Michelle Branch writes or co-writes all of her songs, which often deal with matters of the heart. She's influenced by classic rock (Led Zeppelin, Neil Young) and more contemporary singer-songwriters like Lisa Loeb and Alanis Morissette, but she also draws from movies and literature. She loves Jane Austen novels and romantic comedies -
Serendipity is one of her favorites. "I'm a sap," she
told Songfacts. "If you were to go on my Netflix queue and see what it recommends to me, it's like period-piece romance dramas, and that's kind of me in a nutshell."
She grew up in Sedona, Arizona, a place she says is filled with "psychic bookshops and crystals shops." Famous people like Guns n' Roses singer Axl Rose have found inspiration in Sedona.
When she was too young to play in bars, she played at local fairs.
Her big break came through a friend of her parents, who met a rock manager from Los Angeles and immediately thought of Michelle. She brought her demo over, and the guy, Jeff Rabhan, became her manager.
She went to Catholic school. The only part she liked was singing the songs in mass. When she was 15, she left and became home-schooled. This allowed her to spend more time focusing on her blossoming music career.
She says the event that made her want to become a pop star was going to a New Kids on the Block concert and seeing the way their music moved people.
Upon moving to Sedona, took voice lessons from Gina Bettum, who showed her how to use her formal training more soulfully. Three years later, on her 14th birthday, Branch got her first guitar and started taking lessons from Bettum's husband, Gary.
Michelle has a Chinese symbol tattooed on her lower back and a musical note on her left shoulder.
Her heritage is Danish, French, Chinese, and Polynesian.
>>
Suggestion credit:
Britney - Calabasas, CA
She married her bass player, Teddy Landau, on May 23, 2004; they welcomed a daughter, Owen, in 2005. Branch filed for divorce in February 2015 after separating more than a year previously.
Branch was signed to Maverick Records, home to Madonna and Alanis Morissette. She released her second album,
Hotel Paper, in 2003, then formed a duo called The Wreckers with her friend and backing vocalist Jessica Harp in 2004. After a long delay, they released an album on Maverick in 2006 called
Stand Still, Look Pretty. The first single, "
Leave The Pieces," was a #1 Country hit, but Branch and Harp split acrimoniously the following year.
Branch tried to go country in the late '00s, moving from Maverick Records to Warner Music Nashville, both owned by Warner Music. She started working on her country album in 2007, but the label churned through executives, with each regime change bringing more scrutiny and dysfunction to the process. The album ended up being truncated to a 6-song EP released in 2010 called Everything Comes And Goes.
Branch met Patrick Carney, drummer for The Black Keys, at a LA party in 2015. He became her producer and later on, her boyfriend. With Carney as her principal collaborator, Branch released Hopeless Romantic, her first full-length album in nearly 14 years, through Verve Records, a Universal Music Group company. Branch recalled to Pop Crush:
"What happened was I went to a Grammy party in February 2015 and I didn't really know anyone. Patrick had just broken his shoulder so he was not touring, he wasn't able to play drums. And he was sitting in the corner like, in a chair with his sling. And he was like, 'Michelle?' And he called me over and he was like, 'Why don't you have an album out?' And I was like, 'Well, how much time do you have?' And I think Patrick, he loves underdogs, he loves an underdog story. And he was basically like, 'I'm going to help you fix this. I'm going to help you figure this out."
Michelle Branch and Patrick Carney got married on April 20, 2019. They tied the knot in a candlelight ceremony in New Orleans accompanied by their baby son Rhys and Branch's daughter, Owen.
On August 11, 2022, Branch announced her separation from Carney, claiming he cheated. The day after she made the announcement, Branch was arrested on a domestic assault charge, having allegedly struck Carney in the face.
The following month, Branch and Carney filed to suspend their divorce proceedings while they tried to reconcile.
She has a passion for cooking, and in 2012 co-hosted a web series called Cook Taste Eat with chef Michael Mina.
