FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Mckk
Part Fifteen: Julia Jacklin
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WHILST she is one of the newer artists…
PHOTO CREDIT: Gem Harris for Loud and Quiet
I have included in this feature, I love Julia Jacklin’s music and I feel, in years to come, she will rise through the ranks and will inspire many other artists. I am not sure if Julia Jacklin is still based in Sydney, but the Australian-born artist, like so many, must be pretty worried regarding what is happening in New South Wales. I am writing this feature on 2nd January, and I realise the situation may be worse by the time it is published. I hope everyone is okay there but, looking ahead, Jacklin has a very busy year ahead. I shall end by discussing her tour dates but, at the moment, I want to focus on an artist who is an icon of the future. By her own admission – more on that later – Jacklin’s debut album, Don’t Let the Kids Win is an artist unsure; maybe showing some weaknesses. I really like that album and it was one of my favourites from 2016. It is understandable that an artist who was very new to the industry would not be at her peak on her first album. I will come to that record in a bit but, now, a bit about Julia Jacklin. She grew up in the Blue Mountains, Australia, and hails from a family of school teachers. Listening to her brand of Indie Folk, one would not imagine Pop artists like Britney Spears would be a source of inspiration. Indeed, Jacklin took classical singing lessons, partly because of her love of Spears’ music. After graduating from the University of Sydney, she lived in a garage in Glebe (a suburb of Sydney).
It sounds like a pretty rough-and-ready setting; a struggling artist making their way up. I think it is quite romantic and, having studied Social Policy at university that, coupled with Jacklin’s musical tastes and personality, makes for an arresting and unique artist. Jacklin worked at an essential oils factory only a couple of weeks before she started to tour and, whilst she enjoyed that job, it is amazing to picture this wonderful musicians at her day job, not knowing she would soon become known around the world. From a young age, Jacklin’s family did not really know what it was to be a musician; they did not feel it was a viable career, and so, Jacklin did not have that support when she was working on her music. After being part of a band, Salta, together with Liz Hughes, Jacklin soon began to make her way out alone. My first exposure to her work was when her first two singles, Pool Party and Coming of Age, were being played across national radio in the U.K. There are some stunning Australian artists around. I think it is a nation that we overlook and do not see in the say light as, say, the U.S.A. With contemporaries like Julia Jacklin, Stella Donnelly (she is Welsh-born but grew up in Australia) and Courtney Barnett producing strong and incredibly interesting music, we need to look closely at the scene there. All three women are very empowering and inspiring and, in future edition of this feature, I may include Courtney Barnett.
I heard Jacklin’s music on BBC Radio 6 Music and, having appeared at various festivals since March 2016 (including South by Southwest), more and more people were being turned on to an amazing talent. Jacklin has played headline sets – she headlines A Festival Called Panama (in Tasmania) in March; she is headlining the Grampians Music Festival in February – and supported artists such as First Aid Kit. Magazines and critics were dubbing Jacklin as a star of today as early as 2016 and, almost four years on, there is no stopping her! It wasn’t until August 2016 when Jacklin decided she was a full-time musician and decided she could not balance work and music. Citing influences Doris Day, The Andrews Sisters and Billy Bragg, Don’t Let the Kids Win is a wonderfully rich album that nods to classic artists and a romantic tone together with something deeply personal – many saw the album as a woman going through a quarter-life crisis. Maybe Jacklin was finding her feet and still finding herself as an artist, but I really love her debut. The songs are relatable to me. I can identify with someone who sees others ‘growing up’ and moving on whilst being stuck in a job and not really taking a leap. I guess Jacklin feels differently now that her life has moved on considerably since 2016 but, back then, her situation was very different.
IN THIS PHOTO: Julia Jacklin and band at the End of the Road Festival in 2016/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Gray
Loud and Quiet had this to say when they reviewed Don’t Let the Kids Win:
“What does a quarter-life crisis actually sound like? Julia Jacklin’s debut record has to at least be a close approximation. The Australian singer-songwriter took the decision, bright-eyed and not long out of school, to eschew the real world in favour of pursuing a career in music in her teens, but by the time she came to record ‘Don’t Let the Kids Win’, she found herself frustrated, disillusioned and stuck in a menial day job whilst her kid sister was doing the grown-up stuff: settling down, getting married.
