Carrie Biell
By Rob Bergquist

Photo by Cat Biell

With the breadth and fullness of voice of someone twice her age, and the lyrical depth to match, it might come as a surprise to learn that singer/songwriter Carrie Biell didn’t start speaking until after she started grade school. “To be honest, there are still times that I am self-conscious about the way I talk,” Biell says amidst a flurry of conversation. Raised by her deaf mother — who slowly went blind — it’s no wonder then that this Seattleite would grow to write tactile songs that linger on each unique sound, like those that make up her latest album, When Your Feet Hit the Stars, released last month.

Biell formed her first band with her twin sister while in middle school, playing bass and mimicking the grunge scene. It wasn’t long before she tried a hand at writing her own music on guitar. By the time she was 17, Biell was persuaded by a friend to produce her own album. Titled Symphony of Sirens, this recording ended up garnering Biell enough attention to open for artists like Kristin Hersh, Eleni Mandell and Jenny Toomey. “While I would never record like that again, it really was a great learning experience. And it did open a lot of doors for me,” Biell says.

After going on to self-release two albums of mellow pop, Carrie decided to restructure her approach. She started working with local guitarist Steve Norman and her new sound was born. “Steve and I have done a lot of growing together as musicians. I can bring him a song and he knows almost instantly what to add to it, and he loves to learn new instruments so that we can get the sound just right,” says Biell. She also took her time to be selective about the rest of her band, choosing artists that could work and have fun together. “I finally feel like I have the right group of people to go on tour with,” she says, gearing up for her first West Coast tour that just concluded late last month.
On When Your Feet Hit the Stars, Biell exhibits an intense curiosity focused primarily on personal relationships and internal reactions. “I like to write when I am really emotional; or at night when I am alone. My songwriting is kind of like my journal,” she says. And while the album has a distinctively folk/country feel, it is Biell’s brooding vocals that set it apart from most material of that genre.

Biell pulled out all the stops when putting together this album: hiring an engineer she couldn’t quite afford, calling radio stations up and down the coast, working with Nice Promotions in an effort to get licensing deals. “It’s been a long time coming, this album, but all the work and money we’ve put into it is really worth it and I’m really excited to share the final product with people,” Biell says. It is clear her determination and passion for her music is unwavering. Biell attributes much of this to her mother. “She is really independent and it’s amazing because it definitely gives me a reality check and keeps me on track.”

Being integrated into the Seattle music community provides a great deal of inspiration for Biell as well. “A lot of the different music I hear here will inspire me to write new songs,” she says. Bands like The Cave Singers, Lightning Dust and Band of Horses have recently stimulated Biell’s writing. She sees her music going in a more psychedelic direction on future recordings as her sound continues to mature and expand. “I hope that 10 years down the road I am just that much better,” Biell says, adding, “I’ll also be a lot more self-aware.”

For Biell, music has always been the best way to forge and maintain connections. Whether it’s with her bandmates in the context of a recording session, the audience gathered around her at a show or with her mother — about whom much of Biell’s new album is about. It is fitting then that the album art for When Your Feet Hit the Stars is an image of a young girl, being pushed in a swing by her mom, trying to make her feet touch the stars and quietly aching — at the behest of her mother — for that tangible connection to the external world.

www.carriebiell.com