Altered Zones

[Julianna Barwick; photo by Jody Rogac]

By Samantha Cornwell

MP3: Julianna Barwick : "The Magic Place"

The music of Brooklyn’s Julianna Barwick is driven by her pipes. The Magic Place, her forthcoming LP on Asthmatic Kitty, features lush piano work and bits of drums; but Barwick is primarily singing over loops of her own voice, drenched in echo and reverb. Her music is realised through electronic effects, but the sound is strikingly organic. I recently spoke to this chorus of one over the phone-- which is never as good as meeting in person, but felt somehow fitting in her case-- and discussed her instrument, her classical pedigree, and some inspirations behind her third full-length.

AZ: Did you ever receive formal voice training?

Julianna: I had vocal lessons in high school, and I was always in school choirs, where I learned stuff about singing and scales, and notes, and all of those things. It started in elementary school, and I was in choirs all the way through high school-- including an opera chorus, so that was even more extensive training.

AZ: How would you say that classical music has influenced your aesthetic?

Julianna: Well, I liked it from an early age. I saw the movie Empire of the Sun, which had lots of choir music in it, like boy's choirs. I really liked that, and my mom took me to the orchestra a couple times. In the choirs I was in, we were always learning old choral arrangements. I would say the sound of choral music has definitely informed the way I sing. That, and the way we sang in church, which was a cappella.

AZ: What about electronic music?

Julianna: I actually don’t really listen to a lot of electronic music. On an average day I’m listening to Joanna Newsom or Bill Callahan or Panda Bear. I’m not an electronic music aficianado. People always think I’m going to know everything about Brian Eno and Steve Reich, and I probably should, but I just don’t. I only started listening to Brian Eno, besides the tracks that everyone knows, in the last couple of years. I’m not stuck in my ways, but I’m still discovering a lot of that music.

[Julianna Barwick; photo by Jody Rogac]

AZ: What makes the human voice such a powerful instrument?

Julianna: Because everyone has their own, distinctive voice. It’s part of your anatomy, part of who you are. I would say that’s why it’s so special, because you can play different instruments really well, but a piano will always sound like a piano. A human voice is so distinct. Instruments can be manipulated and have a more organic sound on their own in a way, but the human voice is as organic and personal as it gets.

AZ: You have a new record coming out. How would you say that it differs from your two previous releases?

Julianna: Well, it’s longer. It’s also a little bit more dynamic. I was able to use a space this time to make the record, instead of on my bed in my bedroom.

AZ: Like a studio?

Julianna: Basically, yeah. I mean, in terms of the space. I didn’t have people helping me or anything.  It’s just a sound-proofed space with lots of instruments in it-- more like a rehearsal space. I didn’t have to worry about the sound of the helicopters going over the East River, and there were more instruments to play around with. There was a baby grand piano in the space, so I got to use that. I couldn’t resist, so it ends up on a lot of the songs. There were drums lying around, so I ended up playing with those on a track. There is a lot more going on as far as instrumentation and sounds. There’s also just some straightforward singing on this record, more than the previous two records.

AZ: As in, more lyric-based song-writing?

Julianna: There’s a little bit more of that going on-- kind of masked with re-verb. I’m kind of funny about committing to lyrics and things like that, but I’m definitely saying something in some of the songs, and there are few places where it's not really loop-based, so that’s a new thing for me. On the last couple of records, I would sing straight over loops that were already going on, but on this record I do some straightforward singing.

[Julianna Barwick; photo by Jody Rogac]

AZ: What are you singing about?

Most of the time, if there are actual, tangible words in the songs, they are about as important as "oohs" and "ahhs." Because I don't sit around and think of them ahead of time or anything; they just pop in there, and stick sometimes. I know that's probably not that
exciting, but it's true. Now, "flown" is the one exception. I sang about geese on purpose. I had my friend's sister in mind when I wrote that one.

AZ: I know the title of the new record, The Magic Place, comes from a tree in your childhood yard. You’re originally from Louisiana, right?

Julianna: I lived in Louisiana until I was five, but this tree was on some land that we had in Springfield, Missouri. I lived there from when I was five until thirteen, and we had some land and some sheep. There was this tree in the back pasture, it’s a Bodark tree, also called an old sage orange. The kind of tree that produces those bumpy green soft balls. They’re called horse apples sometimes. There are a lot of names going on with this tree. It was in the back pasture, and it was a super magical fairy tale-like place, especially for a kid my age. It was pretty big, and it kind’ve grew up and over and around. You kind of had to crawl inside. It was really exciting to be in there. It felt like a little tree house of sorts.  We named it the magic place at some point, and it was always that.

AZ: Would you say album is directly inspired by this sort of natural setting and your childhood?

Julianna: I don't think that the album is directly inspired by the tree or area. I was thinking more and more about "the magic place" of my childhood in general. It just so happened that the sense of wonder and excitement in my stomach that I would get as a kid in that place was not unlike what i was feeling in my life at the time...

AZ: Your music rides an interesting tension between the organic and the mechanical. How would you describe your relationship to technology, musically speaking?

Julianna: Well, I wouldn’t be able to make it without my machines. It would be really really hard to, anyway. I use effects on my vocals, I loop everything, so it's totally essential to the way my stuff ends up sounding. I’m all for it, especially since I'm doing it all alone. I didn’t have anyone figuring that out for me, with a studio or whatever. It's super helpful to have some machines at home that you can play around with.

The Magic Place is out February 22nd on Asthmatic Kitty