That context is crucial because it’s Jacklin’s emotional state that makes this record such a triumph; there is a quite brilliant balance between nervous urgency, the realisation that something needs to happen soon, and measured perfectionism, born out of the knowledge that if this is her one shot, it better be the best it can be.
‘Pool Party’ and ‘LA Dream’ are exercises in softly soulful pop, ‘Sweet Step’ leans on pretty, melodic acoustic guitar, and the murky atmospherics of ‘Same Airport, Different Man’ put Jacklin’s formidable storytelling skills front and centre. Underpinning it all is her achingly sad vocal delivery, which oozes conviction throughout.
Jacklin cites Angel Olsen as a major influence (although there are some Ryan Adams melodies in there, too), and ‘Don’t Let the Kids Win’ should not be forgotten in the wake of the North Carolina native’s recent masterpiece, ‘My Woman’”.
Although some reviewers remarked how Jacklin was not quite a complete artist – some noted how there is filler on the album -, Don’t Let the Kids Win is a broad, honest and memorable album that gained a lot of positivity. This is what AllMusic wrote:
“Don’t Let the Kids Win is the debut of Australian singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin, who skillfully laces elements of alternative country-rock and early rock into haunting indie folk vignettes. Smoky vocals, discontent, and a presence that's mature beyond her twenty-something years suffuse the album with the character of a life hard-lived. That spirit is almost literal on the song "Same Airport, Different Man," a weary, single-verse rumination that ends with her deciding to try the train next time. It closes with a mumble and a quiet, dissolving guitar line, as if falling asleep over a whiskey. At the other end of the instrument range is the lush "Coming of Age," which uses echoing guitars, crashing cymbals, and a melody that yodels to express "I didn't see it coming, my coming of age." More sauntering tracks like "Leadlight" and "Small Talk" take on a light '50s nostalgia with triplet rhythms, rhythm guitar, and a country connection. The latter tune has her feeling the wrong age for anything, whether it be the cool kid at the bar, or imagining Zach Braff and Catherine Deneuve as her parents. In keeping with the album's self-consciousness about growing older and finding one's place, the title track closes Don’t Let the Kids Win with lyrics like "I've got a feeling that this won't ever change/We're gonna keep on getting older, it's gonna keep on feeling strange." Altogether, the album's palette and Jacklin's cracking, pensive delivery land her in a sphere with heavy-hitters such as Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen, with a touch of Lucinda Williams, making it a must for fans of thoughtful indie folk”.
Unlike a new artist out of America, I think there is an extra degree of fascination when we are made aware of someone from Australia or New Zealand. Maybe that relates to the size of the countries or the fact their music has had to travel further. There was a lot of interest in Jacklin when her album was released. One can learn so much about an artist from the music and, whilst Don’t Let the Kids Win spoke about a woman who was anxious and wondering whether she was achieving all she could, interviews allowed the musician to provide more context and story. In this 2016 interview with DIY, Jacklin spoke about her life before music and making those first steps:
“Fears familiar to a ‘quarter life crisis’ generation permeate the album. After studying Social Policy at university in Sydney, the feeling of time slipping away became an acute source of concern. “I was a bit like, ‘Oh! Was that a good idea to be at uni for like four and a half years when you knew the whole time you wanted to be a musician?’”
The answer was to set herself the goal of recording an album before she reached the age of 25. Her anxieties provided food for thought as she converted her feelings of self-doubt into song form. “It’s a nice way to be productive with them and not just whinge about them all the time!”
On ‘Motherland’, for example, she admonishes herself for being hesitant (“these new lines on my face, spell out girl pick up your pace, if you want to stay true, to what your younger self would do”). By the closer, the album’s title-track, she appears to have found some acceptance in the inevitability of ageing (“we’re gonna keep on getting older, it’s going to keep on feeling strange”).
Sure enough, before she hit 25, Julia’s restlessness had spurred her on to achieve the target she’d set for herself. “I need to feel worried to make music,” she confesses. “It’s shitty but I do need to feel a little inadequate in some way to drive me to produce I guess.”
