Caroline Hale

With no disrespect intended, maturity is not a quality a music fan might expect from a debut album - let alone one made by an artist who’s only twenty-one years old. But for BFF, the first album by Austin-based singer/songwriter Caroline Hale, maturity is exactly what you get. With its emotional sophistication, textured production, and impressive degree of pure craft, BFF sounds more like an album made by a veteran with decades of experience, rather than a young person venturing into the music marketplace for the first time.

Of course, just because Caroline has been on the planet for less than a quarter of a century doesn’t mean she’s a neophyte. The San Antonio native began playing guitar at eight years old, having simply announced to her parents that it was what she wanted to do. Perhaps, she notes, it was the influence of the many music-centered shows on the Disney Channel. “The Disney girls like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato were in everything I watched as a young girl,” she says. “I think they were way more inspirational than I thought they were.” Outside of her childhood television habits, she absorbed inspiration from across the musical spectrum, from the Beatles and Metallica to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Taylor Swift.

After becoming proficient on multiple instruments, the real turning point came when, at fourteen, Hale gained a mentor. After watching a Hale performance in a teenage rock showcase with his stepdaughter, Martin Strayer - sound engineer, musician, and songwriter who’s worked with multi-platinum artists like Ariana Grande, Madonna, The Chicks, Soundgarden and many others - offered to guide her through the world of making music. “He essentially taught me how to write songs,” she says. Alongside her work with Strayer, she also studied the pop songs she listened to on the radio. “I’d say to myself: I love these songs, and I want to figure out why everyone else loves them too.”

All of that diligence and practice led to the eleven songs included on BFF. Working with producer Gordy Quist from The Band of Heathens, who helped her develop the tunes through emphasizing melodies, adding transitions, and strengthening bridges, Hale applied everything she’s learned so far to making a record that transcends her age and accents her experience. With its rich textures, confident vocals, and expertly melodic tunes, BFF boasts a sound and atmosphere that brings to mind the third album in an artist’s career, not the first. This is a songwriter who knows how to take her audience on a ride. “For me, music tells a story, and most importantly it evokes emotion,” Hale explains. “I wrote these songs because they helped me get through times in my life where it was harder to speak about my emotions than singing them. I tried not to put the songs into an order that presented them as individual tracks because they all speak to each other. I want to take the listeners on a musical journey that they can relate to - all the lows and the highs, essentially those moments in your life that are sometimes too hard to talk about.”

Of course, as with many records, the sad bits may outnumber the happy ones. Case in point: “Best Friend’s Funeral.” Composed when the rhetoric and writing major was a freshman at UT Austin, the velvet folk-pop tune is a break-up song, though not necessarily about the one you’d think. “I went into college with a best friend - we were practically sisters,” she explains. “We got to college and our friendship unraveled. It just spun me into the biggest mess I’d ever been in in my life. At the same time, I was going through a break-up. Ultimately, I was experiencing a different kind of relationship breakup, one of which I thought I’d never lose with my best friend. One night, I was at dinner with my dad, and I said to him simply, ‘This is so hard,’ and my dad said, ‘Losing a friend is like going to a funeral.’ And I wrote that down in my phone notes, and it became ‘Best Friend’s Funeral.’ This song has helped me get through that unbearable feeling of being alone although that person you're grieving from is still right in front of you. That is a different type of being alone, one that many people have experienced but have trouble understanding.”

Hale addresses the situation from another angle on the defiant, pissed-off pop rocker “Frankly Speaking (I’m Done).” With a clever, almost joyful arrangement, plain-spoken singing, and powerhouse guitars, the singer/songwriter puts her ex on full blast. “I broke up with my boyfriend as I was going into college,” she says. “Although we were no longer together, we were keeping in touch. Long story short, I found out that he was with another girl that just so happened to be a friend of mine. I confronted both of them, and at length the majority of the lyrics in ‘Frankly Speaking’ are texts that I received from the two of them.” Fortunately, Hale’s ability to channel her pain into creativity paid off. “Although it took the longest to get right, I’m really happy with how the song turned out, and I hope that it resonates with someone who needs it.”

The emotional arc continues with “We Both Do,” which marries a soul-inflected rhythm with folk guitar and Hale’s unvarnished feeling. “I wrote ‘We Both Do’ when I was going through a long-distance relationship,” she discloses. “Being so young at the time, neither of us knew how to navigate it properly without someone getting hurt. We missed each other a lot, to the extent that it ended up hurting us more than anything else. It's an indescribable feeling, being so consumed by love that it feels as if the entire world is crumbling around you, yet lacking the maturity to mend it. We both loved each other, we both missed each other, we both were confused, we both hurt. We both do...”

But all clouds bring silver linings, and for BFF that shine comes from “Something to Believe In,” an introspective rock ballad that alleviates the negative emotions that drive many of the other songs. Ironically, it’s the oldest song in her repertoire. “‘Something to Believe In’ was the first real song that I ever wrote, when I was about fourteen,” Hale says. “I wrote that with Martin - he came up with the guitar riff, and sent me home to try and put some words to it.” Producer Quist also had a hand in the way the song evolved. “When I went into pre-production, Gordy came to me and said, ‘I want to mess around with this song a little bit.’ He split all the verses up into their own sections, which I thought was brilliant.” The song has every mark of a tune that will stay on Hale’s setlists for a long time. “It’s a great song, and it’s stuck around for a while now,” Hale says with quiet pride. “I’m glad it resonates, because in my mind I’m picturing myself at age fourteen, and I’m like, ‘There’s no way anyone’s gonna relate to the naivety of my fourteen year old self… But I think that’s what makes it special.’’’

The most surprising cut on the album may well be “Natural High,” a classic single from the catalog of the late C&W great Merle Haggard. It’s a song not many twenty-one-year olds would appreciate, yet Hale gives it a rich, rootsy tone that nonetheless leans away from country. “I played it for the first time at my aunt and uncle’s wedding,” she says. “I had never heard of it. I obviously did it for them because it was such a special occasion, and I’m glad I did. It’s one of the most beautiful love songs I’ve ever heard. After that I wanted to make it my own.”

From low to high - a natural progression for any life, whether you’re twenty-one or seventy-five. Like all of us, Hale has gone through some shit and come out stronger for it. Fortunately, she has her innate creativity and strong artistic vision to lead her out of the wilderness, even if it’s not with easy answers in her pocket. “I love listening and creating sad music, especially as I’ve gotten older - I’m extremely inspired by artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Kacey Musgraves, and Maggie Rogers,” she says. “But sometimes when listening to sad bodies of work it’s hard to find your resolution. I want to portray to whoever’s listening that you are gonna get through whatever it is that has your mind in a twist. Everyone comes out on the other side - it’s just a matter of how long and how you’re gonna do it. But there is always hope.”

With its mature outlook, keen songcraft, and artistic self-confidence, Caroline Hale’s BFF heralds the arrival of a major young talent, one who intends to be around for a long time.
“Music is the only thing in my life that I’ve known I wanted to do,” she notes with conviction. “I was so determined and headstrong about it, that there was never a single doubt in my mind. Regardless of success, I knew I wanted to do music, whatever that meant.”