Brandi Carlile Brings Tracks from Her Latest Album to ‘Saturday Night Live’

Brandi Carlile just brought her latest album to Saturday Night Live. The singer-songwriter served as the musical guest on the Nov. 1 episode of the show, which was hosted by Miles Teller.

For both performances, Carlile choose songs from her latest album, Returning to Myself, which was released last month. The LP marked Carlile’s first solo album since 2021.

Brandi Carlile Performs on SNL

First, Carlile performed “Church & State,” a rock-infused track. In an interview with Variety, Carlile revealed that she penned the “burning, searing song” the night of the 2024 presidential election.

“We were in the studio as a band, and it wasn’t an introspective night. It was a night where I couldn’t stay off my phone because I was watching myself wake up to a realization about the country that I lived in,” she said. “And I was listening to [U2’s] ‘Bullet the Blue Sky,’ and I was leaning into my early years and just kind of collecting rage.”

For her second performance of the night, Carlile chose a power ballad, “Human.”

“Human’ is about striking a really difficult balance, first recognizing that we’re here for a very short period of time, like the blink of an eye, and that we have got to find a way to be happy in the chaos,” she told the outlet. “We have to find a way for all to be well with our soul while we’re here in this split second. And then we also have to find a way to not be apathetic, inactive, passive and neoliberal about the things that are happening in our world.”

“That is a really difficult balance to strike because one could accidentally block out the things that need work and the things that need activism in order to make themselves happy,” Carlile added. “Or one could accidentally block out the need to be human, while they are virtue-signaling and running as fast as they can on a treadmill that’s outpacing them. And that balance is the challenge that I’m putting forward with this.”

Brandi Carlile Talks New Album, Returning to Myself

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Carlile revealed her thought process going into making the her latest LP.

“I love a writer who writes something when they don’t have it all figured out, and they’re grappling with things at the same time you are,” she said. “That’s certainly how I make albums. I didn’t make By the Way, I Forgive You because I learned how to be a forgiving person. I made it because I hadn’t.”

Photo by Hoda Davaine/Getty Images for The Clooney Foundation For Justice