Julien Rose Baker is an American singer and guitarist.
Early life
Born on September 29, 1995, Baker was born in Germantown, but grew up in Bartlett, Tennessee. She learned to play on her father's guitar, and attended Arlington High School as well as Middle Tennessee State University, where she studied audio engineering and later majored in literature with a double minor in Spanish and secondary education before leaving school to tour full-time. She returned to campus in the fall of 2019 to complete her degree.
Music
Style
Baker has met critical acclaim for her performances and songwriting, described as emotively cathartic, as well as a fresh take on folk music. Her album Sprained Ankle has been described as featuring pared-back fragile songs, while Turn Out the Lights features more developed song structures while retaining the raw emotion of its predecessor.
Career
In 2010 Baker co-founded the band The Star Killers, who renamed themselves Forrister in 2015. During her first year at MTSU, she began writing songs on her own, often in the university practice rooms late at night. With her friend Michael Hegner, she recorded an EP at Spacebomb Studios, which she self-released in the winter of 2014 on Bandcamp. The EP became the studio albumSprained Ankle in October 2015. Sprained Ankle topped many 2015 year-end lists and its success led to features in The New Yorker and The New York Times. On March 7, 2016, Baker performed in an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert. During that set she referenced a new song, "Sad Song #11", which was later retitled "Funeral Pyre" and released as a single, with "Distant Solar Systems" as the b-side. Baker contributed the song "Decorated Lawns" to the Punk Talks winter compilation Jingle Yay, released on December 1, 2016. Baker has opened for artists including Death Cab for Cutie, Conor Oberst, The Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, Paramore, The Front Bottoms, and Manchester Orchestra. In 2017 she was signed to Matador Records, releasing a 7-inch single of the songs "Funeral Pyre" and "Distant Solar Systems". An LP, Turn Out the Lights, recorded by engineer and producer Calvin Lauber at Tennessee's Ardent Studios - with help from Sorority Noise's Cameron Boucher, was released on October 27, 2017. On October 28, 2017, Baker made her national-television debut on CBS This Morning and on January 3, 2018, she made her late-night debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In 2018, Baker formed the supergroupBoygenius with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, both of whom she had toured with previously. The group released three songs in August of that year and subsequently announced an EP and accompanying tour. The EP, self-titled boygenius, was released on October 26, 2018. In 2020, Baker, alongside Boygenius bandmates Bridgers and Dacus, recorded background vocals for Hayley Williams' song "Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris" ahead of the release of Williams' debut album, Petals for Armor.
Personal life
Baker is a lesbian and a Christian socialist. She has been sober for approximately six years, by her own estimate.
