Wild Belle: The Best of What’s Next
With her pre-teen ears exposed to psychedelic strings saws from Sun Ra’s Arkestra and billowy bleats from John Coltrane, its not surprising Natalie Belle Bergman’s own spin on pop music’s immortal tradition (The Love Song) would be that much keener, cooler and confident.
“It’s weird sometimes, I don’t want to sound like this kind of wounded animal, ‘cuz I’m not,” the 23-year-old singer/songwriter says. “But I do like writing about heartache. It makes me feel good.”
She chuckles at herself at that, pacing under an Austin sun at noon as she settles into a precious day off with her brother/bandmate/multi-instrumentalist Elliot. Wild Belle, their band that started almost a year and a half ago, has been on a bit of a whirlwind lately. Or, so everyone seems to think.
It’s been a full year since their debut single, “Keep You,” spun a lot of heads, and deservedly so, with the soulful sizzle of Natalie’s hazy, silky voice traipsing over subtle reggae riffs and a hooking piano punch that swells to the charming blurt of a baritone sax.
“In a way it feels like it’s all happening fast,” Elliot admits, reflecting on how they’ve been touring for eight straight months this year, playing with a range of exciting artists like Yeasayer and Toro Y Moi, while visiting numerous exotic and inspiring locales like Bob Marley’s dream studio in Jamaica.
“But, in another way, this has all been more of a slow train coming,” Elliot says.
Elliot, 31, flourished in the University of Michigan’s jazz program during the early 00’s where he went on to start an acclaimed afrobeat-funk ensemble called NOMO-a vivacious live act bolstering piquant blends of styles and instrumentation from trumpets, to guitars, congas and shekeres. For Natalie, growing up under her brother and two artistically inclined parents: “…music was just always around” her and “always encouraged.” She sang everywhere: school, gospel choir in church, every day at home.
These siblings have been working on their own music (and sporadically together) for almost their entire lives. So, it’s not like this is the Chicago-bred duo’s turn up to bat at the blog-buzz plate. This is no lucky strike; they’ve been swinging a while, actually.
Suffice it to say, the Bergmans undoubtedly had a uniquely cultured upbringing. Few among us get to sit down and play Gershwin tunes on the piano with our painter/author mothers, as Elliot has, while later slipping our kid-sister treasured vinyl records from the college-town’s quintessential indie-music shop, healthily blowing her mind with world-fusion/avant-garde-jazz jams by experimental post-bop wizards like Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders.
But the chemistry palpable on their debut, Isles (as well as on the stages welcoming their current tour) brews not just from the siblings’ life-long music-bond, but also from the musicians currently backing them up, accomplished multi-instrumentalists from NOMO who’ve constantly been working with Elliot this past decade.
By autumn 2011, Natalie had “a nice collection of songs” that she’d been writing since she was a teenager.