Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Cole-Baker.
Hi Erin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Santa Barbara and my family emigrated to New Zealand following my grandparent’s move a few years before. I grew up in the North of the North Island in Whangarei, in rural-beach laden Whangarei Heads.
I was drawn to music from a young age, starting with classical piano, which morphed into Jazz and eventually singing and writing songs with guitar. I got a taste for performing with the encouragement from roommates who heard me through my bedroom door and coaxed me out to play at a youth talent show. With the help of multi-instrumentalist brother, I recorded my first album and an interest in travel to the USA started to glow.
Erin was enticed to the American West and the lure of folk festivals and the music scene in the USA in her early 20s. She and her husband found their way to Sisters Folk Festival and on a whim, decided to settle in Bend. Cole-Baker established herself as “one of the more constant and compelling voices on the Central Oregon music scene” (GO! Magazine) and called Oregon home for six years in which she won over the local scene as one-half of the folk duo The Erins. The Erins parted ways as Cole-Baker returned home to New Zealand to raise a family and Erin Zurflu to pursue study in medicine.
Erin’s most recent full-length album “Till the Feelings Right” was recorded over a few long weekends in 2018 with a band of friends at Anzac Rd Studios in Whangarei, New Zealand – “a hothouse flower of a recording” (NZ Musician Magazine) of “well-crafted songs” (Off the Tracks). Cole-Baker was funded by Outward Sound (NZ) to attend the International Folk Alliance Conference in Kansas City, toured through California, Oregon and Washington and was the Breedlove artist for the Sisters Folk Festival in 2018.
In 2019 Erin and her family moved to the USA, bought an RV and toured the Northwest playing music at Festivals, venues and house concerts to connect with a larger community before settling back in Bend at the start of 2020.
Over the course of her career, Erin released The Year of Hello and Goodbye (2007) as The Erins, four solo albums (Songs for Roy 2005, Talon and Spur 2009, Big Sky 2011 and Till the Feelings Right in 2018), and more recently three self-produced singles born out of gathering gear and learning to record at home during the pandemic Late Summer 2021, I didn’t want to take your things (2022) and The Darkest (2022) which weaves a gorgeous bed of vocal harmony, warm electric guitar and synth, which complete her delicate acoustic fingerpicking. From her home studio Cole-Baker has contributed harmonies to songs for Chris Beland, Little Ripples, and recorded and written songs for other people’s projects.
Erin Cole-Baker and Zurflu are playing again as The Erins, with Cole-Bakers new songs featuring reverby-jazzmaster guitar paired with Erin Zurflu’s sister-like harmonies, acoustic guitar, violin and bass, making for a close-your-eyes dreamsound. The duo weaves timeless songcraft and lush harmonies for a sound that might remind you of flickers of First Aid Kit or the Secret Sisters with a dash of (early pre-fame) The Chicks.
https://www.theerinsmusic.com/
The Erins plan to release a single in the Summer.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been smooth……..I know that success and happiness is so subjective….there are so many options and decisions to make that get us to where we are. I am privileged that I get to live where I can play and create music for the love of it AND for work and have a sweet lifestyle for my family.
It’s definitely not easy living far away from our wider families, having that misalignment is tough, I try to make peace with choosing that for our kids. I feel like the safer easier decision can be good – but for us choosing to move as a family back to the USA was the thing we just HAD to do. We had to follow the call. We gave away most of our things – bought an RV and traveled around for seven months living in our RV (with four and seven years old girls) and playing house shows and venues around the NW and it sure was a magical summer in 2019. My husband was recovering from back surgery and we needed the adventure!
The pandemic was a super tough time for me mentally – two kids at home trying to do school through an iPad….not being able to play music out and hang out with people………I bought some recording gear and a jazzmaster guitar and used late nights (the only kid free time) to play, write and learn how to record myself and also YouTubed my way through some video editing software. I dabbled with a little songwriting mentoring and some recording and co-writing and video projects, which was both amazingly life-giving to create and petrifying to believe I could learn and do a good job simultaneously!
I think being scared of not being good enough can definitely get in the way, and it’s something I grapple with. Can I just fully show up as myself in the world? Can I write the songs that want to be written – or am I grasping for what I think other people might want to hear?
The whole recording myself process has been many things, but as I’ve persisted and worked on different projects, I’ve made some cool stuff that I wouldn’t have made if I hadn’t tried and I had been too scared to fail. I’m definitely living proof that you don’t have to be an expert to enjoy making art……..art is subjective and there is that natural need to be approved and know other people like who we are and what we make. The world needs all types….the amazing experts and the equally amazing beginners and everyone in between… Can I stay in my own lane – walk my own life journey and stop comparing my unique journeys to the next person…..just do me? I really believe this makes the world around us a better place to be if we can live from that place. I believe there is room for all and every type – maybe today, again I can let go of the self-critical, self-limiting thoughts and try…
I studied yoga teacher training in the winter of 2021/2022, which helped connect me to other humans and breathe some goodness back into me… Last summer I played a tonne of music out and it was really good for my soul.
A few reoccurring thoughts for me are –
1. Stay in my own lane (not comparing my life journey to anyone else)
2. Can I hold life more lightly? (not so much grasping and intensity!)
3. What comes, comes, what goes, goes – find out what remains.
Apparently, I’m known by those closest to me as always following my dreams and understanding the value in being vulnerable. I know that choosing to do things that are hard and challenging, despite all the scary……knowing that’s when the magic happens.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a songwriter, singer, home recording engineer, video editor and passionate home sourdough bagel baker.
I am proud of the fact that I keep doing what I love to do….creating, performing, recording and doing all the other things behind the scene that make it possible to keep doing it! (Booking, promotion, collaboration, etc.)
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Follow me on social media and streaming services.
Can contact me through the website or [email protected].
Contact Info:
- Website: www.erincolebaker.com, www.theerinsmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erincolebaker/
https://www.instagram.com/theerinsmusic/ - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erincolebakermusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0G9t9JqPj7t3em3EWaa-vQ
@erincolebakermusic
Image Credits
Bruce Cole-Baker Chris Fitzpatrick Elijah Aikens
