Artist Spotlight: Black Belt Eagle Scout gives us a look into ‘The Land, The Water, The Sky’

2023 has been a year of well-deserved accomplishments for Black Belt Eagle Scout’s Katherine “KP” Paul. Black Belt Eagle Scout released their third album ‘The Land, The Water, The Sky’ this past February via Saddle Creek Records. Since the well-received release, KP and company have toured through Europe and the US in support of the new album. Black Belt Eagle Scout has continued to stay busy with a handful of festival performances including this past weekend’s Maha festival as well as a “bucket list” performance at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago.

With Black Belt Eagle Scout’s most recent release of ‘The Land, The Water, The Sky’, KP tells the stories of returning home to the Swinomish tribal homelands on the Washington coast during the pandemic in 2020. When discussing the theme of the album: “It's a literal journey detailing my time moving back home, what that's been like trying to figure out who I am in my community and reconnecting with where I am from.”

With her roots in the Swinomish tribal community, the return home has had a deeper meaning for KP “In our community there are a lot of elders that would encourage us when we were younger to move off the reservation to go and explore the world and gain experience through work and education. Then also to move back home and to share those things with the community, I think that's a bigger picture of that journey.”

Prior to returning home KP had spent 13 years in Portland working in the music scene as well as playing in bands including Y La Bamba before starting Black Belt Eagle Scout. Reflecting on her friendship with Y La Bamba’s Luz Elena Mendoza and her time in Portland “I love Luz and Y La Bamba is such a great band. Her friendship helped expand the people I know in Portland and feel more at home in the music scene. I have a really soft spot in my heart for Portland because it helped me start the band, it helped me meet a lot of people to play music with.” Through friends in the Portland music scene KP met the musicians that have been playing live with Black Belt Eagle Scout since 2019, Claire Puckett on guitar, Nay Wilkins on bass/keys and KP’s partner Camas Logue on drums.

On previous albums before ‘The Land, The Water, The Sky’ all music had been written, played, and produced by KP. Black Belt Eagle Scout explored new territory with the production of ‘The Land, The Water, The Sky’ “I like to try and play all the instruments in the music, because that is how the band was formed. Black Belt Eagle Scout is what my brain thinks a band could sound like. (with ‘The Land, The Water, The Sky’) I started working with a producer, my friend Takiaya Reed (of the band Divide and Dissolve) and we were like let’s try and do something different. We had my friend Grace play bass on the record, there are some other people who sing on it, some folks who play strings. I play the drums on it, the guitar on it, the keyboard, sing and do the arranging.”

‘The Land, The Sky, The Water’ has some of the most refreshing songwriting in recent music. One of the backbones of KP’s songwriting is her exceptional guitar work. “When I think about songwriting and the songs that I write, I definitely don't start with the lyrics, I start with the feel of the guitar, then I start thinking about the other elements of the song. What could make up the song, what could the beat be, what are the other parts of the song that can bring up other feelings? On this album I wanted the guitars to sound really loud, I really like the band Built To Spill and the guitars in Doug's music are really inspirational. I had the opportunity to go on tour with them and to open for them. So when writing, just seeing layered guitar work, how guitars can intertwine and come back together are one of the directions I wanted the sound of the guitars to go in this record.”

After a year already full of so much momentum, things don’t seem to be slowing down for KP.  Following an amazing Pitchfork Music Festival performance it was announced that Black Belt Eagle Scout will play at Pitchfork’s London Music Festival this fall. “I always wanted to play that music festival (Pitchfork Chicago); it was on my bucket list. This year it happened, and we had so much fun. Then they asked us if we wanted to do the London one.”

Before heading to the UK for Pitchfork Music Festival London, Belt Eagle Scout will play a handful of shows in the western US before heading to New Zealand and Australia with Mount Eerie at the end of September.

You can find all of Black Belt Eagle Scout’s upcoming tour dates here:

You can pick up a copy of ‘The Land, The Water, The Sky’ here: