Black Belt Eagle Scout reconnects with Coast Salish homelands at Come Toward the Fire
Headlining Chan Centre festival, singer-songwriter Katherine Paul melds Indigenous traditions and Pacific Northwest grunge influences
photo by Nate Lemuel
Black Belt Eagle Scout plays at the Come Toward the Fire Festival at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on September 16.
UNITING COAST SALISH traditions and alternative rock influences, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Katherine Paul’s music is a love letter to the Pacific Northwest. Paul, who performs under the moniker Black Belt Eagle Scout, is gracing the stage as a headlining act at this year’s Come Toward the Fire Festival, which features an all-Indigenous lineup.
Paul’s latest album, The Land, The Water, The Sky, chronicles a period of personal transformation during the COVID lockdowns in 2020. When the pandemic began, Paul moved from where she resided in Portland to her childhood home of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in the state of Washington.
“Before the pandemic, I decided to travel and experience a new city, and find friends all over the place,” Paul says in a phone interview with Stir. “This album was a documentation of me coming back home and what that means, especially in a very weird phase of life in the world, being that there was a pandemic happening and things were not normal.”
The Land, The Water, The Sky paints a portrait of Paul’s home through sparkling guitar riffs and lush melodies that draw influence from the grunge and alternative scenes of Seattle and Portland. When Paul was writing the album in 2020, she felt the urge to slow down and form a deeper bond with her homelands, sending her on an unexpected healing journey.
“A lot of the songs are about connection to where I'm from and feeling held,” Paul says. “In the last couple years, I really gravitated towards going outside and having more access to the land and waters. When I was living in Portland, I didn't really have that because I lived in a tiny apartment in the city.
“It felt really good to spend time reflecting and playing music outside,” she continues. “It was a good reintroduction to living full-time where I grew up in Swinomish. A lot of the songs bring up feelings of loving where I'm from, and also self-doubt in figuring out who I am.”
Paul had initially struggled with the unprecedented changes that the lockdowns brought.
She had released her critically acclaimed sophomore album At the Party With My Brown Friends a year earlier, and was preparing to go on tour.
“Touring was a big personal goal as a musician,” Paul says. “I wanted to go on tour in Europe, and I wasn't sure that was ever gonna happen, because I had plans in 2020 and they cancelled. I didn't feel like I was one of the productive people in the pandemic that learned to make bread and all those things. I felt very sad.
“I knew that I wanted to make another album, I wanted a redo, and the way I went about this was to create new work,” she continues. “I was listening to all of these voice memos that I saved on my phone, and I realized I actually did make an album, I had enough material.”
Now, Paul is finally realizing her dreams and is kicking off on an international tour with her headlining performance at the Come Toward the Fire Festival this September.
“I have a special place in my heart for the Vancouver area,” Paul says. “My family transcends across the borders and through the waters—it feels like an extended family home.
“I'm looking forward to continuing what I do,” she concludes. “I put in a lot of work this year traveling and creating relationships in various places. I need to be playing music and doing my thing, so that I can feel creative in this way that makes me happy.”
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