-
10 Questions with ... Kate Earl
December 3, 2012
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
1. What got you interested in the music?
I heard it from my mother's belly. She didn't crave strange foods; she wanted to buy a piano and she did -- she took lessons when she was pregnant.
2. Who were your favorite bands to listen to when you were a kid?
Some of my favorite bands were Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.
3. What is the toughest part of your "job"?
Traveling apart from my son.
4. What has been your biggest career highlight?
Having an encore at the London Palladium, when I was just opening for someone else!
5. What prompted you to leave Alaska and relocate to Los Angeles?
I followed a boy to Santa Barbara, then I followed music to Los Angeles.
6. Talk about working with Brett Dennen and Blake Mills for your new album, "Stronger."
The short answer is it's like I got to go back in time and kidnap a couple of the finest Laurel Canyon musicians right in their prime and have them dive into my record with me.
Brett is prolific. I call him baby Neil Young. He writes songs like a son of a gun! There were many times where I really leaned in to learn from him on this album because I admire what he stands for as a writer, and I wanted to understand it by giving myself over to the process he takes. His pages were covered in imagery that was hard to select from because you wanted to keep it all but there was too much. If I kept everything I loved, my songs would be nine minutes long!
Blake Mills I've known since he was a teenager; we were on the label Record Collection together back when Dawes was Simon Dawes. They sent us on tour together. Blake learned my songs and played them with me back when he couldn't be in bars and drinking venues any longer than his set because of his age. He was already blazing across the guitar then. Anyway I've never stopped being a fan. I always wanted to collaborate with him and I had so many transcendent moments watching him track this album. His instincts are beyond.
7. Who else played on the project?
Victor Indrizzio on drums (Alanis Morissette), Shawn Hurley on bass (John Mayer) and Zac Rae on keys (Fiona Apple)
8. You have said that you feel you "reached have a place of honesty" with this new album. What do you mean by that?
I didn't dodge the new journey I'm on in the family I have with my son: it would have been much easier to come up with a pile of love songs; about the strange journey of being a musician in Hollywood. Instead, I talk about being broke. I talk about being physical with someone when it will never go anywhere. I wrote about a dead soldier because I grew up with military families around me. I took on topics I wasn't sure I should write about before even though they were a part of me. I imagine that my writing will only get more honest.
9. What are your touring plans in the New Year?
It's still being worked out
10. If you were to leave the music business today and you could choose any other occupation, what would it be?
Music therapy or maybe planning small intimate weddings ... I'm a die-hard romantic.
Bonus Questions
Are you involved in charitable or humanitarian causes?
Always, but especially now that I am a mother, I am interested in aiding children because their lives are at the mercy of the world we provide for them.
-
-