Julien Baker is an American indie rock singer and guitarist and a member of the supergroup boygenius.
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the singer.
- Her full name is Julien Rose Baker
- She was born on September 29, 1995
- She is an American indie rock singer and guitarist
- Her music is noted for its moody quality and confessional lyrical style
- As well as frank explorations of issues including Christianity, addiction, mental illness, and human nature
- Born and raised in suburban Memphis, Tennessee
- Julien Baker released her debut album Sprained Ankle (2015)
- The release happened while she was a student at Middle Tennessee State University
- The album received critical acclaim
- It appeared on several 2015 year-end lists
- Baker subsequently signed to Matador Records
- Then she released her second studio album Turn Out the Lights in 2017, to further critical success
- Her third album, Little Oblivions (2021), embraced a more full-band sound
- It became Baker’s first top 40 album on the Billboard 200 chart
- In addition to her solo work, Baker is a member of the indie supergroup Boygenius
- She is part of the supergroup alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus
- The group’s debut eponymous EP was released in October 2018
- Boygenius announced their reunion in January 2023
- Their debut studio album The Record was released in March
- Baker was born on September 29, 1995 in Germantown, and raised in Bartlett, Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis
- Her parents both worked in the field of physical therapy
- She has spoken of being inspired by her father who, after an accident in his twenties resulting in the amputation of his leg, dedicated his life to making experimental prosthetic limbs
- Baker’s parents separated while she was in elementary school
- Baker grew up in a devout Baptist family, and her early exposure to music involved playing at her church
- After seeing Green Day on television, she was inspired to explore more alternative music and started listening to bands like My Chemical Romance and Death Cab for Cutie
- She subsequently became captivated by the punk, hardcore, metalcore, and screamo scenes
- She has said some of her favorite bands were mewithoutYou, Underoath, The Chariot, Norma Jean, and Whitechapel
- She struggled with substance abuse as a young teen
- Julien Baker found support in the community surrounding house shows in Memphis
- She became inspired by the straight edge punk subculture
- While in high school in 2010, Baker co-founded the band the Star Killers, who renamed themselves Forrister in 2015
- Baker attended Arlington High School and then Middle Tennessee State University
- There she had a campus job in the A/V department and initially studied audio engineering, before switching to literature and secondary education
- She eventually left school to tour full-time after the release of Sprained Ankle
- But returned to campus in the fall of 2019 to complete her degree in literature
- Baker is known for her deeply personal, confessional songwriting
- Her music has been categorized as a mix of indie rock, indie folk, alternative, and emo
- The sparse arrangements on her “fragile, gentle” 2015 debut, Sprained Ankle, feature only her voice and guitar
- Her stage performances for many years consisted of her alone, utilizing a loop pedal
- 2017’s Turn Out the Lights saw the addition of occasional violin, as well as organs and “cavernous-sounding production”
- Baker experimented with a more full-band sound for her 2021 release Little Oblivions, and has commented on feeling limited by expectations to adhere to her established style
- The album newly featured drums, bass, keyboards, mandolin, and banjo, all played by Baker on the recording
- On tour following its release, she played with a full band and debuted new, multi-instrument arrangements of her previous work, describing the band’s sound as “post-rock”
- Baker’s writing is infused with religious themes, and is often noted for its occasionally violent imagery
- Hope, redemption, love, addiction, shame, self-loathing, and direct appeals to God are all prominent motifs throughout her work
- Her music often features frank explorations of addiction and sobriety
- She has been open in discussing her experiences with substance abuse and mental illness
- Baker is a lesbian
- Her fraught experiences with organized Christianity inform much of her work
- She came out to her parents at age 17
- After years of being closeted and watching friends get sent to conversion therapy or kicked out of their homes
- However, she found her family was “radically accepting”
- She previously referred to herself as a Christian socialist
- Julien Baker has spoken on how being constantly labelled the “sober queer Christian” early in her career was damaging to her understanding of her identity
- This led to her questioning and reevaluating many foundational aspects of her life
- She has since discussed the ever-changing nature of her relationship to faith, saying she is no longer interested in labeling her beliefs so rigidly and that she is trying to adopt a less dichotomous worldview than the one she was raised with
- She had called the realization “freeing”
- Baker resides in Nashville, Tennessee
- She has been in a relationship with Mariah Schneider since 2019
- Schneider is the guitarist of the band Slider
boygenius Trivia | 45 facts about the indie rock supergroup
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