Brandi Carlile Joins the Hanseroth Twins to Talk About the Brothers Blossoming With ‘Vera,’ Their First Album Out on Their Own
At times, the three-part harmonic convergence of Brandi Carlile with longtime bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth has felt so much like blood harmony that you could fool yourself into thinking you’re hearing triplets. Of course, it’s been a case of identical twins +1, but now fans of their band are getting a chance to hear what the brothers sound like on their own, after 25 years of constant collaboration, via “Vera,” the official recorded debut of the Hanseroth Twins, on which Carlile served as executive producer
The Hanseroths and Carlile sat down with Variety in the green room of the Grammy Museum before they made an appearance there earlier this week, to discuss the recently Elektra release and what they’ve learned about one another from working apart as well as together.
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On stage later in the evening, Carlile served as moderator for a conversation before sitting down to watch the brothers regale the crowd at the Grammy Museum’s theater with an acoustic performance. Stories were shared about how, when she first met them, the twins were in a band that had a never-fulfilled record contract of their own, with Interscope, before fate decreed that that deal needed to stall so they come together more fatefully a trio with Brandi. And they played the rough recording they made in the late ’90s of “The Story,” with Phil singing lead, before they ever met the young woman who would make the song famous as her first breakout hit.
But in this convo, before Carlile started asking the questions, we got Carlile to answer her fair share of them, alongside her partners of the last quarter-century. (For Variety‘s interview from this past summer with just the brothers, click here.)
Brandi, what’s it been like for you, watching the twins finally resume a musical life as a duo they once had apart from you, when you first saw their band in Seattle? You’re all equals, so maybe we shouldn’t put in in the terms of a mother hen setting her chicks free or anything...
Carlile: They’re older than me, let’s be clear!
You probably wanted to be involved in the project but not hovering over it too much. You were involved in the process of making it, as executive producer, but you were also not super-hands-on the whole time.
Carlile: Well, some of it was just kind of a bird of circumstance where I was not around. And then towards the end when I got to be, of course I couldn’t keep myself from getting involved. But any time you’re in a relationship in life that’s voluntarily binding, where there’s a lot of love and a lot of trust, I think that for that relationship to grow and mature, a real joy can be gleaned from seeing those people be someone you haven’t seen them be before. I see it with my kids as they get older and become, like, people. I see it within my marriage. I’m watching my parents age and become different and softer and even have a better sense of humor about things. And in this relationship, which is probably one of the most voluntarily, benevolently binding relationships I’ve ever been in, this has been one of the first times musically that I’ve got to witness something outside of my expectation of who these people are.
Did you guys appreciate that balance of having her involved at a certain point, but obviously not intruding on your process?
Tim Hanseroth: We looked at her for a lot of creative input, especially when we got towards the end when we were mixing. We spent all this time with these songs, and it was so helpful for Brandi to come in and be like, “Hey, take that reverb off the vocals.” Which is actually my biggest (hang-up). I was like, “Oh God, no. Don’t make me sit there naked with my naked-ass voice.” Because in my mind it was like, “Cool, we got these songs — let’s put a beautiful, big reverb on there.” Not to hide behind it, but I guess to some degree, when you don’t consider yourself a real singer, it’s nice to have a little buffer on there, like a little blanket around your voice. Brandi came in and was like, “Hell, no!” And it’s good, because we obviously respect her. I trust her so much that I know she’s right, even when I don’t think she might be right.
Carlile: Like a fortune-telling machine?
Tim: It’s true. Today I was listening on the flight from Seattle, putting my earbuds in because I don’t want to forget the lyrics tonight. I was like, these sound perfect. They wouldn’t be right with any other mix. So her creative interest is always not just welcome but valued.
Phil Hanseroth: You know, we’ve been like working on music together for so long, there were times in the studio that we were recording where I’d find myself wondering, “What would Brandi do right here?” Like, “How would she sing this line? What chord would she go to?” And, like, I already knew the answer, you know? So in a way, I guess she was sort of not even there and still telling us what to do. [Laughter.]
Carlile: I’m sure it was a little bit more acidic than that. It was probably more like: “If I don’t go to this chord, she’s gonna fucking…”
Phil: She’s gonna make me punch it in.
Carlile: “She’s gonna do this in the mix regardless.”
We’ve heard the story of how one trigger for this Henseroth Twins album was them writing the song “Broken Homes” for your “In These Silent Days” album, Brandi, and you tried to record it but you just couldn’t invest yourself in these particular lyrics, because you are not a child of divorce yourself. And so if anyone was going to sing that song on a record, it was them. Was that a turning point for you, encouraging them to do their own thing, maybe thinking at some point, “If the twins weren’t writing for my voice, maybe they’d go off some different directions”?
