Julien Baker’s Long Journey to Loving Pride

June 26, 2021 5:20 AM

“I’m bummed that it took me so long to be able to sit in queer joy.” - Julien Baker in conversation with Slate's Outward podcast. Extracted quotes on episode page worthwhile. Full interview (which ranges much wider and deeper) with Baker happens in the podcast play-gizmo at the bottom of the page, starting at 14:43, ending at 40:49.

Also available as a transcript, wherein Julien Baker is played by "S4" and the three Slate hosts are played by S1, S2, and S3, respectively. You can cmd-F "once upon a time" in your browser to get to the beginning of the interview.

Julien Baker Wikipedia

Julien Baker's highest charting US single, Faith Healer [from 2020 no less!]

Bonus: 2016 Tiny Desk Concert (I knew nothing of Julien Baker before this interview, which is wonderful. Her music is also a bit to my taste.)

posted by hippybear (7 comments total)

Julien Baker owning Death Cab For Cutie's Photobooth
posted by Gortuk at 6:38 AM on June 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Pre-pandemic, Baker was one of those live acts who I've seen bring grown men to actual tears (hello, I'm grown men. But also other people) and she's one of the first post-pandemic concerts I'll be seeing. Thank you for sharing this! I love her a lot and she is so so smart and I could listen to her talk all day
posted by Maaik at 11:36 AM on June 26, 2021

Really love Julien's work, and have been lisening since that 2016 Tiny Desk Concert. Probably more than anyone else I listen to, I just /worry/ about whether she's doing OK. In the sense that a lot of her best work is coming from really dark places, and I hope she doesn't get stuck in a cycle of going to dark places personally to fuel more music.
posted by kaibutsu at 12:25 PM on June 26, 2021

I discovered her along with Phoebe Bridgers via boy genius which I discovered through Lucy Dacus. I've seen Dacus twice and Bridgers in Better Oblivion and finally get to see Baker in September. Her new-ish album is amazing and I can't wait to actually see a show in a club again.
posted by octothorpe at 2:46 PM on June 26, 2021

I saw Julien Baker play at a KEXP show honoring Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit. I had never heard her music before, and I've since become a big fan. She sings beautifully and is a stunning lyricist.
posted by bluloo at 11:02 PM on June 26, 2021

Here's an amazing cover of Soundgarden’s “Fell on Black Days"
posted by signal at 1:04 PM on June 27, 2021

If you want to get a sense of the raw power of Julien's voice, here she is singing alone in a parking garage in Memphis.
posted by vibrotronica at 8:23 AM on June 28, 2021