Many momentsfollow suit: internal shifts are met with instrumental ones.
Baker often finds her epiphanies in this new, deafening din.
“I change my belief in scary ways or scary for me,” she continues.
Credit: ALYSSE GAFKJEN
It made space for me to be just a person, and feel like that’s enough.
She called you a “secret shredder.”
The secret is out, officially.
“Going to therapy in 2019 helped me not have an existential crisis every day of 2020,” says Baker.ALYSSE GAFKJEN
JULIEN BAKER:That flatters me so much.
That’s very ego-feeding!
Did working with boygenius leave an imprint on your approach toLittle Oblivionsbeyond obvious shredability?
(From left) Phoebe Bridges, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus of boygenius performing in 2018.Lloyd Bishop/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
We just ditched that version and started over.
Is there a through-line connectingLittle Oblivionsand your prior records?
It’s all I thought about.
I just wish I could give it away."
And he said, “But you might’t, so what are you gonna say with it?”
I was 21 years old and I wanted to say something good to people about pain and healing.
But I feel like I don’t have the urge to put it all together.
I don’t need to put a bow on it and I don’t know if I can.
Not that I was ever trying to do that anyway.
Everybody becomes way more gracious with themselves and each other.
Is it difficult to open yourself up to this degree when more people are listening?
Has it had an impact on your willingness to put this all out there?
and texting it to one of my friends, Nick Carpenter of Medium Build.
I was like, “Is it too cringe-y?”
I was like, “Wow, that’s a pretty self-challenging discipline of songwriting.”
It’s like that Tegan and Sara line: “So what…
I lied/I lied to me too.”
Has that impacted your thoughts on the album at all?
But it’s so bizarre.
And then the thing happened that nobody thought was going to happen, which was that Trump got elected.
I remember calling my manager and being like, “I have to be on tour!
We’re gonna make flyers, we have to do something!”
I now have to kind of do the same thing again withLittle Oblivionsin 2019.
And then the world collapsed.
Going to therapy in 2019 helped me not have an existential crisis every day of 2020.
It’s about Jesus changing his mind and being like “Y’all don’t even deserve this.”
We really just have to sift through our relationships interpersonally.
I could change my mind.
Now, I’ll hopefully change.
It would be scary if I didn’t.
I keep thinking about how the larger-than-life songs ofLittle Oblivionswould sound right at home in an arena.
Which feels like the perfect environment for these tracks: a huge venue, or something more intimate?
So much has to do with how the audience behaves in those spaces.
People always ask, “What is it like to perform really vulnerable songs alone with a guitar?”
I feel it’s hard for a person who’s already socially anxious.
That’s why I love when people sing at shows, and I miss that.
It’s very liberating.
We got together to do these soundstage rehearsals and tape a couple COVID-friendly sessions.
It was the most fun that I had had like legitimate fun playing music since the boygenius tour.
I think it will help with the squirminess.
