Singer/songwriter Jessie Baylin talks about mastering her craft, growing up with her incredibly unusual granny, having Scarlett Johannson produce her latest video and settling down in Nashville, Tennessee, with husband Nathan Followill, the drummer for Kings of Leon.
When Jessie Baylin takes the stage of the legendary Troubadour in L.A., she peers into the audience with a twinkle in her eye. It’s apparent there’s no place the Nashville-based singer-songwriter would rather be than pouring out her emotions on stage.
It’s been four years since Baylin has performed in Los Angeles, the town that launched her career through residencies at The Mint and Hotel Cafe. Baylin returned to the Troubadour last week to play for an eager audience, which included Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Branch, Bette Midler, and her husband, (Kings of Leon drummer) Nathan Followill.
Prior to the show, Baylin discussed how she used her inheritance from her grandmother to record her recent independent release, Little Spark. She cheerfully greeted us and exclaimed that our interview location, the front bar of the Troubadour, was where “Joni Mitchell used to hang out.”
Baylin explained that as a child she was notorious for making mix tapes for her friends, which included tracks by her musical idols (Dusty Springfield, Barbara Streisand, Nina Simone…). She told us how she met her husband in line for the bathroom at Bonnaroo and explained that although she misses LA, the simpler life in Nashville is conducive to her artistic soul.
You haven’t performed in LA in a while. What have you been up to?
I’ve been making a record and crafting these songs and just waiting for the right moment. I felt like when I came back, I would have to play here [Troubadour] so I wanted to have it be an event. The record’s out now and it’s a celebration!
And you put it out independently?
I did and it’s actually been the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my career. It’s just really freeing and it’s nice to know what’s going on and to have that control. I really needed that in myself and I invested in this album with my own finances – pretty much every little bit that I had left – so that was a good risk to take.
I read that you actually used some of your grandmother’s inheritance for the album…
Yeah, all of it. I think she wouldn’t have had it any other way. Every time I called her she would be like, “How are we gonna make this happen kid?” I would say, “We’re working on it.” She was a wonderful, sassy little woman so this is a really nice way to honor her. She appreciated art and music and loved watching me perform. Actually right before she got leukemia, she came on the road with me and ended up seeing like four dates on this tour. I was opening up for someone and she came to Florida for two shows and she came to New York and Philly and Boston and just had a ball. She loved it. She’d drink her sherry backstage with me and tell stories to anyone that would listen.
Not many grandmas are going on the road with people. That’s pretty amazing!
She was a unique grandmother. Most grandma’s are up at like 5am; she went to bed around 2 or 3am and slept till at least 10 or 11 in the morning. I’d be like the little kid. I’d spend the night and be like, “Grandma. I’m hungry! I want eggs. Come on!” She was like the ultimate rock star.
You relocated to Nashville with your husband. Do you feel like you’re more at home in the music scene there or do you miss LA?
Nashville’s been really good to me – really really responsive and it’s been a really wonderful place for me to harvest who I want to be as an artist. That’s super exciting to me – just sort of having the time. Really, there’s nothing else to do in Nashville than sit and write and cook and do my thing. It’s really simple there. There’s not much to do. There’s not a lot of culture. There are beautiful parks and walks but for the most part it’s a simpler life that I can appreciate. I’m out in LA now for two weeks and everyday I’m like, “We’re going to the Getty. We’re doing all this stuff.” And I love that but in a way, it’s distracting all the time when that is accessible to you. In Nashville, it’s like my only job for today is to write a really good poem – maybe it will be mediocre and maybe it will be great and I’ll feel good that I tried. Then I’ll make lunch and then I’ll take a walk and that will be enough.
What made you decide to have Scarlett Johansson produce your video for “Hurry Hurry?”
We were old friends and we were drinking wine and I played her some new songs and she was like, “That’s it. This week we’re gonna cut a video. Adam Kimmel is going to do the cinematography. It’s done.” And I’m like, “Really? You wanna do this?” And she’s like, “Yes. We’re doing this.” I think she’s gonna be an amazing director and she already is and she’s going to continue to do some beautiful things from behind the lens. I’m excited for her and I’m happy to have been a part of her early directorial life.
