Julien Baker’s partner, American indie rock singer and guitarist Julien Rose Baker, was born on September 29, 1995.
Born in Germantown, Tennessee, Baker was exposed to music at a young age through performing at her church, having been raised in a devout Baptist household.
After seeing Green Day on television, she became interested in alternative music and began listening to bands like My Chemical Romance and Death Cab for Cutie.
She later became fascinated by the punk, hardcore, metalcore, and screamo scenes. She lists MewithoutYou, Underoath, The Chariot, Norma Jean, and Whitechapel among her favorite bands.
As a young girl, she struggled with drug addiction, but found support in the Memphis house show scene and was motivated by the straightforward punk subculture.
In 2010, while still in high school, Baker co-founded the band The Star Killers, which later changed its name to Forrister.
Baker attended Arlington High School before transferring to Middle Tennessee State University, where she worked in the audiovisual department and continued her studies and literature after earning her undergraduate degree in audio engineering.
After the release of Sprained Ankle, she eventually dropped out to tour full-time, but returned to campus in the fall of 2019 to complete her degree in literature.
Julien Baker’s Career
Baker began writing songs on her own during her freshman year at MTSU, often using the university’s late-night rehearsal spaces.
She has said she never imagined the EP would be heard by a wide audience; she posted it to Bandcamp for her friends to hear.
She wrote the song that would become “Sprained Ankle” in her dorm room and recorded it using free studio time a friend of hers received through an internship.
However, 6131 Records found it, acquired it, and turned it into the studio album Sprained Ankle, released in October 2015.
Sprained Ankle topped many 2015 year-end lists, and its popularity led to it being featured in The New Yorker and The New York Times. Reviewers have called the book “heartbreaking,” “hypnotic” and “awe-inspiring.”
The first of Baker’s four subsequent appearances at the office came in March 2016 during an appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk.
She joined Matador Records in 2017 and released a 7-inch single featuring the songs “Distant Solar Systems” and “Funeral Pyre” (formerly known as “Sad Song 11”).
“Turn Out the Lights,” their second album, was created at Ardent Studios in Memphis with engineer and producer Calvin Lauber and released to great fanfare on October 27, 2017.
Many musicians such as Death Cab for Cutie, Conor Oberst, Paramore and Hayley Williams, The National, The Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, Frightened Rabbit, The Front Bottoms, Touche Amore, Manchester Orchestra and Bright Eyes have collaborated or pioneered by Bäcker.
In addition to original compositions, she has also recorded performances of songs by Elliott Smith, Radiohead and Soundgarden.
With Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, two other indie singer-songwriters she has previously performed with, Baker formed the rock supergroup Boygenius in 2018.
In August of the same year, the trio released three songs. They then announced an EP of the same name titled Boygenius, released on October 26, 2018 to critical acclaim.
Baker released two 7-inch singles in 2019. The first, released in June, contained the songs “Red Door” and “Conversation Piece”, while the second, released in October as part of the Sub Pop singles series, contained the songs “Tokyo” and “Sucker Punch”.
All four songs were highly praised and all had a slightly more sophisticated sound than their previous works.
On October 21, 2020, Baker released the lead single “Faith Healer” from his upcoming third studio album Little Oblivions featuring an essay by poet Hanif Abdurraqib.
Prior to the release of Little Oblivions on February 26, 2021, the singles “Hardline” and “Favor” were released.
The majority of the album was composed in 2019, a difficult and formative year for Baker as she had to postpone several tour dates, struggled with her sobriety and mental health, and ultimately returned to school to complete her studies at MTSU.
In January, she appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and sang the song “Faith Healer.” A B-side EP of “Little Oblivions” and the song “Guthrie” were both shared by Baker in 2022.
What is Julien Baker’s relationship situation?
Baker is a lesbian, and her difficult experiences with organized Christianity inform much of her work.
She came out to her parents at the age of 17 after keeping it a secret for years and seeing friends sent to conversion therapy or kicked out of their homes. She has been in a relationship with slider guitarist Mariah Schneider since early 2019.