When Julia Jacklin calls me, the 26-year-old Australian indie artist is in Berlin, working the European festival circuit and pausing before heading to Barcelona, where she'll be for the next week. She plans to study her Spanish, which she tried to learn in Australia but wasn't very successful, so she's looking forward to practicing some more.Jacklin was born and raised in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales to a family of teachers. Her debut album, Don't Let the Kids Win, blends together a mix of influences, from Fiona Apple and Angel Olsen to Appalachian folk music, and invokes artist like Margaret Glassy and Lucy Daucus. The titular track, "Don't Let the Kids Win," is a warning to everyone both young and old that time is fleeting and people are not forever. "Don't let your friends go cold while you turn to green" she warns, as if she's experienced first hand the bumps on the road to success.Today we're premiering her video for "Eastwick," a new single that also dropped today. In it, Jacklin floats through various social situations wearing an expression that can only be described as distaste for where she is. It's not angry distaste, it's more of a desire to leave and have some alone time. Relatable as hell.Watch the video below read a little bit about the making of it below.Noisey: Can you want tell me a little bit about the concept of [this video]? I picked up on some Lana del Ray vibes.
Julia Jacklin: Yeah, that was not intentional. I actually watched it back and I was like "ahh. (laughing) yeah I can see." I imagined someone in front of a real typical suburban house in Australia with a bright blue drink looking really sad. And then I built the whole concept on that. I was back in my hometown, using, my sisters garage—she'd just had a baby—I had a day off back home so I was hanging out with her and the baby and then shooting a couple of scenes in her garage. I was running around with my friends and trying to make scenes work which is usually the way I make music videos, not much planning.You look a little, like, bored with yourself?
Yeah, a feeling of being sick of just interaction and the world, the internet and all the things that take up a lot of your time. Which is kind of what the song is about. That's usually my most comfortable acting vibe, is just looking bored. I don't have much range, so usually I stick with that. [ laughter]What was the reason for the blue? Its all very like tropical, you're dressed very Margaritaville vibes, but you're like bored, and frustrated with everything
I think it came from a feeling I had when I grew up in the blue mountains of thinking that once I moved into a city, things would get way more exciting, and my life would be way more exciting, and I'd meet all of these really exciting people. I think it's what a lot of people feel when they're young: If only they just moved cities everything would blossom and be beautiful and they'd find their crowd. I guess that's kinda what its saying is like, you're just like in this space but you're kind of wishing you were somewhere else, and you imagine that this other place is more…more interesting when it's probably not. Or at least, it's got a lot more to do with yourself than it's got to do with your physical surroundings.And you went through that?
Yeah, yeah. It was nice to grow up there [The Blue Mountains] but I didn't really do music when I was there because I didn't know anyone else who did music. I did classical singing but it wasn't really what i wanted to do, and so I always imagined when I went to a new high school in the city that I'd find my place and I got there, and it wasn't exactly like that.
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Julia Jacklin: Yeah, that was not intentional. I actually watched it back and I was like "ahh. (laughing) yeah I can see." I imagined someone in front of a real typical suburban house in Australia with a bright blue drink looking really sad. And then I built the whole concept on that. I was back in my hometown, using, my sisters garage—she'd just had a baby—I had a day off back home so I was hanging out with her and the baby and then shooting a couple of scenes in her garage. I was running around with my friends and trying to make scenes work which is usually the way I make music videos, not much planning.You look a little, like, bored with yourself?
Yeah, a feeling of being sick of just interaction and the world, the internet and all the things that take up a lot of your time. Which is kind of what the song is about. That's usually my most comfortable acting vibe, is just looking bored. I don't have much range, so usually I stick with that. [ laughter]What was the reason for the blue? Its all very like tropical, you're dressed very Margaritaville vibes, but you're like bored, and frustrated with everything
I think it came from a feeling I had when I grew up in the blue mountains of thinking that once I moved into a city, things would get way more exciting, and my life would be way more exciting, and I'd meet all of these really exciting people. I think it's what a lot of people feel when they're young: If only they just moved cities everything would blossom and be beautiful and they'd find their crowd. I guess that's kinda what its saying is like, you're just like in this space but you're kind of wishing you were somewhere else, and you imagine that this other place is more…more interesting when it's probably not. Or at least, it's got a lot more to do with yourself than it's got to do with your physical surroundings.And you went through that?
Yeah, yeah. It was nice to grow up there [The Blue Mountains] but I didn't really do music when I was there because I didn't know anyone else who did music. I did classical singing but it wasn't really what i wanted to do, and so I always imagined when I went to a new high school in the city that I'd find my place and I got there, and it wasn't exactly like that.