Otherwise known as Rattlesnake Kate

When Neyla Pekarek started thinking about her debut album, she turned to snakes. Specifically,
she looked to one instance concerning snakes that took place on Oct. 28, 1925 near Hudson, Colo., when a local named Kate McHale Slaughterback fended off a deadly attack by shooting, shoo-ing and killing some 140 rattlesnakes in an afternoon. She then took their skins and made a dress, earning her local-legend status and the nickname “Rattlesnake Kate.”

“She was completely fearless,” Pekarek says. “She walked away relatively OK. It was really inspiring.”

For Pekarek, Rattlesnake is more than an ode to a badass woman with a deadeye for serpents. It’s a new beginning—the 32-year-old cellist and vocalist recently left her post in the Grammy-nominated folk-rock band The Lumineers to start a solo career.

“It was tough,” she says about leaving the group. “The Lumineers are one of the biggest bands in the world and people think you’re crazy to give up an opportunity like that. But I feel really good about it.”

Pekarek joined The Lumineers on a whim back in 2010: She answered a Craigslist ad, expecting to just jam a bit and not much more. But the band broke out in 2012 with their mega-smash “Ho Hey,” which set her life on a course she never imagined. After around 600 dates worldwide in just a few years, she knew that she needed a fresh start and to give her solo career its own shot.

Pekarek, a classically trained vocalist, started laying the foundation for Rattlesnake years ago, writing and recording the material whenever she had some free time. She had her sights set on one producer: M. Ward. Pekarek cold-pitched him the opportunity to work with her and he bit— they recorded at Type Foundry in Portland, Ore. over the years between tours, whenever she could find a spare moment.

The result is a sharp and promising solo debut that exemplifies a number of different genres, from country to blues and everything in between. “Each song has two sides,” she says. “It was a really cool way to write a record. As I researched Rattlesnake Kate, I projected a lot of my own feelings—and I hope it’s a bit relatable because it got me through my own life.”

This article originally appears in the January/February issue of Relix. For more features, interviews, album reviews and more, subscribe here.