STACK #196 Feb 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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that cautions people vaguely to take both joy and sadness, excitement and disappointment, etc., and more about understanding the duality of things and have a more fluid relationship to them. As in, I think that instead of trying to deliberate whether something is medicine vs poison, good vs. bad, it's healthier to accept that most things in our lives could occupy either space -- either beneficial or detrimental depending on how we use them, in a healthy or unhealthy way. There’s a related sentiment at the core of CryingWolf , where you describe seeking out the wolves.You even do something of a wolf-howl during the song.We don’t have them in Australia (the dingo is a distant relative I think); are they an animal you feel an affinity with or did these lyrics evolve solely from the idiom? The lyrical premise of the song is based on the idiom, yes... except for that I guess in this version its less of me 'crying wolf' about an imaginary danger, and more me deliberately seeking out things I know are negative/ dangerous for me, even after my friends have come to bail me out time and time again from those exact things or situations. To me that's really consistent to the cyclical pattern of substance abuse. To that point specifically, the title of the track is also kind of a tongue-in- cheek reference to a bar here in Nashville – it's a local place I frequented in my most implosive seasons where I would go to lurk and brood and self-medicate – whatever people on benders do, I guess. It just seemed darkly meta that that was the name of the establishment I kept returning to. I don't think that place is a wolf den, or that the employees or the patrons are bad. I just think it had a particularly sinister meaning for me personally. You’ve mentioned hanging out in the library a lot at MiddleTennessee State Uni, when you went back to finish your studies in 2019. I am a dork and I love libraries.What was your favourite spot in the library? I feel like a masochist because my cubicle desks are. I tend to work and write very slowly, and being back there helps me focus – it's usually pretty unpopulated and even though it's a cordoned-off little desk, there's a wall of windows, and the light tends to fall nice over there in the afternoon and make it seem less oppressively fluorescent... ZKR favorite place in the library (Walker Library specifically) is the back corner where the

INTERVIEW

JULIEN BAKER Following on from the sparse, percussion-less beauty of 2017's Turn Out The Lights comes Julien Baker's third album of moving alt-folk, Little Oblivions – a luciously-arranged tangle of intimate observations, which seem to collapse dualities all over the shop. Be sure to read the full version of this Q&A with the astonishing young artist at stack.com.au. Words Zoë Radas

Little Oblivions by Julien Baker is out Feb 26 via Matador/ Remote Control.

Haha, have no shame about how you came by that knowledge! Sometimes when things get

In single Hardline you sing about “split[ting] the difference between medicine and poison”. It reminds me of the Latin

extracted from their context and inserted into pop culture in that way, people think that the ideas themselves automatically become cliche, but I like

phrase “that which nourishes me, destroys me” (and yes, I learned this fromAngelina Jolie’s tattoo), meaning that the thing which motivates you can

Most things in our lives [are] either beneficial or detrimental, depending on howwe use them,

that expression. I think it hits on the relativity of what makes a remedy, which to me is less about that same old repackaging of stoicism

consume you. Do you think the equilibrium between medicine and poison can ever maintain itself, or does it require constant monitoring?

in a healthy or unhealthy way

Continue to read the full interview online at stack.com.au

10 FEBRUARY 2021

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