| Carla Easton | |
| Birth Name: | Carla Jennifer Easton |
| Instrument: | Vocals, piano, keyboards |
| Genre: | Indie pop, alternative rock |
| Label: | Last Night From Glasgow, Olive Grove Records, Neu!Reekie! records |
| Associated Acts: | Futuristic Retro Champions, TeenCanteen, The Vaselines |
Carla Jennifer Easton (born 1985) is a Scottish singer-songwriter from Carluke, Scotland. Easton has been a member of the bands Futuristic Retro Champions and TeenCanteen and currently is the keyboard player for The Vaselines while also pursuing a solo career, first under the name Ette and now under the name Carla J. Easton. Her 2018 album Impossible Stuff was shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year Award in 2019.
Easton grew up in Carluke and her musical tastes were influenced by her older brother, who was 10 years older than her and interested in a wide variety of genres.[1] In 2007 Easton graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art with a BA (Hons) Sculpture.[2] In 2011 she graduated with a Masters of Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art.[3]
In 2006 Easton formed the band Futuristic Retro Champions with friends from the Edinburgh School of Art, with a sound combining 'wistful pop' with 'processed-beats'.[4] The band split up in 2010, having released two EPs.[5]
Easton formed TeenCanteen in 2012,[6] on vocals and playing keyboard, with Sita Pieraccini on bass, Chloe Philip on guitar and Debs Smith on drums.[7] In 2016 their debut album Say It All with a Kiss, which made the Longlist for the Scottish Album of the Year Award in 2017, was released by Last Night From Glasgow.[8] In 2017 they released an EP Sirens, then announced that TeenCanteen were taking a break.
In 2016 Easton released her solo album Homemade Lemonade through Olive Grove Records under the name Ette. The album was listed as number 4 on the Bandcamp best albums of 2016, where it was described as a 'big, loud, glorious confection'.
In 2017 Easton was invited to the first singer-songwriter residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. At the residency she met Howard Bilerman who later invited her to record an album in his Montreal studio.[9] This was released as Impossible Stuff in 2018 under the name Carla J. Easton. Impossible Stuff was shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year Award in 2019.[10]
Her next solo album Weirdo was released on Olive Grove Records on 28 August 2020, with the title track featuring Stina Tweeddale of Honeyblood. The album title was chosen after Easton was told she was weird and she decided that being a weirdo should not be seen negatively.[11] Most of the songs were written while Easton was homeless, and dealing with issues relating to low self-esteem and anxiety.[12] Many of the tracks were co-wrtitten with Scott Paterson of Sons and Daughters.[13] The album was well received, with it being named by Pitchfork as one of the 'Great Records You May Have Missed' of Summer 2020, saying that the album had 'the scrappy glamour of a homemade theatrical production'.[14] Other reviews said that it was 'more robust' than previous records,[15] with praise directed to the quality of the production work and the overall sound.[16] [17]
In 2021 Easton formed Poster Paints with Simon Liddell, the former guitarist of Frightened Rabbit. The band was created after Easton and Liddell started sharing music ideas by email during Scotland's Covid-19 lockdown.[18]
Easton co-wrote and sang the lead vocals on “Best Friend,” a track on Belle & Sebastian's How to Solve Our Human Problems EP (Part 3), released in 2018.
In 2019 Easton composed and performed the music for the National Theatre of Scotland's production of Them! in the Tramway, Glasgow.[19] In the same year she joined The Vaselines as their synth player for Belle and Sebastian's Boaty Weekender.[20]