Black Belt Eagle Scout
photo by Jason Quigley

Black Belt Eagle Scout re-releasing LP on Saddle Creek, playing shows w/ Sam Evian

Katherine Paul (or simply KP) was brought up as a member of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and she later moved to Portland, OR where she played in such indie bands as Genders and Forest Park (the latter of which was with Maya Stoner, now of Floating Room and Drowse), and in 2014, she released a self-titled solo EP under the moniker Black Belt Eagle Scout. Last year, she followed it with her debut full-length, Mother Of My Children, on Good Cheer Records, and she has since signed to larger label Saddle Creek, who will give the album a wider release on September 14.

KP played all the instruments you hear on Mother of My Children — guitar, vocals, drums/percussion, bass, keyboard, vibraphone, organ and piano — and she is very open about how closely her identity is tied to the music. “Having this identity—radical indigenous queer feminist—keeps me going. My music and my identity come from the same foundation of being a Native woman,” she says. Sometimes it’s subtle, and other times it’s much more blunt, like on the song “Indians Never Die,” which Katherine’s bio describes as “a call out to colonizers and those who don’t respect the Earth.”

The album was pulled from the internet after BBES signed to Saddle Creek, and right now the one song streaming is album opener “Soft Stud.” The Nirvana and Hole influences that inspired KP early on can be heard in this song’s grungy guitar, but mostly this is cleaned-up, crystal-clear sounding indie pop, and Katherine has a similarly strong, personal songwriting style to other recent Saddle Creek signees like Hop Along, Big Thief, and Tomberlin. If you like that kinda stuff and you haven’t heard Black Belt Eagle Scout yet, we recommend changing that now. Stream “Soft Stud” below.

Black Belt Eagle Scout is opening for her labelmate Sam Evian in her hometown of Portland tonight (7/23) and Seattle on Tuesday (7/24). If you’re in the Northwest this week, it’s worth catching her.

Black Belt Eagle Scout Mother of My Children

Tracklist
1. Soft Stud
2. Indians Never Die
3. Keyboard
4. Mother of My Children
5. Yard
6. I Don’t Have You In My Life
7. Just Lie Down
8. Sam, A Dream