Singer, songwriter, and producer Brandi Carlile spoke to host Jill Riley about performing at the upcoming Super Bowl, being a human, and her strong connection to Minnesota.

Listen to the full interview in the player above, and find a complete transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current, I'm Jill Riley. Last fall, Brandi Carlile released her eighth studio album, Returning to Myself, and the Minnesota chapter of the Bramily, yeah, we're looking forward to Brandi Carlile's tour stop at Target Center on February 21. Brandi Carlile, welcome to The Current. How are you?

Brandi Carlile: I'm really well. Thank you. How are you, Jill?

Jill Riley: We're doing all right here, we're doing all right in Minnesota. Before you hit the road for the tour in support of Returning to Myself, you've got a pretty big performance coming up. You’re gonna sing "America the Beautiful" at the Super Bowl. Can we start by talking about that?

Brandi Carlile: Absolutely.

Jill Riley: So how did that come about?

Brandi Carlile: Well, it's such a strange thing. I mean, someone thought of me to do it and reached out, you know. And "America the Beautiful" is, I don't know how many people are really, molecularly, well aware of how spectacular that song is, but it is such a wonderful song, and that is the country that we can all get behind right now, the one that's talked about in that song. And then the verses that I don't get to sing, the other ones that are harder to find, are even more beautiful. It's just all around something that I can get behind. It feels like one of those, one of those things I never saw coming in my career, but I'm ready. I'm going to rise to the occasion and follow my heart, and get behind what I can get behind.

Jill Riley: Yeah, best of luck. Brandi Carlile on the line. Recently, you just got back from Mexico from the Girls Just Wanna Weekend. How did it feel to be down there?

Brandi Carlile: It was incredible this year. It was by far the queerest one we've ever done, which I loved that, too. There was such a contingency represented. I've never seen more men at the festival. And I think everybody was there in this kind of space of support and surrogacy for our Minneapolis and Minnesota chapter of the Bramily. And we held a vigil for Renee Good on the last night, and it was something that was really meaningful, I think, and cathartic for the people that had come from your area to celebrate. It's a difficult thing to know how to grieve and celebrate at the same time, how to be in joy, and pain, and in fear, and resistance at the same time, but we figured it out, and I was really happy to be there and witness that, because you guys are so important to me.

Jill Riley: Yeah, wow. Yeah, it is. As you point out, just how two realities can exist at the same time.

Brandi Carlile: And that one might be essential for the other, you know? You can't crack a smile and have some joy, then you can't move the needle forward, you can't resist in the way that you need to.

Jill Riley: Yeah, and coming together in community and celebrating what I feel, and I think a lot of people listening right now feel, that if there is any kind of coping mechanism that feels universal, it's really this power of getting together and celebrating music and music that really touches us in a very similar way.

On the line with Brandi Carlile on The Current. The past couple years reading about your work with and your support of and your friendship with Joni Mitchell, but then also your creative relationship, and your friendship with Elton John. And then, as the album is titled, Returning to Myself. So I wonder if you could talk about that, what it meant to return to yourself?

Brandi Carlile: You know, I feel like Minnesotans are in a position to understand this about me, because we’ve got such a long history together. This is a place that I've been coming to since the very beginning, and have always had the most people at my show, more than Seattle, every single time, and it became a second home to me. There have been many evolutions and many iterations of myself there in the Twin Cities, and in Minnesota. It's like I always wanted to be famous since I was a little girl, but I grow tired of myself very quickly. And what I'm really jacked by is my heroes and my idols, they're like baseball cards to me, I've been collecting them. And when “The Joke” did what it did, and when, “By The Way, I Forgive You” did what it did, I finally had the opportunity where I was going to get my calls returned, and I just went in. I went and found everyone I ever loved. And I said, “What can I do? How can I be in your life? Like, what can we do? Do music together?” This is my moment. Let me have it while it lasts, because you just never know how long it's going to last. And next thing I knew, I was looking back, and it was five years later, six years later, and I hadn't really checked in with myself as an artist. I wasn't writing songs like I used to. I was never alone. I was never just me and my guitar. And I kind of journeyed back in this midlife crisis-ey kind of way to whoever was, that 17-year-old on the side of the bed that just played guitar till the sun come up and didn't know what happened or the time. And then, from that perspective, I made this album, and now that I've done it, I've done it, I don't need to, I can go back to being with everyone else. But I did need to take a moment and reconnect. So that's what you're hearing when you hear "Human" and when you hear this album.

