Karen O’s
Mixtape Memoir:
Tapping Into Witchcraft
Before our guest became the world-renowned vocalist, songwriter, and indie rock icon we now know as Karen O, she was born Karen Orzolek in 1978 in South Korea to a Korean mother and a Polish-American father. She and her family moved to the States when Karen was one and a half, and grew up in New Jersey on what she calls a very Spielberg-type cul-de-sac. While self-described as a little shy, she also showed early signs of being a performer, and developed a love and affinity for music and singing from the time she was three years old. As a kid she also began finding inspiration in songs from movie soundtracks, and having New York City less than 20 miles away gave Karen easy access to live music as a teenager, and while she didn’t know it at the time, both her early love of film soundtracks and her teen years of going to live shows would be the start of a journey that would eventually lead her back to live in New York, found a band of her own, and launch a career that would encompass writing and recording some of the most important art-rock songs of the last two decades, and music for films. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs was formed in 2000 with guitarist Nick Zinner, and quickly expanded to a trio with a friend of Karen’s from Oberlin College, drummer Brian Chase. Their self-titled debut EP came out in 2001, and their full length debut Fever To Tell in 2003 to critical acclaim, was nominated for a Grammy, has become widely regarded as one of the best of the decade, if not of all time, selling over one million copies worldwide. Show Your Bones followed in 2006, was also Grammy-nominated and went Gold, and in 2009, Yeah Yeah Yeahs continued their streak with their third Grammy-nominated and Gold certified album It’s Blitz! which also topped every year end best-of list that year. That same year, Karen O wrote her first motion picture soundtrack for Where the Wild Things Are, receiving a Grammy nomination for the song “All Is Love”. In 2013 the fourth Yeah Yeah Yeahs album Mosquito was released, and Karen’s soundtrack contribution of “The Moon Song” for the Spike Jonze film Her, was nominated for her first Oscar for Best Original Song in 2014, and later that year, Karen released her solo debut, Crush Songs, and in 2015, she had another milestone first - giving birth to her son. Since then, along with a deluxe reissue of Fever to Tell in 2017, Karen O put out the critically hailed album Lux Prima, a collaboration with Danger Mouse which also earned a Grammy nod for the song “Woman”. And now, at long last, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are returning with their highly anticipated fifth full length album, Cool It Down on September 30th, as Fever to Tell nears its 20th anniversary in April of 2023. With a career as artistically rich and vibrant as the films and soundtracks that inspired her as a child, and a trailblazing legacy, it is a thrill and honor to bring you the soundtrack and story of Karen O for our Season Three finale of Mixtape Memoir.
LISTEN HERE:
Episode Credits:
Host/creator/creative director - Carmel Holt @carmelholt
Edited/mixed/mastered - Phoebe Wang / @feebswang
Theme music - Lucius @ilovelucius
Cover art - Merle Cooper @m.c.cooper
Art direction - @carmelholt
Karen O press photo - David Black / @_davidblack
Guest: Karen O / @ko
Label: Secretly Canadian / @secretlycanadian
credit Emily Wilson, courtesy Karen O
credit Nick Zinner, courtesy Karen O
Karen O 2022 by David Black
Yeah Yeah Yeahs 2022 by David Black