A Conversation with Brandi Carlile (continued)

PM: So to me one of the most impressive things about you on first listen is the degree of vocal control at your command, especially all the different kinds of breaks you do with your voice. Did you study at any point, or did you just teach yourself to grab control of your voice?

BC: No, I never studied or anything like that at all. My voice just kind of developed that way. And over time, having to sing over loud patrons in smoky bars caused my voice to develop a louder more aggressive edge to it than I think that it would have if I hadn't had those experiences, experience with the busking and singing in bars, and things like that. But it just eventually developed this way. It's a really strange thing. And the most studying or actually paying attention to it I've ever had to do was in the last couple of years, we have a really rigorous tour schedule, and my voice started getting really beat up, and I had to pay attention, and maybe change some of the things I was doing wrong.

PM: Do you breathe right, and all that stuff? Or are you having to learn that now?

BC: I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I breathe right. That's a good question.

PM: Do you sing from your diaphragm, or do you sing from your chest area?

BC: I definitely sing from my diaphragm for sure.

PM: It certainly sounds like it.

BC: But I don't really know if I breathe right. When I'm singing it I'm not thinking about it, I'm just like sort of going for it. And I don't know how to hold back. I don't know the difference between a record store in-store and a giant theater.

PM: [laughs] I can believe that. Whose vocal stylings or sounds were an influence on you growing up? Any singers that really were a big influence?

BC:Well, there were different kinds of singers. There were ones that amazed me, like I couldn't believe they could sing like that. And then there were singers that I was really endeared to, and loved their voices for different reasons, like Bob Dylan, Patsy Cline--well, Patsy Cline was one of the people whose vocals astounded me. But I was actually blown away by k.d. lang.

PM: She's incredible.

BC: And I was knocked out by Freddie Mercury and absolutely captivated by how he sang.

PM: Wow, just some of the greatest singers. You're so grown up for your age, it's unbelievable.

[laughter]

PM: Another thing that's really distinctive about your overall sound with the group is how country you can be on the one hand, even a lot of the time, and then how convincingly rock on the title song, where it rocks super hard. Is that how Columbia thought the single should sound, or that's just the way the band conceived that single?

BC: It's so funny the things you hear about record labels, and their intrusiveness, but they stayed so far away from how we sound and how we construct our songs. We've never felt any pressure from them to sound a certain way or to not sound so country, not sound so rock. And if they did, they would be met with the utmost resistance.

PM: [laughs]

BC: But I guess I'm a Gemini, so I'm like both of the twins. But I was really brought up listening to classic country music and The Grand Old Opry, and singing Opry songs. And then I got to a certain age, and I didn't want to sing my parents' music anymore. I really wanted to get all that country sound out of my voice and out of everything that I did. And then it comes around full circle, eventually. I think everybody experiences that in life, whether it's where they move, or what their parents think or believe. You kind of get away for a while, and then come back to it. And it becomes less about what you like or what you prefer, and more about what you are.

PM: Well, yeah, I think for some people it comes around sooner than others. And I think you're just a kind of a real mature and evolved person, for whom it came around a lot more quickly.

[laughter]

BC: Yeah, I don't know.

PM: I mean, people say that in their forties.

BC: I think I've got a long way to go.

PM: People in their forties might say, "It all came around, I finally saw who I was," but some people do it at 25.

BC: Maybe I'm just a really good bullshitter.

PM: [laughs]         continue

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