Is it true that you did many of the songs on Little Spark in one take?
Yeah. Pretty much every vocal is one take just because I feel like that initial moment – it’s so alive in you and I’m more in it. Then it becomes work and it shouldn’t. It should feel effortless and it should sound effortless. That’s the kind of records I want to make. Some records don’t have to sound that way but I want this to feel dreamy and intimate and it has to have that freshness and it can’t feel rehearsed so it was not at all.
Do you remember your earliest memory of falling in love with music?
As a kid, my parents always had music on in our home. My dad loved Frank Sinatra and my mom loved Zeppelin and Barbara Streisand and Bette Midler. We had everything; it was kind of all over the place, which was great for me as a kid. My mixed tapes that I made my friends, they were like, ”What the heck is going on here.” Then I remember being in sixth grade and hearing Fiona Apple Tidal and Sleep to Dream is the first song on that. My mom brought it home and was like, “I really think you’re going to like this record.” I put it in and my parents had just invested in this nice Bose sound system and I remember I turned both speakers towards my head and I just wanted to be inside that song. I’ve never had that type of experience where I literally wanted to know every layer. That was the first time I was really moved and I thought, “If I ever make music, I want something that feels this big and just surrounds someone like this.”
Have you seen her live before?
I haven’t. I had tickets to two of her shows. One she canceled a tour and the other, I had to go to my friends Bat Mitzvah and she told me that if I went to Fiona’s show that we would not be friends anymore and it turned out a month after that we were never friends and never spoke again. I went to that Bat Mitzvah and missed Fiona’s show. But you know, it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe one day.
Rumor has it that you met Nathan standing in line to use a porta-potty at Bonnaroo? Is that how it went down?
Yeah it was. He saw me from a distance and made his way to me. He was like, “Who’s the blonde?” Everyone was like, “Don’t even go near her man. She’s too good for you.” But he came near me and he hasn’t really left since so it’s a nice thing.
Are you enjoying married life?
I’m really enjoying married life. It’s great. It’s getting better. You know there are always the growing pains in any relationship; it’s complex. There’s moments when you think this is the pit of despair and then there’s others when it’s heaven on earth but I think that in anything there’s highs and lows. It’s good because for my work I can capture some of those moments and dig into that.
You’ve said that certain songs on this record were difficult to write. Is there anything in particular that you can elaborate on?
There’s just certain lines… There’s some pretty obvious songs that were just really tough times but at the same time if I was going to be honest with myself and the listener, I felt like I needed to write about it because it was a crucial moment in my process as a human. If I left that hole out, it wouldn’t feel honest in me. Joy is Suspicion is not a happy song but it’s about hope and loving what could be and all of that.
Did you write about your grandma on the album?
Not directly but in many different lines… There’s a few lines, like Little Spark – “I’ve been looking for you in the dark. Give me just a little spark” is about her. There are little moments of my grandmother and a few songs that didn’t make the album that I’d written about loss. It didn’t make any sense to me that you could love that deep and then it vanishes. That just confused the hell out of me for about six months. It’s pretty intense shit and then you dig into it but I realized energy doesn’t die. If I know anything, that is a fact.
Is it hard for you to sing some of your more emotional material live?
Oh no. I like it! I like sharing that part. It’s why I do it. It’s what moves me when I watch someone. I want to feel like they’re exposing themselves emotionally. When it’s genuine – you know… I think my songwriting is pretty simple. It comes off the page of my journal and it’s simple but it’s direct.
Do you and Nathan ever make any music together?
No we’re just supports systems for now. That’s the plan. He is incredibly supportive of this project and the direction and I’m headed in and could not be any more supportive honestly. It’s actually been a relief because you never know how your partner is going to react when you’re taken away from home by something else. It’s just really lovely that he’s grown into a good man and knows how to respect art and what I’m doing and is just now along for the ride.
Photos © Catie Laffoon / Chinashop Magazine
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