Since the release of her 2016 debut Don’t Let The Kids Win, Julia Jacklin has gone from strength to strength. Now signed to Transgressive (Marika Hackman, Foals), Julia’s latest release Crushing is an honest and relatable account of navigating life post-breakup. I caught up with Julia to find out what she was listening to when writing the record, and which albums give her strength when she’s out on the road.
What’s the main inspiration behind Crushing?
Oh you know the usual suspects, heartbreak and loss! But I guess mainly just the shifting nature of my relationships, romantic/platonic over time. I felt a huge shift in what I needed and felt I deserved from the people in my life the last couple of years. I think we all put up with a lot of nonsense when we’re younger.
Which records were you listening to when writing the album?
I wasn’t actually listening to much because I was at the end of a long tour and I felt pretty disconnected to being a music fan. I was however listening very intensely to all the people I was touring with; mainly, Mitski, Andy Shauf and Faye Webster.
There’s some wicked music coming out of Australia at the moment – what’s it like to be part of that scene?
Yeah I recently moved cities, from Sydney to Melbourne so I’ve been lucky enough to experience a couple of local scenes in action. Everyone works very hard down here I think, it’s a bit of a hustle in Australia, very expensive to get out, sometimes pretty toxic tall poppy syndrome, so those who keep working through that are making some really inspiring stuff.
If streaming didn’t exist and you could only take three records on tour, which would you pick?
Okay I would take Andy Shaufs – The Party to get me through the bad days, Gillian Welch – Times (The Revelator), to constantly remind me of what I’m doing it all for and Grimes – Art Angels to dance to and get me ready to face the stage when I’m low in energy and confidence.
Which female musicians should be on our radar in 2019?
Oh there’s so many right now, Weyes Blood just released two of the greatest songs I’ve heard in a while, Olympia is gonna release a killer record I feel, Stella Donnelly also, oh and one of my favourite Australian songwriters Emma Russack and also Leah Senior.
Crushing is out now via Transgressive.
Photograph: Nick McKinlay
