The song Julia Jacklin wrote inspired by her audience
Julia Jacklin has endeared herself to countless women in their 20s with deeply personal lyrics that chart all of the anxieties and complexities of young womanhood. Over subdued indie folk guitars, Jacklin reflects on her relationships with herself and others with piercing vulnerability.
Her music may be intimate and subdued, but amidst an overwhelming wave of sad girl indie, Jacklin rises above the rest. There’s a nostalgic quality to her sound that feels familiar, while her specific and emotive lyrics almost make it feel like we’re imposing, as if we’ve accidentally stumbled upon her secret diary entries.
But at the same time, the feelings and experiences she describes are so universal – dealing with grief, the trials of modern dating, FOMO leading to an increasing pressure to party, her music near enough covers the experience of navigating the world in your 20s. Accordingly, Jacklin has attracted a hoard of fans who relate intimately to her music.
Unfortunately, some fans have overstepped their boundaries with the artists, confusing their familiarity with Jacklin’s music and her as a person, leading to some boundary-overstepping interactions for the musician. She spoke about the experience, and the song it inspired, in a conversation with Consequence, beginning, “It’s a lot of microaggressions and a lot of small instances that, if you speak about them at the time, seem trivial,” she said. “It’s like eating chili. It just builds and builds and builds and builds and builds”.
She continued to explain: “You get used to it, too, so when something happens, you’re so used to your boundaries being pushed, or people touching you in a certain way, that you don’t even realise that you’re letting go of things that you used to find important.”
More specifically, Jacklin recalled interacting with her fans while selling merchandise. While she “really, really enjoys” meeting people at shows, she recalls “many times when people have kissed me on the face, quite close to my mouth, or really wanted to touch [me] or hug [me] or rub [my] back”,
She recalled struggling with these interactions: “You want to be the nicest person to people because there’s always that fear of letting someone leave a show without having a good idea of who you are, or whatever, but then you start to realise that [you’re] already giving so much on stage every night, and that [you] can’t give any more than that, and that it’s OK to set boundaries.”
These uncomfortable interactions and their consequential boundaries led Jacklin to write ‘Head Alone’. The track featured on her 2019 sophomore record, Crushing. Over soft guitars, she boldly declares, “I don’t want to be touched all the time, I raised my body up to be mine”, and “So I’ll say it ‘til he understands, you can love somebody without using your hands”.
It’s yet another song which reflects the experience of being a young woman so honestly and painfully, and a statement about the importance of setting boundaries.
Listen back to ‘Head Alone’ below.
