Black Belt Eagle Scout on how the Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent model, Fender Princeton Reverbs and nature all inform her powerful, emotive guitar sound

Katherine Paul is the singer and songwriter behind the Pacific Northwest-based Black Belt Eagle Scout. In her emotive, nuanced, and typically guitar-based songs, Paul touches on her homeland, her family and her Indigenous ancestors, interspersed with narratives from her own unique vantage point.

Black Belt Eagle Scout is signed to Saddle Creek Records, and has enjoyed quite the run of success of late, from an acclaimed KEXP in-studio performance a few years ago to, more recently, garnering a song placement in the popular television series, Reservation Dogs. Paul's latest accomplishment is Black Belt Eagle Scout's stellar new LP, The Land, The Water, The Sky, which is set for release on February 10. 

Here, Guitar World catches up with Paul to talk about the new album, her first foray into playing guitar, how she taught herself by watching old grunge VHS tapes and what she loves most about the instrument.