Interview: Julianna Barwick Finds The Most Reverby of Reverb

A “collection of songs which soothe and offer a willing listener space for meditation” no less, Julianna Barwick’s debut album The Magic Place is one of our favourite album of the year so far. Before she comes over to the UK and Ireland for the first time next month, the Brooklyn-based singer kindly answered a few questions for us, telling us about using the most reverb-y reverb one can find and the advantages of getting out of the bedroom to record this time around.

 
Hi Julianna, we’re really looking forward to your first UK/Irish shows next month and I know you were over in Europe quite recently, how did those shows go? What’s your live set up like at the moment - are you able to recreate the layering effect of the vocals when you play live?

The European tour (just France and Portugal) was incredible. I played six shows in a row and brought my dad - it was really small and special. Everyone treated us so well and it was truly a perfect trip that my dad and i will never forget. I use a mic, an effects pedal, a sampler, and a loopstation live - it's how i record also. The loopstation makes layering and looping easy.

I always think looping can sometimes sound and look quite gimmicky, how do you make it sound the opposite - completely organic and powerful?

Hmm, I'm not sure - I think maybe it's because I'm using my voice mainly and lots of effects on my voice so it kind of fills up the space, so to speak.

I assume being able to use your voice as such a powerful instrument helps too, has that always been central to your music, even when you were just starting off, say before you made Sanguine?

Definitely. I have been singing my whole life, all the time. I was the kind of kid who was always singing and making up songs. Then I was in choirs and had voice lessons and was in an opera chorus - so that has always been my focus musically.

It almost sounds like Gregorian chanting at times and I’ve read that you did quite a lot of church and choral singing when you were younger. Looking back, was that a really important way to train your voice?

I think those church and choir experiences absolutely informed my perspective and tastes in music, but i have to say i think most of what i do is just innate. I love to sing and it's not really all about the training or experiences I've had.

What kind of space did you record this album in because it seems to have allowed the vocals soar at times, I’m thinking of ‘Bob In Your Gait’ in particular which sounds like it was recorded in some beautiful, capacious Roman basilica.  

Well, I actually was able to use an actual practice space this time to record in (as opposed to my bedroom!) and that made a lot of difference in how I approached and recorded this record. For those floating vocals, I just sang into the mic with the 'cathedral' reverb setting - basically the most reverb-y reverb I could find, I think i even added more reverb on top of it! I love singing with it.

Did the piano parts on the album appear simply because there was a baby grand where you recorded or were those parts written before you went to record? If so, how much of your work is generally improvised in the studio?

Nothing is ever written before, I improvise everything to start and then work on top of that. I think that the piano parts did appear because there was a baby grand where i was - and had access to it all the time, I can't resist a piano. I knew I wanted to have some piano on this record, however, before the recording process started.

What sort of difference did making the album in a recording space rather than your bedroom have on the end result?

I think a lot of things happened on the record that could not or would not have happened in my bedroom. There were lots of things to tinker with. The drums on 'Prizewinning' for instance, I don't have drums at home and was able to experiment with things like that, and it added a lot of unexpected sounds to the record. It was also a good feeling to have a place to go to to just work on music, it put me in a different headspace as far as recording and working, so that influenced the making of the record also

Is it just you on the whole thing?

It's just me on the whole thing. I did it all then had it mastered.

Your name gets mentioned beside the likes of Philip Glass, Brian Eno, Stars Of The Lid and Grouper quite a lot - are you fans of those artists or do you draw your influences from a much wider palette than that?

I admire all of those artists - I'm not actually all that familiar with the first three but deeply love Grouper's work. I don't really feel influenced by much - the music I make seems to just come out naturally and I can't ever think of any one person or thing I draw influence from, if that makes sense.

The Magic Place is your first record on Asthmatic Kitty, how have they been to work with?

Outstanding. They are such a warm, helpful, enthusiastic team and I feel extremely lucky to have been hooked up with them.

The album was given a deserved Best New Music seal of approval from Pitchfork. Even though they’ve been raving about you for some time, did you notice a sudden spike in interest when they published their review of The Magic Place.

Yes, i was suddenly doing a lot of interviews and making plans for the future and things like that. It was really unexpected.

Does that interest mean you’ve a lot of touring ahead of you for the year?

So, so much. A 3+ week European tour is in the works starting may 18, then I get back and one day later i do some dates with Okkervil river and some festivals in Canada. the Roskilde festival in early July was just confirmed for me yesterday. Busy, busy. Looking forward to it all.
 

Julianna Barwick plays the following UK/Irish dates next month:

May 19: Glasgow, Captain’s Rest
May 20: Dublin, Venue TBC
May 21: London, Village Underground
May 22: London, Slaughtered Lamb
May 23: Manchester, Kraak
May 24: London, Rough Trade East in store