Black Belt Eagle Scout Shares New Single "Loss & Relax"

Last year, Saddle Creek Record re-released Black Belt Eagle Scout’s 2017 debut record Mother Of My Children. It was one of KEXP’s favorite local albums of the year. Today, Katherine Paul has announced a new 7-inch due for release later this month and has shared the A-side “Loss & Relax.”

The song sees Paul return to the Swinomish reservation she grew up on. This is what she had to say about the song:

"As I was writing the guitar line, I kept seeing the water of the Salish Sea and the local ferries drifting people in and out of place. Ferries are such a beautiful part of my childhood and served as a major form of transportation. Thinking about my home and how canoes have turned into ferries is a sad, but also beautiful thought. Nowadays with Canoe Journeys, canoes are alongside ferries, roaming our waters to lands, sharing customs and culture. That is what I think about now when I listen to the fully recorded version of the song. I see a strong and fierce community of my people continuing to thrive in whatever comes our way. That is how I feel about myself, a survivor and thriver of this land, a water protector, a womxn, the future."

The song comes alongside a video directed by Angel Two Bulls that was shot around the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and Swinomish Indian Nation lands here in Washington. During the epic guitar breakdown at the end of the song, we see Paul completely shred on the back of a pickup truck. The “Loss & Relax” b/w “Half Colored Hair” is out April 26 via Saddle Creek.

Black Belt Eagle Scout is kicking off their Spring 2019 tour next week, with a very busy day in Washington on Saturday, May 18 where she’ll play Fisherman’s Village Music Festival in Everett in the morning and hop to Seattle that same evening to play a sold-out show at the Tractor Tavern.

Below, watch the video for “Loss & Relax” as well as Black Belt Eagle Scout’s KEXP in-studio performance from last year.