The music of singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile has been tagged with various labels by critics, from alt-country to folk to indie rock.
Although she has the pipes for Top 40 radio play, one label that has eluded Carlile is pop-princess. Judging from her response at the suggestion of turning pop, “princess” doesn’t seem like a title she’ll be referred to as any time soon.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been called a princess,” she said with a chuckle during a phone interview before a show in Tucson, Ariz. “I try to let the categorization take care of itself.”
Carlile, a 24-year-old chanteuse from the rural King County town of Ravensdale, has been touring non-stop for nearly two years in support of her self-titled major-label debut released by Columbia Records in 2005. Earlier this year she took a break to record her sophomore record with famed record producer T Bone Burnett in Vancouver, B.C. Burnett has worked with Bob Dylan, helped Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon with their singing for the film “Walk The Line” and won several awards for the soundtrack for “O, Brother, Where Art Thou?”
“He’s incredibly intelligent,” Carlile said. “He’s amazing and I would recommend him to anyone, he’s wonderful.”
Carlile said most of the material for her upcoming record, which is tentatively slated for release in March, was written while she was on the road. She recorded 18 songs during 12 days with Burnett and she said her familiarity with the new songs helped while making the record.
“It made the recording process a lot easier and a lot more fun,” she said.
However, Burnett realized Carlile’s familiarity was slightly hindering the songs, so he took his own approach to recording.
“He realized there was a slight downside to us having played these songs live for so long. He knew they needed to still sound fresh,” Carlile said.
One of the things Burnett did to keep the songs fresh was bring in studio drummer Matt Chamberlain. Chamberlain, a former drummer for Pearl Jam, has recorded with David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, Kanye West, John Mayer and others.
“We played a lot of songs that had never been played with drums with drums,” Carlile said. “To play the songs with such an incredible artist like Matt Chamberlain really made the songs feel like a brand new thing.”
Another thing Burnett did to keep things fresh was change up the instruments that were used for recording. For Carlile’s new album, he flew up his own instruments from Los Angeles.
“We weren’t allowed to use any of our touring instruments, which I though was pretty cool,” Carlile said. “We played on a lot of really great, incredible, vintage, warm instruments that told a great story.”
Carlile’s weapon of choice for the recording session was a 1932 Martin acoustic guitar.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Carlile said of the guitar.
The result is an album Carlile described as having an “epic” sound compared to her previous record, which was recorded in piecemeal fashion during an 18-month time period.
“We got to do the things on this record that we wanted to do while maintaining a stripped-down, organic approach,” she said. “We were able to do a much more dynamic record. That’s a lot of what our shows are like. People don’t realized they aren’t going to see people with acoustic guitars playing an acoustic show. We really go after it.”
Her debut album was met with plenty of critical acclaim upon its release. Rolling Stone named her one of its “Top 10 Artist to Watch” in 2005. But Carlile said while she appreciated the praise, she didn’t let it get to her head while making her follow-up album.
“I think hype is put into place to impress other people. Hype isn’t put into place to impress the artists. It didn’t really impress me. I thought someone was going to tap me on the shoulder and tell me that I didn’t belong in the hyped category,” she said.
“I just try to keep my head down and continue touring. The feedback you get after a show from fans, that’s what’s rewarding to me.”