Jill Riley: When you talk about returning to yourself, was that something that you felt like maybe you had been putting off, in a way? Was there fear in doing that? Could you talk about that a little bit?

Brandi Carlile: I've always been really adverse to the concept of self-care and self-discovery, just self anything. And not because I'm a martyr or something lame like that. It's just been some part of me that's just under evolved, just a bit undercooked, and I started to recognize, because I'm in my mid-40s now, that it's not a good idea to be adverse to a concept like that. And I just took a second look at it, and I don't want to atrophy in my beliefs. I wanted to question why I was so unable to be with myself. And so I did do it. But I do think that the inward journey should be one that's U-shaped. I think that you do go in, but you got to come back out. You can't just go in there and stay.

Jill Riley: Talking with Brandi Carlile on The Current. I wanted to talk about the song "Human" from the record, we've been playing it on The Current. There are a number of producers listed on this song, some familiar names. You are listed as a producer, but also super producer Andrew Watts, and Aaron Dessner on there as well, and a name that we know very well in our region, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. I wonder if you could talk about the song "Human," and where you were at in the creative process when you wrote that song?

Brandi Carlile: Well, it started with an emotional catharsis, like all of my favorite songs do, and made its way into being one of my favorite power ballads now, that I've ever been a part of. Musically, it was tiny. It started out as this almost like — you know, The Avett Brothers song "Murder in the City?" It started out like that, except on piano. And that was kind of like a North Star to me, sort of like, beginning to make that lyric into the song that became "Human." And the more people that got involved in it musically, the more they all related to it in these different ways. And I started to see how diverse it is to be human. And it just started to feel more and more like an anthem and a protest. And it just developed into something that I think, and I hope, everybody can relate to. I hope it's a relief valve for you when you hear it, to remind yourself that you're human, that you're already good, you're already justified in being here, just by virtue of being human. And then once you know that, you don't turn it into apathy, you turn it into activism.

Jill Riley: We're talking about the song "Human." Brandi Carlile is on the line, and I think the song just it really feels like it's hitting the spot right now in the time and place we're in, I think especially with with folks in Minnesota. I wanted to tell you that, that I feel like it's just hitting different right now in this in this time and place.

Brandi Carlile: Yeah, I do, too. It hits me every time I sing it, and I hope that somewhere around mid-tour, I'll be able to get through it without feeling so emotional at the end of the song, I can't keep it together vocally, but that's where I'm at right now. Actually it's not, it's just like "The Joke," in that, in "The Joke," I never actually nailed the end of that song until the Grammys. I did it in the studio, and then it was never right again until that point. And "Human" is like that right now, and I know that it's because I'm not really meant to be on top of that song. I'm not really meant to have a handle on it. It's still got a handle on me.

Jill Riley: That's really interesting. I remember watching you perform "The Joke" on the Grammys, and I was in tears because I remember — it's almost like there was a little celebration from you at the end of the song, and I think we really felt that, as longtime fans of your work.

Brandi Carlile: "The Joke" was like a bucking bronco, and I just couldn't get eight seconds. And then the time I got eight seconds was on national television, you know? And that's still "Human" to me. I have not, I have still to this moment, not nailed "Human." Maybe Minneapolis will be the night.

Jill Riley: Well, maybe it will. We've often wondered how you make it through some of your songs without crying, because I don't know if I've been to one of your concerts and not shed some tears, but you know what? That's good. We can't wait to feel that in the same space as you at Target Center on February 21, when the Brandi Carlile tour comes through town. Oh my goodness. Good luck with the Super Bowl performance. We're looking forward to seeing you on national TV once again, and we look forward to having you back in Minnesota, Brandi.

Brandi Carlile: Thanks, Jill. And I want you to know, and I want everybody in Minnesota that listens to my music or doesn't to know, that you have been in my heart every second, and that you haven't just been in my prayers, you have been my prayers and will continue to be.

Jill Riley: Thank you for those words. Brandi Carlile, take care. We look forward to seeing you.

Brandi Carlile: Thank you. Me too.

Jill Riley: You are listening to The Current.

Credits

Guest – Brandi Carlile
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Nilufer Arsala
Digital Producer - Natalia Toledo

External Link

Brandi Carlile – official site