Brandi Carlile has been nominated for a Grammy alongside Elton John for their collaborative album, Who Believes In Angels? Here's a chance to revisit our recent Aftershow interview with the US singer-songwriter...
Earlier this year, 11-time Grammy winner Brandi Carlile had a No.1 album alongside her musical hero Elton John. Here, she takes time out during a rollercoaster year to reflect on the “outrageous” reality of working with her idol, befriending Joni Mitchell and the power of musical activism…
INTERVIEW: ANNA FIELDING
PHOTO: PEGGY SIROTA
Discovering Elton John was a gateway drug into everything that informs my artistry now...
“I dressed as him for Halloween, I took homemade Elton John jewellery to school, I wrote essays about the underappreciation of his albums in the ’80s… I was doing a book report on a boy called Ryan White who had died of AIDS-related pneumonia in the ’90s, and there was this angelic but complicated rock star who had befriended him and sang a song called Skyline Pigeon at his funeral. So the first time I heard Elton’s music, I already loved him. He changed my worldview and I was raised in a conservative household, we only listened to country music and then here was this extravagant artist who was everything I didn’t have in my life.”
Making an album together was outrageous...
“Elton’s a genius and a madman when he’s creating. When you’re witnessing it you do feel that you are watching one of the great composers. In a different time he would have been considered in the same way as Bach because of the access he has to textures, chords, rhythm changes. He’s also thunderously loud when he plays, yells and sings. There’s something so formidable about him and [it would be hard] to hold your own in that situation, even if you didn’t spend your childhood in love with him.”
Joni Mitchell also had a profound impact on me…
“We met at a tribute concert for her 75th birthday. My wife [and manager Catherine Carlile] and a friend of Joni’s exchanged numbers. Catherine was trying to surprise me by getting something signed, but ended up spending a day with Joni. When they went out for dinner, Catherine asked if I could come. Joni said to me, ‘I don’t do music any more and I’m not sad about it… but I have all these instruments in a room and the room wants music.’ I started curating jams with friends for her. Over the course of five years, she started to join in, to the point where she decided to bless the world with more concerts. I got to sit shotgun for that shit! I get way too much credit for what she decided to do as she healed from her aneurysm. Russ Kunkel, who played drums on Blue, told me, ‘Don’t forget, Joni always has a plan.’”
Seeing artists like Chappell Roan, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker is a dream come true…
“I love it. Chappell doesn’t have anything to be ashamed of or embarrassed about, she’s just right out there. I hope that the Indigo Girls and KD Lang and Elton can look at me in the same way. There’s so much in the world to be upset about and to be disappointed in, but I think the progression of generational pride making its way through the LGBTQIA+ communities is gorgeous. I look at the trans community and what I love about them is that they’re so punk rock. They just refuse to be oppressed. There’s somebody in every generation that is just not having it.”
Activism is purer when it’s unintentional…
“I try to open myself up as a conduit and then look at my songs and I realise what I was trying to say. The Joke [which won two Grammys in 2019] is a song that is anthemic musically, but the lyrics are a complete dissection of my worries and my outrage at the oppression and limiting of eccentric and LGBTQIA+ people and the plight of displaced people. I really do believe that there’s a time coming where the script will be flipped, and that the last will be first.”
I write fewer songs than ever and that’s because my standards have changed…
“A big part of that is getting older and becoming more aware of the importance of substance and derivatives than when I was young. I used to just pick up a guitar all the time, I needed songs. Now I don’t think like that, I don’t feel that way. I’m fine if I don’t write a song for two years, which has happened, because I have to believe it will come back, that it’s supposed to. My standards are really high. If I don’t believe I will go and sit in front of Joni Mitchell and play her a song, then I don’t finish writing it. She doesn’t have to like it, I just have to feel proud when I’m playing it.”
Raising a family in music can be chaotic…
“It’s been this really incredible experience that has felt really untemplated, because we’re gay and the world is set up for mums and dads. Even the guys I’m in a band with, we all have two kids, but I travel with mine and they’re able to leave theirs at home. With me and Cath, we don’t know if we’re fucking it up, but we know that we have to be together and with the girls.”
