A Conversation with Brandi Carlile (continued)

PM: What about the decision to cut the album to tape, mostly live--how did that decision arise?

BC: Just because of the records that we all are influenced by, and listened to growing up--they're recorded to tape, and they're constructed mostly live. And I just feel like we're in a time today where music is very constructed--

PM: Sure, absolutely.

BC: I don't want to get down on any other musicians or artists, or anything like that, but I just feel like there are enough songs and enough singles and enough downloads of the whatever, and not enough records full of performances. We just wanted to make a record that was full of performances instead of just songs. The only way to do that, I think, is to record live.

PM: And when it comes down to the fatness of tape, an analog approach, I mean, it's just incredible, really, when you think how our entire musical scene has been boiled down to zeros and ones.

BC: Yeah, totally, exactly. It's not incredible that I've been able to record to tape, it's incredible that most bands don't. That's what's incredible.

PM: I think everybody was afraid for a while there that tape was going to go away.

BC: No, it's not going away.

PM: Because the tape was literally running out, and like the government had to bail out Quantegy and some of these big companies, and say, "Okay, okay, we need this tape for NASA, and we need it for this and this, we'll shovel some money in here." But there was a point in time where all the recording studios in Nashville were starting to--everybody was just going to Protools, to Nuendo, and saying about tape, "Hey, this shit is going away, man. Let's get out of it."

BC: Oh, I know. I had a producer friend who was saying the exact same thing, "It's going away. It's going to crash and burn. It's going to be the new eight-track." But I think that it'll always be around, it's just expensive.

PM: I hope so. And I wonder sometimes, gee, I wonder if records are going to come back. I mean, there are always these little companies that do LPs, or they do a lot in Europe or this or that. But I heard a Sly Stone record at a friend's basement a while back, and it scared the hell out of me, it was so fat, hearing Sly Stone on an LP.

BC: That's funny that you say "It's so fat," because that's exactly what it is for sure. I know some independent record store owners that I was talking to this year about record sales, and how the independent record stores are hanging compared to the majors. And they were saying that one of the biggest things that they did the last two years was new vinyl.

PM: Really?

BC: People are starting to really get into vinyl again. They're starting to realize how many more dimensions there are to it. And I think that's really cool.

PM: And I thought that the analog recording did a lot for your voice, because your voice is, pardon the expression, so fat that it really brings out qualities that zeros and ones were not going to do the same job on.

BC: No. But actually we put our record out on vinyl.

PM: Really?

BC: Yeah, we did. We pressed like 1500 vinyls, and took them on our first tour promoting The Story, and sold all of them on tour.

PM: You're amazing. Do you know what mics were being used to capture your vocal sound in the studio?

BC: I wish I did. It slipped my mind to really check for that. I was so like caught up in the instruments that we were playing that I didn't even think about the mics.

PM: It's probably some old Neumanns, or something. But that's something to find out from the producer.

BC: I know I was singing into the microphone that Ralph Stanley sang "Oh, Death" into for Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

PM: What?

BC: Yeah.

PM: Well, that alone probably makes it a Neumann U47. That's interesting. You said somewhere that your producer T Bone Burnett helped you hear through fresh ears the older songs like "Turpentine" that you wrote in your teens. To me that sounded like really high praise. It's not easy to do that. And I'm interested in how he kind of helped you approach older tunes with fresh ears. What was his approach?

BC: It's more or less the way he creates an environment. An environment that you can sort of perform in. It wasn't so much an accumulation of ideas, it just was kind of a presence. He's that kind of a person. But I know what it was that made the songs sound and feel fresh. Being in a room with him was definitely part of it. We were running through the songs, and he was playing acoustic guitar, and it was really cool. And having Matt Chamberlain playing drums on the songs totally breathed new life into them like you couldn't believe. T Bone also brought this incredible vintage instrument collection up to Vancouver where we recorded the record. And we ended up playing guitars from the 20s and 30s.

PM: Wow!

BC: It was just really, really cool. I think that's a huge part of why the record sounds the way it does.

PM: There's nothing like old guitars.

BC: Yeah. And when you're a touring band there's nothing like your own guitar. So it doesn't make sense why you shouldn't play your own guitar in the studio. Then you realize that there's a routine there, and a workman-like feel that comes with your road guitar that you may not want on your record.

PM: Yeah, this is the guitar I play every day. I don't need to play this.

BC: Right.

PM: Well, yeah, there's something about getting a guitar from the 30s, in front of a mic from the 40s. And it's like, yeah, that sounds about right.

BC: Yes. You're very conscious of whatever you're playing, and not hacking away on a fine instrument.

PM: Yeah, right.

BC: I better not drop this $40,000 guitar, T Bone would not be amused.

PM: So what's he like as a guy, like in the studio? I mean, was he like a brother, like a friend, like an uncle, like a producer? What's his kind of personality like?

BC: Well, thank God he's not like a producer. [laughs] He's definitely got a presence about him. That's for sure. Very funny, too. He has a good sense of humor and a vast knowledge of music. It's funny when you think you know classic country music, and then some guy shows up with hundreds of people you've never heard of before, old recordings that you can't even believe exist, and he's just like playing them one after the other.

PM: Incredible.     continue

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