Julien Baker Band • Page 45

AshlandATeam · Nov 19, 2018

Peachfuzz said:

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.

This is really good!!

Bartek T. · Nov 21, 2018

@Peachfuzz that's a nice piece, I enjoyed some of the fresh info! Wish I could see that Big Red Machine set with her and Gordi, has anybody seen some footage? ;D

Barresi · Nov 23, 2018

Julien will be covering "Everybody Lost Somebody" by Bleachers for Terrible Thrills, Vol. 3 (!!!).

https://store.bleachersmusic.com/product/XZCOMBOBL02

hermanthehermit · Nov 23, 2018

Looking forward to Julien show #3 tomorrow (and Phoebe #2).

Tim · Nov 24, 2018

Peachfuzz said:

[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!

lol, nice. I'm guessing she's referring to A-Force, which was a pretty rad series.

Also, Sorry to Bother You rules. Gotta rewatch that between now and the end of the year to see where it sits on my personal rankings. So delightfully thoughtful, fun, and bizarre.

ZooZooChaCha · Dec 15, 2018

waking season · Jan 15, 2019

9 Musicians on How They Thrive Creatively Without Drugs or Booze

A bit long but a worthwhile read

sophos34 · Jan 15, 2019

waking season said:

9 Musicians on How They Thrive Creatively Without Drugs or Booze

A bit long but a worthwhile read

really good to see zachary cole smith interviewed for this.

ItsAndrew · Jan 15, 2019

Julien was on the Turned Out a Punk podcast: Audioboom / Episode 197 - Julien Baker (boygenius)

ItsAndrew · Jan 15, 2019

Julien is the guest curator of Sled Festival in Calgary! I wonder who she will choose. Would be cool for her to go the punk and metalcore route.

Singer-songwriter Julien Baker named guest curator of Sled Island 2019

715creeks · Jan 15, 2019

Seeing Julien at Prima Vera in Barcelona In May 29th, and I guess my wife and I will be seeing her again in Calgary on June 22nd as well once we get back home.

StormAndTheSun · Jan 15, 2019

Just told my wife about this and she just started bawling, haha. Unfortunately she'll be 7 months pregnant for the show, but we'll definitely be there.

maryp1603 · Mar 18, 2019

Looks like Julien’s previous band is making a return!!

CarpetElf · Mar 18, 2019

WITH Julien?

maryp1603 · Mar 18, 2019

CarpetElf said:

WITH Julien?

Seeing as she’s the singer of the band and they’re all still good friends, I sure hope so!

ItsAndrew · Mar 18, 2019

CarpetElf said:

WITH Julien?

It is definitely happening with Julien.

ImAMetaphor · Mar 18, 2019

They just followed me on Instagram lmao

Leftandleaving · Mar 18, 2019

o wow

Barresi · Mar 19, 2019

ImAMetaphor said:

They just followed me on Instagram lmao

Damn, thought I was special.

ItsAndrew · Mar 28, 2019

http://mtsusidelines.com/2019/03/be...ng-landscape-of-music-culture-representation/

Justin Roux · Apr 13, 2019

If anyone grabs an extra Julien 7” I would love to pay for it, my store didn’t get it

maryp1603 · Apr 13, 2019

Got my 7”! Sounds incredible!

Donnie Ruth · Apr 13, 2019

0/4 at stores today. Damn.

ItsAndrew · May 19, 2019

Zilla · May 19, 2019

I love her vocals in this, but those noises in the background during the first minute kind of kills it for me.

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