“I grew up listening to a lot of folk music and you think you have to sing about rivers and mountains and stones and bones and stuff that doesn’t really mean anything to you, but you’re just kind of using the same tropes. But then I started listening to some artists that inject a bit of humour into it and it just felt a lot more natural for me. I realised that I was allowed to do that. I didn’t just have to sing pretty words.”
Leonard Cohen was a revelation in that respect. “He manages to be super heavy-hitting with some of it, like really melancholy but also just quite hopeful and I think it’s to do with his sense of humour.” Father John Misty and Fiona Apple are others she name-checks as writing inspirations.
There is so much more to Julia Jacklin than the music alone. I think she is a remarkably frank and accessible person who provides inspiration to those who are starting out. There is this emphasis on the very young being relevant; if you are in your late-twenties or thirties, then you are not cool or starting out too late. Jacklin knows where she wants to be, but it took her a while to realise music was her path.
I want to bring in one more interview before I move on to her latest album. Jacklin spoke with Interview Magazine in 2016 and discussed her creative process and route into music:
“LYRICAL FRAME OF MIND: When I’m really stuck, I have to listen to music. Sometimes I can create in a vacuum based on how I’m feeling, but if I get writer’s block or if I get really stuck, I also like to read artists’ lyrics. I read a lot of Leonard Cohen’s lyrics, I just love the way he writes—as does everyone—and seeing his turns of phrase. I also listen to a lot of Gillian Welch, because she just has these incredible song structures that blow my mind. If I’m stuck I listen to her music to see how she structures it. I think it’s a healthy thing to do.
STUDYING TO BECOME A SOCIAL WORKER: That was the big plan, I don’t know, it still might be a plan eventually, we’ll see how this goes. I kind of struggled through uni. I did well, but I took a few breaks when good things started happening with music. I finished my degree, but I guess I was always a bit naïve thinking that I could do both at the same time. Then I realized, to actually have a music career, you kind of need to charge ahead—at least for a certain time. I think maybe once you have established yourself and you can take breaks and pursue other things, it might be easier. Definitely in the beginning you need to make a lot of sacrifices.
WHEN SHE WAS IN A FOLK BAND: I was listening to a lot of folk music. I think one of the first songs I wrote was a very generic song about a sea captain, borrowing some overused folky themes. The more I wrote, the more I brought it back to my own voice and opinion. I started in a folk band. I was in this band with two of my best friends and we released an EP when I was younger and then we went to make another EP and halfway through doing it we all just realized that we didn’t really like the music anymore. We were kind of playing Appalachian folk music, we fell into playing that, but we didn’t really like playing it. We decided to break up and do our own thing. The other girl that I was in the band with is a singer-songwriter as well, so it was one of those bands where you’ve got two songwriters, so the set is always a bit weird because the songs are quite different and you have two lead singers. It was like we were doing our own thing anyway, but we were just putting ourselves together on stage.
HITTING THE ROAD: I quit my day job [a few] weeks ago. I’m very excited about that. I was working at an essential oil factory for two years. It was a good job, great people, they were super flexible with me going on tour and having time off to record and whatnot, but it was pretty repetitive work to say the least. I’m leaving on the 22nd of August and then I’ll be away until the end of November. I went backpacking in my gap year for seven months, but it’s definitely the longest time I’ve been away since then. I’ve never done this kind of touring, show after show after show. I’ll see how that goes. I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time. Until next year, my life has been planned out, so I’m just going to ride that wave and see what it’s like”.
Between 2016 and 2019, Jacklin toured a lot and, in that time, honed her craft and strengthened as a songwriter. If Don’t Let the Kids Win showed flashes of brilliance and future promise, Crushing was the sound of a woman who was fully-formed and at her very best. Many critics named the album among their favourites from last year, and it is no surprise Jacklin has a pretty full diary this year! At the ARIA Music Awards of 2019, Crushing was nominated for six awards: Best Female Artist, Best Adult Contemporary Album; Best Independent Release, Producer of the Year; Engineer of the Year and Best Cover Art. From its wonderful cover – Jacklin looking awed and happy whilst surrounded by flowers and various nik naks -, to its amazing production (from Burke Reid), Crushing is a triumph! Like her debut, there is a lot of self-realisation on Crushing but, unlike Don’t Let the Kids Win, the ideas are huge and the songwriting is dripping in nuance. That might sound dismissive of her debut, but it is not intended to be: that record is a brilliant thing, but Jacklin hit new gears on her second outing. If Don’t Let the Kids Win’s backdrop is a woman in her twenties wondering whether she is as far along in life as she should be, Crushing is about break-ups and personal anxieties. Perhaps it Is a natural evolution in terms of her story.
