With Returning to Myself, the American singer and songwriter explores her solitude, her faith and her relationship with time. Surrounded by Andrew Watt and Aaron Dessner, Brandi Carlile creates an introspective album where humanity takes precedence over performance.
Don’t miss Brandi Carlile in concert at the Seine Musicale (Boulogne-Billancourt) on October 23, 2026. Places are available.
“I needed silence to understand who I was”
It’s past noon in Nashville, in the living room of the charming Urban Cowboy Bed and Breakfast where Carlile welcomes a few friends for a private listening to his new album, Returning to Myself.
In a few hours, the room will fill with friends and collaborators — SistaStrings, Brandy Clark, and of course her eternal traveling companions Phil and Tim Hanseroth. In the evening, she will be a few cocktails away, singing the Chicks at the Lipstick Lounge, the city’s cult lesbian bar.
Lately, she says she feels “like a kid, sitting in her room, dreaming of a ride to Seattle from the mobile home park.”
“Exit Covid with toxic energy”
For five years, Brandi Carlile has said yes to everything. Recordings with his idols Elton John and Joni Mitchell, producing albums for Brandy Clark, Lucius and Tanya Tucker, country supergroup (The Highwomen), festivals, charitable foundations… a whirlwind.
But after leaving the Hollywood Bowl stage at the end of the second Joni Jam she hosted, she felt drained.
“Alone in a barn, I had to start all over again”
Carlile had not planned to record a new album. But the day after the last Joni Jam, she accepted Aaron Dessner’s invitation to join him at his studio in Long Pond, New York.
Alone in the barn, tired and anxious, she felt dizzy. Who was she without a scene or an accomplice? And did she even want to find out?
She then wrote a poem, from which the central question of the album was born: “How can loneliness be a holy grail? »
An album without isolation
Instead of idealizing solitude, Carlile understood that self-discovery came through others. Returning to Myself was co-directed by Watt and Dessner, each in their own universe, with an appearance by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver).
The record questions the passing of time, in a balance between the legacy of Emmylou Harris (Wrecking Ball) and the sounds of Seattle from the 1990s.
For the first time, no vocal trio with the Hanseroth brothers: only Vernon’s ethereal voice responds to his own, notably on the intense A War With Time.
Growing old, loving, remembering
Carlile explores mortality, love and moral responsibility. Human, the central piece of the record, seeks how to live in a world on fire. You Without Me evokes the departure of children who become adults.
But the album goes beyond the intimate: when Jane Buffett, widow of Jimmy Buffett, heard the title song, she wrote to him: “That’s exactly how I feel. »
A record about the second half of life, about the quiet strength that comes with memory — and about the certainty that Brandi Carlile remains above all a woman of collaborations.
“Choose yourself, surrounded by others”
Then she adds: “And that’s why “finding yourself alone” is Instagram bullshit. The most beautiful gesture in life is to choose yourself, surrounded by others. »
“I hate loneliness”
You are known for being a fierce collaborator. Doesn’t this get heavy?
“Alone in Dessner’s Barn”
And yet, you found yourself alone in Aaron Dessner’s barn. You weren’t thinking of making an album right away?
Is this his method?
“Yes, he plays you a demo he calls “Snowcap” or “Everest”, you write on it or not, he doesn’t put any pressure on you. He is disarmingly calm.”
“Andrew Watt, tender chaos”
Didn’t you know he worked with Taylor Swift?
Then you found Andrew Watt in Los Angeles, and even Justin Vernon. How did these universes fit together?
—
“Justin Vernon, musical soul mate”
Were you thinking of For Emma, Forever Ago when writing this album?
— Not consciously, but yes, it became an influence afterwards. Justin and I have the same heroes: the Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt. He is incredibly sensitive. He came to the studio with an Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball t-shirt, we drank beers, he cried listening to the songs. He ended up playing on almost the entire album.»
“The Hanseroth brothers?” Heroes »
And the Hanseroth brothers?
“Americana, but open”
You’re always associated with the Americana scene, but this record goes beyond genres.
“The voice, without demonstration”
We also feel a touch of R&B or 1990s pop.
You sing less loudly than at the time of “The Joke” Or “The Story”.
“Being happy in the midst of chaos”
It’s a hymn to survival.