just freaked me out.  I thought it was so good.  It was my first
exposure to pop music.  I went and I got Yellow Brick Road, first album I
ever owned. I just fell in love with the stories and the music and the
harmonies and the singing.  It blew my mind you know?  And I bought
every single Elton John record ever made.  I cut the pictures out of the
record sleeves and I hung them all over my wall.  So yeah, I had Bernie
Taupin on my wall from the time I was about twelve years old.

STARPOLISH: What was one of the first songs you
wrote?

CARLILE: My mom says I wrote one when I was about three and
a half about swing sets.  When I was about eleven-years-old I wrote a song
on guitar that only had two strings on it called “Ride On Out.”  It was
like a cowboy song about falling asleep in the saddle and riding on out into the
desert.  It was kind of funny.  It was a Willie Nelson-type song.

STARPOLISH: Artists who write from the heart like you do
often tell me they feel their songs take on their own lives.  Do you feel
like you control what you write or do the songs dictate what they want to say
and sound like?

CARLILE: Well I think they’re better when they do take on
their own lives, but the truth is sometimes I set out to write a song and I’ll
write it and it’s a very intellectual process.  But sometimes it does take
on its on life to where you don’t even know what you’re writing until it’s
over.  Then it kind of tells you what it’s about.  You know? 
Yeah, definitely that happens to me all the time.

STARPOLISH: You retreated back into nature, living in an
isolated cabin during the making of this album?

CARLILE: Well it’s really all I know.  I’ve grown up
there and I still live there—not in the same cabin—but in the same area…I never
really moved out of the country for the most part.  It’s where I’m most
comfortable.  I learn more from being in the city just because that’s not
the way that I’ve grown up. 

STARPOLISH: What do bandmates Tim and Phil Hanseroth or
“the Twins,” as you call them, contribute?

CARLILE: The next album is already written.  Me and the
Twins have all our music together so we’re really prolific because when one of
us isn’t writing, the other two are. 

STARPOLISH: You’ve mentioned that “Throw It All Away” is
probably your favorite song on the record; that it’s close to your heart and
that re-recording it allowed you to take it closer to where you originally
envisioned it going.  What’s the significance of the song and how did you
approach it differently the second round.

CARLILE: That song is collaboration between me and
Tim.  He had the song started and wrote some verses for it and I added the
rest of the verses and then wrote the chorus.  I just love the song not
necessarily for the lyrical content, but because of the mood.  It moves in
a way that’s like a nursery rhyme or it’s like a Roy Orbison song or a lullaby
or something.  To me it’s just as vibey as hell…I think it’s my
favorite.

STARPOLISH: You hinted that the approach to this song
foreshadows what’s to come on the next record?

CARLILE: I think it will maybe head in more of an epic
direction…There will still be acoustic barn-burners like “Closer To You” and
“What Would I Say” but probably more Radiohead-type songs. 

STARPOLISH: You perform both alone acoustically and with
your band.  Describe how the songs communicate differently in those
environments?

CARLILE: It’s a little more dramatic with the full band, but
it’s the same.  Think about a Van Morrison record.  If you listen
honestly you don’t even know there are drums on the songs until the second or
third time you listen to it because it’s a song that was obviously written with
a voice and an acoustic guitar and everything else is just accompaniment to make
things bigger and stronger and more dramatic.  I think our music’s a lot
like that.  You can really tell it’s essentially an acoustic guitar and a
vocal and some harmony.  And when you add things on top of that, it’s just
accompaniment.  That’s why you can strip it down to nothing.

STARPOLISH: Will you talk about some songs in more
depth?

CARLILE: It’s kind of funny.  You can tell the songs
that are mine lyrically because I tend to write from a place of
discontentment.  I write about things I’m puzzled about or I’m worried
about or the things that upset me because that’s how I communicate with
myself. 

That’s how I get those feelings out.  I don’t tend to write really happy
songs or love songs because either when I’m happy or in love, it’s like I’m not
inspired to write—maybe I’m inspired to do other things. “In My Own Eyes” is a
song about being self-conscious and wondering how other people see me. 
“Happy” is about a childhood friendship that I moved on past, which I never
thought that I would.  It’s like your best friend when you’re a kid and you
think you’re always going to be best friends and you’d be maid of honor at each
others’ weddings, you know what I mean?  But then you go your separate
ways.  “Closer To You” is about our first tour.  I had been playing
music for a long time and working hard, but one thing I didn’t get to see very
much of was the rest of the country.  I kind of wrote that song looking out
the windows of the van—the rows of hay that last for 800 yards.  It’s just
seeing those kinds of things and just being homesick for the first time. 
“Happy” is about an old friend of mine, Amber Lee.  “Tragedy” is my
song.  All my songs are, I don’t know?  I suppose they’re not super
positive are they?” (laughs). 

Learn more about Brandi Carlile at href="http://www.brandicarlile.com">www.brandicarlile.com.

 Tina Whelski is Managing Editor of Starpolish.com.  She is
also Editor of Womanrock.com href="http://www.womanrock.com">www.womanrock.com , a columnist
and feature writer for The Aquarian Weekly/East Coast Rocker href="http://www.theaquarian.com">www.theaquarian.com, and
contributes to Music Connection href="http://www.musicconnection.com">www.musicconnection.com.
Additionally she has written for The Hollywood Reporter, Modern Drummer and
consults for Fearless Music TV href="http://www.fearlessmusic.com">www.fearlessmusic.com