Singles like Head Alone and Pressure to Party are, again, songs we can relate to. This sense of loneliness, heartache and societal pressure is universal, yet Jacklin articulates it in a way like no other songwriter. Running in at ten tracks and lasting less than forty minutes, Crushing is a focused album but one that is awash with beautiful textures, vivid scenes and the best vocal performances of Jacklin’s career to date. The reviews for Crushing are universally positive, and it is pleasing to see Jacklin winning the same publications that were a little ho-hum when her debut came out. The Telegraph loved what they heard when they sat down to review Crushing:
“Jacklin is a 30-year-old Australian singer-songwriter, working in an increasingly crowded field of fragile atmospheric indie. Her spiritual godmother might be Cat Power, but Jacklin has a touch of countrywoman Courtney Barnett’s rock swagger, too, with hints of something raw and unbridled that keeps listeners on edge. It is not a particularly modern style, unlikely to set charts alight, but done well it has real emotional potency. And Jacklin does it very well.
Crushing is a break-up album, forensic in its analysis of the causes and aftermath of a failed relationship. This is well-trodden terrain but Jacklin’s focus on physical agency lends it contemporary resonance. “I don’t want to be touched all the time/ I raised my body up to be mine,” she asserts on Head Alone. Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You is a powerful song about the boredom than can infect long-term relationships. Pressure to Party, Convention and Good Guy struggle with the guilt of self-inflicted pain. “You can’t be the one to hold him/ When you were the one who left,” she sings on mournful closer Comfort.
As a body of work, Crushing feels small, intimate and inward. But these are big songs, full of big ideas, from a big talent”.
More so than ever, Julia Jacklin’s work was attracting the critical ear. Maybe it was touring and experience that lead to improvement in terms of her material. Perhaps she reflected a particular moment that translated especially effectively to music. Whatever the reason, Crushing was among the most respected and adored albums of last year. I think Jacklin will continue to get better and more amazing as a songwriter. The fact she has produced such a complete and astonishing album only a few years from her debut shows that she was right to quit her day job and pursuit music. Here is what The Independent had to say when they reviewed Crushing:
“For my money, “Body” is the best thing on Crushing, a terrifically complicated breakup record that’s still got a hangar full of delights readied for takeoff. Those who fell for Jacklin’s 2016 excellent debut, Don’t Let the Kids Win, will find a continuity of alternative attitude and vintage influences. The video for new song “Pressure To Party” – Jacklin’s sneeringly ecstatic “three-minute scream” about what people expected of her after her relationship ended – is even shot in the same retro-fitted house as her first video, for “Pool Party”.
But there’s a deeper sense of personal connection to anchor Jacklin’s lyrical and melodic smarts. That snare drum keeps a relentless, nerve-snapping pulse throughout, with Jacklin sounding more confident in her contradictions: at once yearning to comfort a lover she’s dumped and then, on “Head Alone”, declaring: “I don’t wanna be touched all the time/ I raised my body up to be mine.” The rather glorious video for this one finds Jacklin running through the desolate streets of suburbia in a dress that looks like it’s been made out of 1980s curtain material for a sixth-form production of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet”.
People around the world are keen to see Crushing’s songs performed by Jacklin. Last year was a fantastic one, but I think Julia Jacklin’s latest album ranks alongside the absolute best. She would have taken heart from the way critics and fans reacted; the positivity and interest it has garnered is reflective of a songwriter who puts her heart and soul into everything. Before I move on and finish up, I want to bring in two different interviews Jacklin gave. When she spoke with The Independent last year, she was asked about ageism and sexism in the industry. Jacklin’s candour and honesty makes her a very inspiring and interesting interviewee:
“In that case, perhaps it’s a good thing that Jacklin was well into her twenties before her music career took off. She released her debut album, 2016’s critically adored Don’t Let the Kids Win, at 26. She only half agrees. “It’s a young person’s game,” she says. “It’s ageist as hell. Sometimes, when people say to me, ‘You’ve got all the time in the world,’ I’m just like, ‘That’s not the reality I see. Sure there’s exceptions to the rule, but I think this is a very ageist industry towards women, and there’s definitely a lot of progress, but please don’t tell me I have all the time in the world. That’s bulls**t.’” Lily Allen recently discussed the same thing in a podcast interview, suggesting that at 33, she is now deemed too old to be played on Radio 1. “Thirty-three, that’s young,” says Jacklin. “I just don’t think men would have the same problem. Thirty-three, in male years, you’re still a baby.”
