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Aug 27, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Black Belt Eagle Scout

Black Belt Eagle Scout (aka Katherine Paul) is releasing a new album, At the Party With My Brown Friends, this Friday (August 30) via Saddle Creek. Now she has shared another song from it, “Run It to Ya,” via a video for the track. It’s the last pre-release single from the album. Check out the Evan James Benally Atwood-directed video below, followed by her upcoming tour dates.

Also, yesterday we posted our review of At the Party With My Brown Friends and you can read that here.

Paul is an indigenous queer musician who grew up in a small Indian reservation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and is based in Portland. She had this to say about the video in a press release:

“It felt natural for the ‘Run It to Ya’ music video to star queer indigenous womxn and show their love story unfold. The setting is a queer Indigenous prom, a space where we can truly be ourselves without the ridicules of white settler colonialism. It’s a realm where we can reimagine what our lives look like as queer Indigenous people; what is normally a heteronormative space turns into a magical place where people have the freedom to safely love how they choose.

“Throughout my work, I intend to show the thriving lives of Indigenous people, and how we are often excluded from mainstream rock music and the media. This exclusion is detrimental to our health and our existence. I am trying to show what my life is like so that other people can see how we have the right to thrive in this world and have the ability to decolonize.”

Previously Paul shared At the Party With My Brown Friends’ first single, album opener “At the Party” (which was one of our Songs of the Week). Then she shared the album’s second single, “My Heart Dreams,” via a video for the track (it was also one of our Songs of the Week).

Black Belt Eagle Scout’s debut album, Mother of My Children, came out last September via Saddle Creek, so this is a quick turnaround for a sophomore album. Back in April she shared a video for a new song, “Loss & Relax,” that was #1 on our Songs of the Week list. Alas that song is not on the new album.

A previous press release described the new album as such: “At the Party With My Brown Friends is a profound and understated forward-step. The squalling guitar anthems that shaped its predecessor are replaced by delicate vocals and soft keys, sentiments spoken and unspoken, presenting something shadowy and unsettling; a stirring of the waters. Paul recalls specific memories - an impromptu beach trip with her friend Haley Heynderickx, her eternal love for her mother, and leaving one love and desperately wanting to find another. The end result presents a captivating about-face that redefines Paul’s singular artistic vision.”

“At the Party” was written in Paul’s bedroom and the press release said it “is a reflection on self-navigation and the comfort that comes from a close-knit group of friends.”

Paul had this to say about “At the Party” in the press release: “Within my conscious self, there is always a sense of questioning the legitimacy of the world when you grow up on an Indian reservation. We are all at the party (the world), trying to navigate ourselves within a good or bad situation. I happen to be at the party with my brown friends- Indigenous, Black, POC who always have my back while we walk throughout this event called life.”

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

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

Read our review of Mother of My Children.

Black Belt Eagle Scout Tour Dates:

Wed. Aug. 28 - Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade - solo show, in-store
Sat. Sept. 7 - Sun. Sept. 8 - Portland, OR @ XOXO Fest
Mon. Oct. 21 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Thu. Oct. 24 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
Wed. Oct. 30 - Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater *
Fri. Nov. 1 - Omaha, NE @ Slowdown *
Sat. Nov. 2 - Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater *
Sun. Nov. 3 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall *
Tue. Nov. 5 - Memphis, TN @ The Hi-Tone *
Wed. Nov. 6 - St. Louis, MO @ Foam
Thu. Nov. 7 - Lawrence, KS @ White Schoolhouse
Fri. Nov. 8 - Fort Collins, CO @ Surfside 7
Sat. Nov. 9 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Diabolical Records
Sun. Nov. 10 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux
Thu. Nov. 12 - Reno, NV @ Holland Project
Wed. Nov. 13 - San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord
Thu. Nov. 14 - Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Bar
Fri. Nov. 15 - San Diego, CA @ Ché Café
Sat. Nov. 16 - Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
Sun. Nov. 17 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Bunkhouse Saloon
Tue. Nov. 19 - Mesa, AZ @ The Nile
Wed. Nov. 20 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sister
Fri. Nov. 22 - Austin, TX @ Barracuda
Sat. Nov. 23 - Dallas, TX @ The Foundry
Sun. Nov. 24 - Houston, TX @ Satellite
Tue. Nov. 26 - Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge
Wed. Nov. 27 - Nashville, TN @ DRKMTTR
Sat. Nov. 30 - Detroit, MI @ Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit *
Sun. Dec. 1 - Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall *
Tue. Dec. 3 - Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia *
Wed. Dec. 4 - Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre *
Thu. Dec. 5 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel *
Sat. Dec. 7 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club *
Sun. Dec. 8 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer *

*= w/ Devendra Banhart

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