Aug 20, 2020

We have launched a new podcast that’s simply titled Under the Radar and the first episode features an in-depth story on Black Belt Eagle Scout (aka Katherine Paul). Each episode will feature an interview with a different musician conducted by host and producer Celine Teo-Blockey. Check out episode one below or wherever you get your podcasts.

Black Belt Eagle Scout released a new album, At the Party With My Brown Friends, last August via Saddle Creek. Paul is an indigenous queer musician who grew up in a small Indian reservation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and is based in Portland. In the podcast she discusses her heritage and cultural identity, and its impact on how she writes her music.

She touches on how Standing Rock, losing her mentor Geneviève Castrée, and the end of a relationship forced her to write an album’s worth of songs that became her acclaimed debut, 2018’s Mother of My Children. Her follow up builds on her identity and relates a vital story on indigenous history—known as the Sixties Scoop—that is not often told or is tainted with the specter of cultural appropriation. Lastly, At the Party With My Brown Friends seeks to lift up others like her.

Paul’s story is prickly and empowering. It is told with an immersive use of sound and features the music of powwows, punk, and her dreamy indie-rock.

As well as writing features and reviews for Under the Radar, Teo-Blockey is an independent radio producer and Transom alumni. She has previously produced radio stories for Sound & Vision, a podcast from the Seattle public radio station KEXP, and a sonic postcard for Sounds LA, from the Los Angeles public radio station KCRW.

As well as our new Under the Radar podcast, we have also been co-presenting the second and third seasons of the Why Not Both podcast.

Find the Under the Radar podcast on Apple here and Spotify here.

Read our My Favorite Album interview with Black Belt Eagle Scout about Cat Power’s “Moon Pix.”

Read our interview with Black Belt Eagle Scout on Mother of My Children.

Read our 2018 politically themed interview with Black Belt Eagle Scout.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.