Julien Baker Band • Page 44

She was wonderful tonight. It started raining so they brought out a tent and she kept playing. Tancred and Courtney Marie Andrews were fantastic as well.

 

i'm so curious to hear what their band is gonna sound like!

 

Really interested to hear how they can make their songwriting talents work together. Would love to get an album as good as Middle Brother.

 

yeah I wonder how 3 such strong songwriters are going to come together and make something cohesive and what that will sound like. I have no doubt it will be great, but beyond that I don't know what to expect

 

What I’m most curious about is the timeline. I’m interested to see if this comes out before a second Phoebe record

 

If you've heard the Star Killers, you've heard Julien in a band, collaborating with another primary songwriter/vocalist. So from her end, we have sort of an idea of how it might work. And this is how she started - she didn't set out to be the best solo artist on the planet. It just happened.

Also if you haven't heard the Star Killers, go do that, because it's amazing.

 

i'm thinking some three part harmonies.

 

I second this.

 

Julien sang an unreleased song titled “The Linguist” in the television series “Feral”. I uploaded the song to YouTube since it’s only accessible by purchasing the episode. The full song does not exist in the episode as it cuts off to a different scene and becomes background noise for a bit, but it’s still an absolutely beautiful song and I wish she would release it some day.

Some context to the video: Julien is performing at her friend Daniel’s going away party as he is moving to Germany for 6 months.

 

NYT article on Boygenius: Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus Formed an Indie-Rock Supergroup

 

Really enjoyed that snippet of The Linguist. What is this show though......is it a reality show, or it is scripted and Julien had a small role?

 

I don’t know who selected the music at the dining hall on campus today but Julien Baker was played. It’s a proper way to prepare for 4 days of rain.

 

Thanks for uploading that TV show song, wasn't aware of that. Hopefully we'll get a full version someday. On the other hand, I travelled alone to Vienna a week ago to see Julien play again, and it was just amazing, very emotional.. she seemed a bit distracted or something, didn't crack a single joke, which I thought would be unusual, but it was still perfect. She added some bass loops to her sound, and the violin was spot on. Great piano playing as well (the last time I went to see her in Berlin she didn't have a piano etc.). I also met her at the same restaurant I looked for with a friend of mine, didn't want to disturb her and her crew for too long, but they were really friendly and it kinda made my afternoon before the show itself (especially Julien pointing out she literally owns the same Balance & Composure t-shirt I had on me hahah, which I wouldn't guess somehow).

 

I think it’s a show about a group of LGBT friends living in Memphis. From my understanding the characters are playing roles of themselves, but I’m not 100 percent positive on that.

 

I saw Julien Baker for the first time on Monday in Manchester. She is so good. What a great performance.

 

That's great! She definitely has got different setlists for each night, even playing one new song occasionally - but well, she doesn't play any encores, but still - some cities get 12 songs, others 15 hehh ;d in Vienna she played 13 songs, and I guess it was perfect regardless.

 

Jealousy.

 

Ah! I like that she is switching up the setlists - didn't realise. Can't remember how many songs we got but I was thankful she played Appointments because that's my favourite song.

 

I had checked it before posting hehe, you had 15 songs ;D which would be the top level ;D

 

Thanks! Good to know!

 

If you all have neverlistened to Jade Bird before, you absolutely need to. I get a mix of Julien and Phoebe vibes and she is great live!

 

hola friends,

I interviewed Julien two months ago in Paris for my website at La Maroquinerie, and would love if someone could review my interview in English (since the main version is in French). would someone agree to read it? thank you!

JULIEN BAKER — DOULEURS & DOUCEURS [INTERVIEW]
*caca2000*

 

Would love to check it out in English. The site I went to looked like it was still in French... do you have a translation draft in English?

 

There's a little "ENGLISH VERSION : CLICK HERE" at the bottom :)

//

In terms of musical background, you often talk about punk hardcore roots. What bands built you musically, as an artist and as a fan?

Right off the top of my head, the top four or five bands which influenced me the most: probably when I was younger Fall out Boy, and when I was older mewithoutYou, Circa Survive, Manchester Orchestra, and Death Cab for Cutie. Death Cab for Cutie was a huge one, it changed my life. Before I listened to them, I sort of only listened to hardcore bands, and then I listened to their record and it kind of opened me up to more indie rock stuff.


Sprained Ankle, your first album, came out to be totally acoustic. How did you come to write such soft and melancholic songs then?

The reason why Sprained Ankle came out like it did was because I was away from my bandmates, and the songs that I was writing were just written on the tour with what I had at my disposal, which was just my guitar and my piano, so that’s how the songs took shape.


