Cathy Biell
Carrie Biell
With her third full-length release, the Seattle-based singer-songwriter musician aims for the stars, if not stardom
By Sheba White
Published: October 26th, 2007 | 4:51pm
Carrie Biell began playing guitar as a way to write songs, though it wasn’t the first instrument she learned to play and it wasn’t easy. “My sister started playing guitar before me, but she would never teach me,” says the 26-year-old Seattle-based ex-bassist. “Just by sound, I picked up a lot of the chords she was playing. After a while, it became more of my focus in order to write songs. That’s just something you can’t do on bass.”
There are a number of fortuitous moments sprinkled throughout the singer-songwriter’s background. All eventually lead to her third full-length When Your Feet Hit the Stars. Critically acclaimed as a folk-country gem, the album showcases Biell’s penchant for forthright lyrics and themes of strained relationships, which are delivered in a melancholy, lilting twang. “I don’t really feel that sad,” Biell explains. “I think some things come off sadder than I actually am. It’s just me working through it and seeing the light at the end.”
Born in Montclair, California, and raised in a deaf household (Biell’s mother is blind and both parents are deaf), Biell’s early life in an atmosphere where “very little music was played” suggested a future outside of music. It wasn’t until her mother’s remarriage that she and her sisters were introduced to constant music appreciation by their new stepbrothers. “My stepbrothers always had music on. After that I was hooked,” Biell says and describes “serious” practice sessions with a fake guitar in those early days.
This youthful obsession led to performances at small venues in and around Seattle in her early teens. At 19, she released her first full-length album, Symphony of Sirens, through a chance meeting with another local musician who encouraged her to self-release what she already had. “I was young, and I wanted to be a rock star. I wanted to get out there. I was just a little bit ahead of myself. Now there’s a record out there that I don’t want anyone to hear,” Biell laughs. Biell claims that the her first album reflected her lyrical immaturity at the time. “But before, during, and after this new album I really sat back and took more time to figure out what I wanted,” she adds.
Despite the “long process” of recording Hit the Stars, which took six months, Biell is pleased with the results, if a little anxious to get on with the next project. “By the time the record is out, you’re like, ‘Oh man, I’ve got all these other songs,’” she says. Her newfound enthusiasm may also be attributed to the addition of two band mates: Steve Norman on Dobro guitar, pedal steel guitar, banjo, and electric guitar, and Scott Kennedy on second electric guitar and piano.
Norman was instrumental in the new album’s overall sound, but both members have been collaborating with Biell on newer songs, which Biell hopes will move beyond the country leaning of Hit the Stars. “With Steve playing those country instruments,” Biell says, “It kind of made me write more country songs. Now I’m like, ‘Well, I did that!’ I want to be a little less country [on the next recording]. I like what I did, but now I can have some of those elements and not write a country song.”
In the meantime Biell’s goal is to evolve lyrically (she’s particularly fond of Smog’s lyrical control at this time), tour the new material — “It’s actually more fun to play them live than to listen to the record at this point,” she says — and expand as an artist as much as possible.
She’s especially proud to be looking at the next project with less impulsiveness and a better grasp of her capabilities, unlike the experience she had with her first release. “I don’t want to knock it too much, because it actually did open doors,” Biell says, referring to Symphony of Sirens. “That’s when I first started playing bigger venues. I got to open for Kristin Hirsh off that record, which was awesome. So, it actually did some good. It wasn’t the worst thing ever.”
Issue #35
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