Artist info
Genre
Indie, Rock, Roots
Sounds like
Sharon Van Etten, Gillian Welch, Angel Olsen
band members
Julia Jacklin - Guitar/Vocals Thomas Stephens - Drums/Vocals Eddie Boyd - Guitar Harrison Fuller - Bass
Influences
Joanna Newsom, Fiona Apple, Sharon Van Etten, Father John Misty, Angel Olsen
Website
Bio
“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.”
–Motherland
Julia Jacklin thought she’d be a social worker.
Growing up in the Blue Mountains to a family of teachers, Jacklin discovered an avenue to art at the age of 10, thanks to an unlikely source: Britney Spears.
Jacklin chanced upon a documentary about the pop star while on family holiday. “By the time Britney was 12 she’d achieved a lot,” says Jacklin.”I remember thinking, ‘Shit, what have I done with my life? I haven’t achieved anything.’ So I was like, ‘Mum, as soon as we get home from this holiday I need to go to singing lessons.’
Classical singing lessons were the only kind in the area, but Jacklin took to it. Voice control was crucial, and Jacklin flourished. But the lack of expression had the teen seeking substance, and she wound up in a high school band, “wearing surf clothing and doing a lot of high jumps” singing Avril Lavigne and Evanescence covers. It wasn’t much but she was hooked.
Jacklin’s second epiphany came after high school. Travelling in South America she reconnected with high school friend and future foil Liz Hughes. The two returned home to the Blue Mountains and started a band, bonding over a love of indie-Appalachian folk trio Mountain Man and the songs Hughes was writing.
“I would just sing,” says Jacklin. “But as I got my confidence I started playing guitar and writing songs. I wouldn’t be doing music now if it wasn’t for Liz or that band. I never knew it was something I could do. “
Inspired, Jacklin began educating herself. From Fiona Apple she learned to be bold with words; from Anna Calvi, the cut and presence of electric guitar; and from Angel Olsen, that interpretation triumphs over technique. Now living in a garage in Glebe and working a day job on a factory production line making essential oils, the 25-year old found time to hone her craft – to examine her turns of phrase, to observe the stretching of her friendship circles, to wonder who she was and who she might become. That document is Jacklin’s masterful debut album, Don’t Let The Kids Win - an intimate examination of a life still being lived.
Recorded at New Zealand’s Sitting Room studios with Ben Edwards (Marlon Williams, Aldous Harding, Nadia Reid), Don’t Let The Kids Win courses with the aching current of alt-country and indie-folk, augmented by Jacklin’s undeniable calling cards: her rich, distinctive voice, and her playful, observational wit.
You can hear it in opener ‘Pool Party’, a gorgeous lilt bristling with Jacklin’s tale of substance abuse by the pool; in the sparse, ‘Elizabeth’, wrestling with both devotion and admonishment of a friend; in detailing the slow-motion banality of a relationship breakdown in the woozy ‘L.A Dreams’; and in her resolve to accept the passing of time on the snappy fuzz of ‘Coming Of Age’. The album hums with peripheral insights, minute in their moments but together proving an urge to stay curious.
“I thought it was going to be a heartbreak record,” says Jacklin of Don’t Let The Kids Win. “But in hindsight I see it’s about hitting 24 and thinking, ‘What the fuck am I doing?’ I was feeling very nostalgic for my youth. When I was growing up I was so ambitious: I’m going to be this amazing social worker, save the world, a great musician, fit, an amazing writer. Then you get to mid-20s and you realise you have to focus on one thing. Even if it doesn’t pay-off, or you feel embarrassed at family occasions because you’re the poor musician still, that’s the decision I made.”
In person Jacklin is funny, wry, quick to crack a joke. It makes the blunt honesty and prickly insight laced through her songwriting disarming, a dissonance she delights in. “Especially coming from my family,” says Jacklin. “They don’t talk about feelings at all. I love writing songs about them and watching them listen and squirm. To me that’s great. I enjoy it.”
The title track was the last song Jacklin wrote for the album. “My sister’s getting married soon,” she says of the closer. “And it hit me – we used to be two young girls and now that part of our lives is over. Seeing her talking about wanting to have a baby and…it’s like, man I can’t believe we’re already here.”
Don’t mistake this awareness for nostalgia. “It’s not that I want to go back to that time at all,” says Jacklin. “It’s trying to figure out how to be responsible when you don’t identify with who you were anymore.”