“The harder I swim, the faster I sink…”
We really love this part, which sounds so intimate. Still, for you got rave reviews from all kind of media, and went far from sinking, just rising constantly. How did you live this sudden rise of attention online, at shows, getting more and more people into your life?

I try to remind myself everyday with what is actually important about it. I think it’s really easy to become preoccupied with recognition, accolades and attention like that. I’m not jaded, I think it’s very cool when I get an article in the New York Times, I think it’s cool when the sizes of my shows are bigger, but I try to remind myself that… That’s because of a lot of things outside of myself, and I’m very lucky to be able to do this, and I’m trying not to engage with it in a way that I would need it and depend on recognition.

Gratitude is something I try to practice everyday. Like, reset myself whenever I start to feel entitled, or upset, or frustrated with “man, I can’t believe we have to drive so far for this set”, “I miss my family, I miss my partner, I miss things”, … But the sacrifice is worth it, because then we have shows like a couple of days ago we played in Milan for the first time, and that crowd was so happy, and sharing that happiness… Maybe they weren’t happy, but they were excited, they were engaged, they were feeling something, and being able to share that is worth all these sacrifices.


You’re writing from your personal perspective, with ghosts and stories from deep inside, but you get people to hear them and feel them for themselves, because they suffer from anxiety, doubt, loneliness, … How do you feel about that?

I feel good about it. A lot of people that I talk to about the show have some kind of a personal anecdote. But I think that’s not because I’m “such a great and important person”, that’s just because I was honest about things that happened to me. What I think people connect to in my music - and I’m not saying this just to be modest - but I really do think that people are capable of establishing that connection with each other if they’re honest and vulnerable, and me doing that first kind of opens up the door for people to think it’s okay to be honest and intimate and vulnerable with other people. I think it feels good! I know enough of how to receive that to not let it go to my head, so it encourages me and gives me strength.


It is often said about artists that their very best stuff came out at their own worst time. Do you agree about that idea? Do you consider your 4th or 5th album could be something highly joyful and positive?

It’s ok to be very in touch with sadness or negative emotions, but I try not to seek those things, or meditate a while in an effort to mine them for songs. That’s sort of what Televangelist is all about. Like I’m mining myself for all that sadness, but what if I feel better now? What if there’s nothing left to say that I’m sad? Sometimes I think - this is sort of an off-topic thing, but I think - the reason why artists often have problems with their moods and struggle with mental health (three times more) is because we feel very deeply. So for people with depression, even if they’re not artists, I think you get used to sadness, and I feel it’s something hella scary, but something else as scary is taking a risk.


So for me to write different kind of songs that aren’t sad songs is a risk! But that risk is so much more rewarding than just continuing to write the same stuff. So everything, I mean even on the next one, there will be a different approach. And I think there would be something wrong if you didn’t grow, and if you didn’t change and kept doing the same things, that would be bad. You have to learn, you have to grow so… I hope the next record will be more energetic yeah..! [l]


[We still don’t think the first two records need any change, like more drums or…]

Oh no! [l] Ok ‘cause I just changed like… [l]

I programmed drums in my new set! There’s no actual drums, but there’s more bass stuff, like slow bass happening, electronic. I build it with my feet, and I just wanted the best because at this point of my career, I want the audience to feel engaged and moved, I want to do everything I can to make the stage the best so they feel immersed. So I added all these layers to just make the songs the best they could be, and I’m worried about what people will feel, like… Just go back to the old thing. But you know, just trying to do the best I can.


Do you actually write your songs as studio versions, focusing on how they will sound on record, or more as future live songs, and on how they will sound and feel live?


Mmh… It’s weird, I feel like I go back and forth. It’s different for every artist, but I think I write these songs by myself, and I get an owned-in version of what I think the sound is, and then I add an instrumentation to be what I think will sound the best live. But the poetry and the notes of it are written, and then I add some stuff and I care about my live setting, what will be engaging.


What is the story behind your collaboration with Camille Faulkner, who plays the violin with you on stage?


We knew each other in college. After college, we both ran the same music programm. She is amazing so I obviously asked her to be on the record Turn Out the Lights. And then I wanted to have someone playing live with me. We started playing together and it really clicked. Now she plays on a lot more songs than she’s actually on, with no violin on record but live there is, and I think it adds some value.


You did some impressive featurings with bands such as Touché Amoré, Manchester Orchestra, … Do you have any other collaboration planned other than Boygenius? If you could release an EP working with 3 or 4 bands or songwriters right now?


Wow, let’s see… Adrianne from Big Thief. Then, I would collaborate with… Maybe Moses Sumney. I like music that doesn’t sound like mine you know, so I think if I just listened to the same music over and over, the challenge would vanish. So I like stuff that sounds really different from mine.


