Kate Earl: she dropped out of bible college to make music—and hallelujah, here she comes!

Interview, April, 2005 by Sarah Wilson

It's been a decade since a pretty, young singer-songwriter from Alaska burst onto the music scene. But while it would be easy to label Kate Earl the next Jewel, the 23-year-old songstress has other ideas. Her self-titled debut, Kate Earl (Record Collection), is light on the folk and heavy on the soul, taking cues from R&B legends like Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin as well as the gospel music of her youth. "I was raised in the church, and I fell in love with gospel very early," says Earl. "It just stirs something up in me."

But whereas their sound is different, Earl and Jewel do share some similarities--particularly in the folklore that colors their pasts: While Jewel spent her late teens living out of a van, Earl spent a good part of her youth living in the back of her father's gas station in the tiny town of Chugiak (population 15,000), in the northern part of the state. When Earl was just 4 years old, her mother discovered her daughter's gift for melody and sent her to the town's only piano teacher, whose methods weren't as advanced as the young composer would have liked. "She put puppets on my fingers," recalls Earl, "and had me play on a cardboard keyboard with the keys painted on." But when the child complained to her parents, her grievances fell on deaf ears. "They thought I just wanted to play. And I did. I wanted to play. With my hands. On a real piano." Which, against her instructor's wishes, is exactly what she did, by secretly practicing on a real piano at home.

After high school, Earl headed off to bible college, where she spent only one semester before moving to L.A. to pursue a music career. Despite her short stay in school, it was there that she met her future husband, whom she married three years ago and to whom many of the songs on Kate Earl are dedicated. Yet, a standout track, "When You're Older," is distinctly a good-bye letter to Alaska. "1 knew I was trading in the forest for the city," says Earl, "and I would never look at my homeland the same way again."

Sarah Wilson is an assistant editor at Interview. Right: Dress by MAXMARA. Shoes by EUGENIA KIM. Opposite: Clothes and shoes by MARC BY MARC JACOBS. Cosmetics by DIOR. Hair products by REDKEN. Styling: SCOTT FREE/therexagency.com. Hair: HIKARI TEZUKA/celestineagency.com. Makeup: APRIL GREAVES/celestineagency.com. Fashion details page 157. Photos: JILL GREENBERG.