Carlile: Yeah, it was fundamental, I think, to the idea. At least the part of it that was birthed from me was that these guys have spent so much of their adult lives writing words that are meaningful to them, because they don’t really write on assignment, and they really write from their own experience. They’re not storybook writers. And they’re sending me these words to see if I can get inside of ‘em, with me being a mouthpiece for their feelings and life experiences — but also ultimately having a final say myself about what I sing and what I don’t sing. And I always have had just a little twinge of pain every time I’m like, “You know, I’m gonna cut that line, because I’m a girl and I don’t wanna say I’m a guy.” Or, “You know, my parents are not divorced, so…” I’m not an actor. And they don’t ever look disappointed or have any feeling about it that would make me have that moment of regret. But I know that at some point in my life, I would need to write my own words about my own life and then say those words. I think it’s cool that they’ve gotten to do it now — and I think they should continue doing it.
You’ve been hearing them for so many years in your face and in your ears. Did anything surprise you about how they used their voices here?
Carlile: Well, their voices were designed by God to complete one another. It’s just so obvious to me that, in the same way that they developed in the womb as these freak little twins, they fucking grew up and (developed that) in their personalities, their instrumentation, the way that they move with such symmetry, and then eventually how their singing voices are there to complement one another as instruments. You’ve got a mellow, kind of pipey, wide-toned voice in Tim. And then you’ve got a sharp, horn-concentrated, loud voice with just a little bit of serrated edge — a little bit of grit — in Phil. And when those two voices come together, that’s like one thing.
In fact, as a producer and just a listener, I have never been able to abide the twins’ voice being separated in the speakers. You’ll never come to one of our shows and hear Phil out of the left side and Tim out of the right side. They’re gonna always be mixed together and coming out of the middle, because they’re just not meant to be separated, you know? And it’s the same on records …
Tim: Our harmonies sound bad when they’re blended apart instead of blended together. Not bad, but they just sound like they’re…
Carlile: Not bad. It just doesn’t sound like the Hanseroths, really.
Tim: There’s something that happens when (the voices) vibrate together.
Carlile: It’s like the Everlys.
They’ve had a few “solo” spots in Brandi Carlile in the past, singing a cover of “The Sound of Silence” or something in the middle of a show. But for the most part fans have wondered what their voices would sound like outside of the realm of three-part harmony, whether it’s lead vocals or two-part harmony.
Carlile: Yeah. I think people are enjoying hearing what it sounds like with me out of the chain.
Tim: It’s funny because when we were working up some of the harmonies in the studio, it was weird because you’re always in the middle ground between us. And it was so hard to find the harmonies on some of the songs. In fact, it was easier to not do harmonies on a couple of songs.
Carlile: “Down Below” is the one I sang on, because I was like, it’s just not right having Phil down there…
Tim: I know, that was one of kind of discovering: My God, what are our lanes now? Because Phil keeps on trying to sing my lead part on “Remember Me”…
Carlile: Oh really?
Tim: Because he thinks he’s supposed to be the high harmony all the time.
Phil: It’s so hard, after singing up top for the last 25 years up top, to make my voice feel like it’s gonna do the right thing by singing low. Mentally, it wants to go up to the ceiling
So it’s safe to say you’re excited about this record of theirs, Brandi?
Carlile: I love it. I’m thrilled. Absolutely thrilled with the brilliant, fantastic, enviable songwriting.
Tim: I heard that.
You all will be with Joni Mitchell at the two Hollywood Bowl shows in October. Are you rehearsing for that?
Carlile: Yeah, we’re rehearsing all of the time. Phil is doing Jaco (Pastorius) and shit (on bass), and Tim’s playing dulcimer… It’s just so good in life when you reach a certain age and a certain point to have things that are still gonna grow you. And this album for the twins is one of those things. Joni for all of us has been one of those things, consistently. And I’m excited to find out what the next thing is that’s gonna force us out of our shape.
Any predictions you want to make for people for when you’ll all be doing a full tour together?
Carlile: A tour-tour? Oh, I don’t know. I think it’s gonna be a hot minute. There’s some big things that need to happen first, and the kids just started school. But we are laying the groundwork for it, and I think it’ll be our most potent tour ever.
What’s it been like kind of mostly taking a year off from one another — a very few one-off shows a trio excepted? Because most people in a band would be like, “Oh, absence makes the heart grow fonder.” But I’ve seen where you guys live, so I know that it’s a little different. [They live in adjacent residences on a compound in Washington.] So it can never be like, “Oh, what have you guys been up to for the last nine months?”
Carlile: I don’t even really ever see it as a break. I just saw it as one of the many things that’s happening while other things are happening. We’re still playing (isolated) shows. We’re still rehearsing with Joni. We’re running over to England and playing Hyde Park, and then you coming back to get your mixes done.
Tim: It hasn’t been a break, it’s just not a full-force-like freight train this year. It’s actually pretty nice.
Carlile: And I’ve always fucked off and done many other things while these guys are staying in Seattle or going elsewhere themselves, you know. We are just busy people, together and alone. To quote Courtney Marie Andrews [she begins singing], “Together or alone…”
Phil: Yeah, it’s actually not too different. The context is different, but we’re still around each other all the time. We’re (seeing each other) as family instead of business.
Carlile: Oh, I never shut up about business.
Phil: Don’t let her fool you. She does talk about business, but she does it while sitting on an excavator, ripping through the land, clawing dirt away 2000 pounds at a time.
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