Jacklin has found the endless attempts to politicise her music frustrating. “I get pretty sick of the fact that every time a woman speaks about their experiences, it’s labelled political and radical,” she says, rooting around for something in her red backpack, pushing aside a copy of Sally Rooney’s Normal People. She resents “this hilarious idea that trying to advocate for your personal safety and privacy is a fashionable thing”. And she finds it vaguely patronising. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh you’re so brave’, and I’m like… Urgh. That doesn’t make me feel good if you think that I’m doing something political and brave, because I’m not. I’m just writing about my experiences, just like men get to do, and my relationship with my body and the way that the world interacts with my body. It’s something that every woman experiences in some way or another. Yes, cool, people are starting to pay attention right now, but this is the reality of my life. I’m not trying to jump on some bandwagon. Just talking about my body as a straight, white woman, I don’t think I’m doing some crazy brave… you know? I don’t think I’m paving the way or anything”.
I do think attitudes need to change when it comes to women in music and how they are seen. Jacklin is right in what she says about women being labelled political if they have anything personal or bold to say.
Let’s hope things change this year and, with stunning artists like Jacklin putting out some of the best music in the world, I feel like steps will be made. In this interview with The Line of Best Fit, Jacklin discussed the changes between her debut and second album:
“Growth as an artist is a concept that fans and critics alike tend to latch onto but for Jacklin herself the difference between her debut and new album is immeasurable.
“I kind of just didn't feel that much pressure with the second record, because it feels like I'm a completely different person from my 24-year-old self," she says. Laughing, she adds: "I don't even know what my first record sounds like. I think a few people have asked me, ‘How does your second album differ from the first one?’ and I’m like, ‘I don't know, actually.’ I have to listen back to my first one and make notes.”
Jacklin is joyful, proud and simultaneously humble when discussing Crushing. She possesses a certain unique charisma that enables her to praise her work without seeming at all boastful.
Putting this down to confidence and experience, she explains: “I think just because the first record was my first time in a studio I didn't really have much confidence in the space. And I think when I listened back to it, I could hear maybe some concessions that I made because I was just a bit shy or like, some decisions that were made because I just didn't speak up and didn't kind of know how to ask for what I want.”
By contrast, it’s evident throughout Crushing that she’s an artist who knows what they want and knows how to ask for it.
“I really care about my first record. I don't think it's a bad record. It just reminds me of a time when I just felt pretty inadequate as a musician,” she says. “Whereas with this new record I think I just kind of understood that, you know, making a record is not about having a perfect guitar take or a perfect vocal take. I thought as it’s the first time, I've got to get the songs down perfectly, because they're going to be recorded for the rest of time”.
This year has been a busy and exciting one for Julia Jacklin. If you want to catch her on the road, here are her confirmed dates, and one might need to be a bit patient if you live outside of Australia. I like the fact Jacklin has not moved to the U.S. and U.K. because, in a lot of cases, artists in Australia who cannot get exposure move here. In fact, in many incidents, it is them wanting to be closer to these nations and having more of a visible platform. Things are bad in New South Wales are pretty bad right now with the bush fires, and I hope Jacklin remains safe – and upcoming gigs are not affected. I also wonder whether she will bring the bush fires and climate change into her third album. There are no confirmed plans regarding a third album, but new-found acclaim and what is happening in her country could not have helped inspire her in one form or the other. After the success of Crushing, so many new people had their ears opened to Julia Jacklin. I feel she will go from strength to strength and, in years to come, is one of those artists we look up to and proclaim a legend. Right now, the blossoming and phenomenal Jacklin is…
PHOTO CREDIT: Gem Harris for Loud and Quiet
AN artist we should all listen to and respect.