You always play your Telecaster live, as well as violins, piano and acoustic guitars. Are there some instruments you’d like to get more familiar with for your next projects?


On Boygenius I got to play banjo and mandolin! I hadn’t played those since I was doing bluegrass stuff in Tennessee, which is like another time. I’d love to incorporate more synths into my set, like a drum machine, not in a pop way but more David Bazan-style, or like The Postal Service, just… “settled”.


You studied english literature, and read a lot of philosophy. Who are your favorite writers? Do you feel that on stage you have that role of giving something to an audience of people like a teacher would do?


Sort of. I guess I have found a lot of similarities between being a performer and being a teacher. But I also think being a teacher, sometimes you try to give people information just to teach them something, but I also think the most effective way for people to learn something is to let them discover themselves. So as a teacher, I think the more you try to bring a people to a place to learn something for themselves, the more you succeed. In my live set too, I don’t want to stand in front of my microphone and my monitor saying what’s wrong and what’s right. I want to invite you to a place you feel comfortable enough to figure out for yourself. I think that’s what teachers aim, that’s their responsibility.


For auteurs, I’m trying to think especially French. Sartre, Voltaire. Candide changed my life. I really like Spanish literature also. But right now I really challenge myself to read more contemporary fiction, and Arundhati Roy [The God of Small Things] is incredible. I just bought this book that I loved called Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid, which retells the refugee crisis in a magical, alternative reality, and it’s really heartbreaking. It does this thing art should do, it doesn’t really tell you “this is wrong” and “this is right”. It invites you to see a person’s humanity, and judge for yourself, and makes reevaluate your character.


You’ve been working with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus on Boygenius. How did you share the writing and recording process for your self-titled EP?


The first three songs we shared were indeed equally shared, but on the EP there are Ketchum, ID and Salt in the Wound which feel much more collaborative and very shared. The rest of them were nearly completed when we brought them. I knew Phoebe because we had toured together, and I knew Lucy because we had toured together, and we booked this fall tour, and started talking about our live set, because obviously it felt very special and we wanted to collaborate live in some way. We started thinking about recording covers, different versions of our own songs, and then the idea came up to do some original songs.


So we found some time, went out to Los Angeles and we spent a whole week writing, staying in the studio 12 hours a day, just trying to make it as good as possible. I thought we would only get 3 songs done but we got 6, it’s pretty good for a week! It was a really spontaneous process, we didn’t know who was gonna play on it sometimes until D Day, like the woman who played drums and a couple other things. It’s all female session musicians, fully written and produced by us. Even the photographer’s female. You know, it felt really important to keep that focus of elevating female art in an equal art world.


[We read somewhere you were the New Avengers of indie music!]


[l] That’s really sweet, I like that so much! Makes me think of the squad led by Captain Marvel, on this island with only girls… I can’t remember the name, but it really made me think about this first edition I bought. They should cast us for that movie!


You probably heard about PEOPLE this summer in Berlin. We saw you practicing some rehearsal with Justin Vernon once on Instagram, were you involved in any way in this project?


Justin Vernon has a festival in Wisconsin - Eaux Claires - which is highly collaborative. All the artists show up early, there’s no real time set, … I met Gordi there, we were together all week and became really good friends. We actually played a show later in Madrid but we only spent a few hours there, and really became really good friends firstly at Eaux Claires. We played like 6 sets together there: she was on mine, I was on hers, we played collaborative sets, we sang with Big Red Machine, …


What was the latest movie you loved?


Sorry to Bother You. That is a weird and obscene movie, but in a way it builds a great social critique. I love a good social critique. I also enjoyed Disobedience, it’s very good. My girlfriend and I went in and just cried. I mean because, you know, I think the only criticism I could address this movie is that queer love movies are often depicted as tragic. I’d love to this one narrative when those people are normalized because it’s ok and normal to be queer, and shouldn’t be stigmatized. Still there’s a great struggle represented in this movie.


Call Me by Your Name maybe?


Oh yeah! I didn’t like that movie as much because it seemed a little bit sordid, but I realized the importance of it was that it just was like any romance novel. It was a story of love, very normalized with the father at the end. I could have watched the whole movie for that moment.


The latest album you loved?


Nearer My God by Foxing. When I was a kid, like 15, my band played before them, when Albatross came out. We’re still friends, and it’s so cool to see how far we’re gone since.


Your spirit animal?


I wanna say a wolf since I think wolves are so cool, but I’d say something a little bit more clumsy, like a racoon.. Probably a racoon.


If you could have any superpower? [*photocopier starts loudly*]


Maybe my superpower is to make copies appear anywhere, at any time! [l]

Oh this is hard… Teleport. I’d say teleport.