Fast Five With Julien Baker
Julien Baker is a girl of simple pleasures. While other 21 year olds in the US are preoccupied with their newfound ability to flash their ID and have a tipple, Baker just wishes she could “write songs about anything other than death” – or so go the opening words of her highly praised single ‘Sprained Ankle’. Forget musical acts thrust into the limelight on account of their bells and whistles; this Memphis, Tennessee native is navigating the stripped back indie folk realm – sans bells, sans whistles – with a deftness well beyond her young years. Traversing a similar musical path to Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen and our own Julia Jacklin, Baker cut her teeth in the alt-rock scene before adopting the singer-songwriter label and releasing her debut album in 2015. The talented songstress just wrapped up her first Australian tour and as far as successes go, it certainly was one: Baker sold out a bona fide plethora of intimate shows countrywide (including three in Melbourne alone), with a quick stopover in Berry for this year’s Fairgrounds Festival. We decided to fling a few questions her way so we could find out a bit more about her songwriting ways and how she defines success.
What was the first song you learnt all the words to?
The first song I remember learning all the words to had to be “I Feel Fine”, one of the songs off of The Beatles compilation 1, as predictable as it is to say The Beatles… My mother absolutely loved The Beatles and used to have that CD and play it in the car wherever we went and that was my favourite song on it.
Where do you tend to do most of your songwriting?
I used to do most of my songwriting late at night in the garage, because it was the only place I could go and not wake anybody up by playing, but now since I spend most of my time on the road, now I do a lot of my writing in the car, when we have free time I will take the keys and sit in the backseat playing or making voice memos of song ideas on my phone.
Where in the world would you most like to visit?
I would love to visit Spain, the last time I was there was for Primavera Sound in Barcelona, and I loved the city but didn’t have time to travel around to other parts of the country which is something I would love to do eventually.
Who are you most looking forward to catching up with at Fairgrounds Festival?
I am looking forward to Angel Olsen, because I absolutely love her new record, and Japandroids because I know they will put on a crazy energetic show. I’m also so excited to see Julia Jacklin again, I got to play with her in Los Angeles and it was amazing, so I am anxious to see/hear her music again, and this time in the context of an Australian audience!
What’s the secret to success?
I think the answer to this question lies in how a person defines success. To be successful, I think one has to re-evaluate what makes a person “successful”, in essence you are deciding how to quantify a life, what constitutes meaningful living. I don’t think that lies in recognition or accolades or fiscal profit or acclaim. To me the scale for the successfulness of any endeavour lies in the individual’s contentment and peace. I think the secret to success is to remove our ideas of achievement from the social standards of wealth or power and rethink success as having freedom to create something to be proud of, having peace and contentment with the small blessings already present in our lives, and learning how to best share those with others in love.
