Q&A

Julia Holter: “I’m very highenergy and anxious…” what is Aviary about? I was inspired by medieval ideas of birds as a symbol of memory. Aviary is like birds flying around in your head. I was trying to evoke how everything is cacophonous in the world, and the internal cacophony of one’s mind. The outside world is overwhelming so it’s a cathartic response. It is a more overtly challenging record than Have You In My Wilderness; is that deliberate? With I was really trying to work in a tradition; when I wrote this record I was not thinking about any kind of genre, anything. I thought it was important to free myself. For the most part, this record started with me improvising on my own and then I arranged parts for musicians out of this stuff. It’s pretty loose. There are lots of medieval references on Aviary: why? I was always into medieval stuff. Even the Crusades seem eerily relevant to now, in a bad way. I always loved medieval manuscripts – the figures are quite primitive, but the colours are so beautiful, and there’s a mystical and magical quality to them. Would I have made a good medieval monk? I’m not a very tranquil person; I’m very high-energy and anxious. Do you have a favourite bird? Maybe a penguin, though it’s not really relevant to this record. I made this list of what bird each song was based on the medieval idea of what the birds were, but it’s not really that important. I hope the record stands on its own. You don’t need a bird for each song. InTErVIEW: JIM WIrTh