By Kristopher Storey
Hottytoddy.com Intern
kostorey@go.olemiss.edu
As the Ole Miss Rebels take to the road next weekend to play against the Missouri Tigers, the LOU community has an opportunity to enjoy live music the Thursday prior to the game at one of Oxford’s staples.
Singer/songwriter, Julia Jacklin, will take the Proud Larry’s stage on Oct. 10, where she will perform songs from her latest album, “Crushing”. This album includes hit songs “Body,” “Head Alone,” and “Pressure To Party.”
A native of Blue Mountains, Australia, Jacklin started singing at a young age. She aspired to be a pop star and kept singing throughout her teenage years well in musicals.
Now she is an accomplished singer/songwriter and believes that the singing she did in her youth gave her a good foundation.
“I didn’t really like it. It just wasn’t what I thought about when I thought about wanting to be a singer. I wanted to sing pop songs, not classical songs in church halls,” Jacklin said.
Jacklin began playing the guitar when she was 19 years old and began to write music shortly after that. At first, she said it did not feel like it would evolve into anything.
While studying at a university, she was in a band with friends. They put a lot of effort into it, but they were also very busy with work and school, Jacklin said. Once she decided to write her first album, things began to change.
“Once I was around 24 I decided to make an album. The response was so much bigger and better than I expected,” Jacklin said.
Her career took off around three years ago with her first album, “Don’t Let The Kids Win.” She has been touring all over the world, which gradually began to happen as her career went on. Her first time playing overseas was in Austin, Texas.
“It was for one week and I lost a lot of money. It was good, but I wasn’t really sure what would come from it,” Jacklin said.
Getting the opportunity to travel all across the world on tour for a living was a really big moment for her, she said.
“I had to quit my day job because I was away too much. That was a big moment. I still get amazed by it. I am pretty lucky,” Jacklin said.
Jacklin also said that being a singer/songwriter is not an easy job. It is very difficult.
“I don’t have to bend myself in a million little knots to please everybody because that is exhausting and pointless. And people will still not like you,” Jacklin said.
Jacklin has received high praise from very well known publications. Rolling Stone said, “The result is a profound statement that stands as an early candidate for this year’s strongest singer-songwriter breakthrough.”
The Chicago Tribune said, “That sense of surprise, the risk-taking of an artist daring to dig for truth, no matter how inconvenient or uncomfortable it might be, isn’t something to be taken for granted. That it informs every song suggests that, “Crushing” is likely to become one of the year’s enduring albums.”
The New York Times also said, “Head Alone” sounds at first like placid folk-rock, with two
strummed guitar chords behind Australian songwriter Julia Jacklin’s reedy voice. But that’s
resolve, not complacency; she’s fuming, and the reason soon emerges: “I don’t want to be
touched all the time,” she sings. By the end of the song, she’s got a rallying cry: “Say it till he understands/You can love somebody without using your hands.”
Jacklin has gotten to this point in her career by putting her head down and working, she said, writing bad song after bad song until she got a good one. She did not follow some type of step-by-step instruction on what to do. She was willing to take a gamble.
“The industry is there. It is always going to be there. It can be fickle and weird, always looking for the next big thing. But when it comes to the singer/songwriter world, there is always room for a good songwriter. You just have to write,” she said.
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