“All my friends at this age are freaking out. Everyone’s constantly talking about being old. “Don’t Let The Kids Win” is saying yeah we’re getting older but it’s not so special. It’s not unique. Everyone has dealt with this and it’s going to keep feeling weird. So I’m freaking out about it too but that song is trying to convince myself: let’s live now and just be old when we’re old.”
“I’ve got a feeling that this won’t ever change
We’re gonna keep on getting older
It’s going to keep on feeling strange”
–Don’t Let The Kids Win
Sydney-based singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin creates beautiful alt-country that makes us feel happy and depressed in the best kind of ways.
Tell us about your music. How did you develop your sound?
I guess my origin story is classical singing lessons from 11yrs old. Did all the musicals, came I think 4th in a singing competition singing Killing Me Softly at Penrith Panthers when I was 12. Big stuff. Then my first boyfriend introduced me to some great music like Willy Mason, Fiona Apple and Radiohead and I could see what I actually wanted to sound like. But I didn't pick up the guitar until I was about 20 when a friend wanted me to join her band. I just try and make sure it's a good song at it's core and then the sound just comes from whatever happens in the studio and whatever I'm listening to at the time probably! So really it's just been a few years of trial and error learning the instrument, writing a lot and figuring out a different way to say simple things.
What’s your greatest source of inspiration for making music?
Wanting to be able to write about sex like Leonard Cohen.
What can punters expect from a Julia Jacklin live show?
I think they can expect music, and swaying, occasional light head-banging, alcohol, Some loud bits, some really quiet bits, some good bits, some great bits.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given and who was it from?
I've been reaching out a bit lately for some advice on songwriting. I asked a good friend of mine Adrian Slattery from one of my favourite Melbourne bands Big Smoke, if he had any advice on how to get over some writers block. He said something along the lines of, you just need to have an undying belief that you are a good songwriter and that you have the skills to make it happen. It sounds simple but sometimes you can just get so caught up in not feeling good enough that you give up before you even begin, who has time for that? I'm just going to start staring in the mirror and yelling, "you're a songwriter dammit!" I don't want to waste time doubting myself anymore.
What Australian track would you play to cheer up someone who was crying?
Probably right now it would be 'I Wanna Be With You' by Flowertruck. The whole track makes me grin like a fool.
What Australian track would you play to someone to make them cry?
Bring back some bedroom teenage tears with Grinspoons 'Better off Alone’.
You’re the DJ at a party. The dance floor is pumping. What Australian track do you put on next?
Sampa the Great - 'Dutch Spring’.
What was the last local gig you went to? How was it?
There's a great night every Thursday at the Sly Fox in Enmore. I went there last week and saw Triceratops and The Baldwins. The quality of the bands there each week is ridiculous and it's always packed no matter who’s playing which is super nice to see in Sydney right now. The Baldwins are one of my local faves, they don't play often but when they do I'm there with a massive grin on my face, trying to maintain my cool whilst struggling to dance consistently over their time signature changes.
Tell us about the bands or people in the NSW music community that inspire you.
I'm surrounded by a great crew of people playing and hustling hard in Sydney right now. One of the great hustlers is Tom Stephens who is about to release his debut record which is going to be super ace, there's a band called NARLA which are one of the best live bands I've seen in ages. I want to be like them but I think I have to go back in time and practice a lot more. My Phantastic Ferniture band mates Ryan K Brennan and Elizabeth Hughes who are so multi talented and hardworking it makes my head spin. A singer songwriter Ainsley Farrell who writes these great songs and has this incredible depth to her voice. I saw The Pinheads the other day and it was so bizarre but it made me want to be a bit more fearless and weird on stage. Plus a million other people.
What are your plans for 2016?
Touring the single, heading to the UK for Great Escape festival and some other things next month, and most importantly releasing my debut record around September.
Review
I'm pretty sure you can do no wrong. This is another characteristically gloomy summer dream.
I'm pretty sure you can do no wrong. This is another characteristically gloomy summer dream.
Review
Thank you Britney Spears, THANK YOU.
Thank you Britney Spears, THANK YOU.
Review
your voice. seriously. if it's not out already, the secret of julia jacklin will be public knowledge soon enough.
your voice. seriously. if it's not out already, the secret of julia jacklin will be public knowledge soon enough.