Interview with Carrellee

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

• Definitely the musical household I grew up in. It was almost too much music! I’m interested in art as healing, and art as therapy, and have an art therapy degree. I think our current society often assumes art-making is only performed on a stage, or for those who have attained some level of commercial success, and maybe the world would be better if that wasn’t the case.

What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

• I like to ponder about existence with friends, thru nature, and sometimes poetry. I like to see other bands in all different genres, and am I bit of a sponge that way. I think am pretty spacey and on the depressive side so making songs gives me an outlet to create a physical manifestation of my constant human worries. I’d like to make something beautiful out of it all.

How long have you been making music?

• My dad taught me jazz chords and music theory starting  at age 5, and made me practice 30 minutes a day even though I didn’t usually want to.

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

• I’m from Madison, Wisconsin and also spent quite a few years playing around in the Minneapolis music scene. Lots of people from Minneapolis had an impact on me and my music, especially working at a recording studio there, and also working and playing at the legendary and now defunct 400 Bar.

Tell me about your most memorable shows, if you haven’t played live what is your vision for a live show?

• Playing at First Avenue Main room in Minneapolis! I don’t care that the room was definitely not full.

What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?

• I can’t wait to play Verboden Festival in Vancouver in May 2023, and hit some cities on the way out there and back.

If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?

• How many can I include? How about Radiohead, Angel Olsen, Bjork, Depeche Mode, and then me headlining!

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into making music and some advice that you would give to your younger self?

• As an introvert that loves music, and solitary creativity, I would have pushed myself to make more friends, and make more music with other people, go to more shows, and support fellow creators, because I think that’s more fun and beneficial to artistic growth and being visible. Thinking its a competition or that you are alone, and the only one that values self-expression is self-defeating. I thought that at one time.

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

• Always without fail it is the song that I’m writing right NOW, then it quickly dissolves into the past. But right now I’d say Morning Sun, because it spurred a stretch of creative energy, through my divorce, and thru the start of the pandemic. It came to me in a dream, so to me it felt like I was possessed by something…it got me excited about synths and electronic sounds of all kinds and snowballed into writing about 50 other songs, and doing a weekly videos on Facebook.

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

• Morning Sun, Stay, Heaven Or

What is your creative process, and what inspires you to write your music?

• Almost always melodies and chord structures first, whatever feels right with how I’m feeling. Giving it words is always the most challenging but maybe most rewarding part.

Do you have messages that you like to get across in your music, if so please tell me about them?

• Not particularly. Except the belief that sharing our thoughts and feelings with each other through art is one of the main ways we as humans feel understood, and less alone. I also wonder why I’m usually fascinated by bleak or morose artists, and I concluded that sometimes we seek out the dark in order to see the light. I wonder if the closer we are to touching death and despair, the more joy we are capable of feeling.

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?

• Scale of Dreams, my debut from dark-wave label Negative Gain is coming out Nov 18th! A very limited amount of vinyl and cds are up on my website and Bandcamp.

How can your fans best keep up to date with you, any socials you want people to check out?

• www.carrellee.com for everything, and FB and IG too. Thank you!