Home Indie Music Squirrel Flower on “Tomorrow’s Hearth,” Going Demon Mode on Tour, and Smashing a Guitar

Squirrel Flower on “Tomorrow’s Hearth,” Going Demon Mode on Tour, and Smashing a Guitar

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Squirrel Flower on “Tomorrow’s Hearth,” Going Demon Mode on Tour, and Smashing a Guitar

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Squirrel Flower on “Tomorrow’s Hearth,” Going Demon Mode on Tour, and Smashing a Guitar

Classes From Nature

Oct 13, 2023

Pictures by Alexa Viscius

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Whereas talking with Ella Williams, identified by her stage title as Squirrel Flower, it’s simple to see how the concepts of management have been on her thoughts recently. As paradoxical as management could be at sure occasions, Williams finds it vital to know when to let go of recent life cynicisms and permit the pure world to remind her she’s nonetheless alive. Williams’ latest album, Tomorrow’s Hearth, is out immediately on Polyvinyl and in it she explores these concepts of management by means of the lens of distorted guitar, introspective lyrics, and ethereal vocals.

This might be the primary full-length Squirrel Flower document produced by Williams, co-producing alongside her collaborator Alex Farrar. Her two earlier albums, I Was Born Swimming and Planet (i), have earned her a rising variety of listeners from not solely Chicago, however New York, Los Angeles, and London. She’s been getting into the headliner spot with ease and taking part in larger and larger venues, however she isn’t naive to the impact success can have on an artist’s management over their life.

I first listened to Williams’ music a few years in the past, not lengthy after she moved to town, and since then it’s been nice seeing how Chicago has influenced her songwriting, whether or not or not it’s by means of her collaborations with teams akin to Grapetooth and Tenci or by means of her music video work with filmmakers akin to Lua Borges, John Jadkowski, and Bizarre Life Movies. I’ve at all times had a particular appreciation for the integral sense of group tied up within the Chicago arts, notably with regards to music. It offers an surroundings of assist between artists and followers that makes every present you purchase a ticket for really feel like a participation in one thing distinctive, as if the music performed wherever else doesn’t sound fairly nearly as good because it does on a Chicago stage.

I spoke with Williams on the cellphone to speak about her upcoming tour, methods she takes to not lose her thoughts on the street, her ideas on the themes of Tomorrow’s Hearth and her rising curiosity in studying the accordion. Even with a busy schedule, together with a morning filled with press interviews, Williams stays fully current within the dialog, adamant about discovering some kind of fact within the solutions she offers to my questions. “I really feel like a variety of the time,” she tells me. “Speaking with individuals about my music helps me notice issues about it that I didn’t know earlier than.”

Tim Cundy (Below the Radar): How’s the prep on your tour going?

Ella Williams: It’s going, you understand, it’s good. I tour handle myself so it’s positively a variety of work, particularly as my exhibits get bigger and the excursions get longer. Tour managing for a European tour additionally has very distinctive challenges, nevertheless it’s additionally enjoyable to see all the items fall into place. It appears like a full time workplace job proper now.

Are you in command of discovering openers for all of your exhibits too?

Form of, like I at all times have a say in who opens my exhibits. I’ve a bunch of openers for my October tour and I’m looking for individuals for November now. Often I prefer to put phrase out and get suggestions from the general public as a result of you could find hidden gems that approach—and simply to see what the hell persons are listening to.

Is that this your greatest tour that you simply’ve accomplished up to now?

I believe it’s the longest tour? It’s good to have that huge vacation break within the center, however pondering of all of it as one tour, it’s the greatest tour I’ve accomplished and it’s a variety of the biggest venues that I’ve headlined as effectively, so shares are up.

After I was wanting on the tour dates I used to be attempting to consider what I might do to maintain myself grounded, like do you’ve got methods for your self by way of what you’re listening to or methods to hold your self centered on every upcoming efficiency?

Each time I am going on tour I’ve tons and plenty of methods. Often round week two all of them exit the window and it’s simply demon mode on a regular basis. You’re simply doing no matter you possibly can to get by means of the day. Not even that it’s unhealthy, however you simply get in a approach the place you’re feeling such as you’re floating. You’re so on the fringes of the world while you’re on tour. At a sure level I discover it simpler to nearly dissociate from all of it. I believe there’s a method to embrace the character of floating alongside whereas additionally being current and placing on a killer present each night time.

In my previous days of DIY touring, every single day on tour would really feel like a trip and it could convey very thrilling alternatives to satisfy thrilling individuals and it was a form of a celebration on a regular basis. I discover that as I become old and tour in these new methods that aren’t DIY, it’s vital to let myself off the hook and be like, “It’s okay that you simply’re not exploring each city that you simply play in.” I could be light with myself and never have all these loopy experiences as a result of it’s not trip. There could be moments the place it’s unimaginable and appears like trip, however I believe simply letting myself off the hook on for much longer excursions and floating alongside is how I get by means of it. Other than that I love to do yoga on the street and keep off caffeine and booze as a lot as I can simply to guard my nervous system so I can put every part into the exhibits. I like it with all of my coronary heart, however you need to simply discover this rhythm that—for me—feels very completely different from my every day life.

I really feel like touring may very well be such an simple factor to idealize from an outdoor point-of-view too. Do you ever get homesick whilst you’re on the street?

It’s onerous to say. I don’t suppose I do actually. I assume it relies upon the place house is for me, which is one thing I don’t at all times know. I assume I’ve felt homesick for Chicago whereas being on tour, however I’ve additionally felt homesick for simply crawling into my mother and father’ home and taking a break from life. I don’t usually get the sensation that some individuals speak about like, “Oh I actually miss my mattress.” I really feel like lodge beds and lodge rooms are most likely nicer than anyplace I’ve lived in. The previous couple of years it’s been a deal with after we are staying at accommodations, after which I come residence and I’m homesick for the Vacation Inn Specific.

Your Spotify description describes your music as witch rock. How would you describe the style of witch rock?

[Laughs] I believe it’s simply that. It’s simply witch rock.

It’s what the witches are listening to.

I believe I make music that’s generally heavy, like sonically heavy, but in addition introspective. It offers with religious issues and nature and the ebbs and flows of life. There’s positively folky components to it, however on the finish of the day—with this new document particularly—it’s rock ’n’ roll. I don’t actually just like the time period “indie rock.” When any person who I really feel doesn’t know quite a bit about modern music asks me what sort of music I make I say “indie rock” as a result of it’s simply the best factor to say, however I don’t actually know what which means. [Witch rock] feels very true to who I’m and what I make.

Yeah, indie rock is such a catch all.

It’s like something. It may very well be something.

With this being your third album do you’re feeling the method you undergo to create music has grow to be simpler to have a deal with on?

When it comes to manufacturing, sure. When it comes to songwriting, no. I might say the very starting of the artistic course of, just like the seed of a tune, is one thing that’s without end a thriller to me. That a part of the method may be very fluid and really depending on who I’m and the place I’m and what I’m doing at any given time. You may’t power it.

When it comes to manufacturing, I really feel like I’ve gotten up to now the place I do know precisely what I would like and just about precisely methods to get there. Clearly I’m not an engineer, however by way of arranging, capturing the temper, and discovering the sounds, I really feel like I’ve by no means been so confident and assured. That’s why I needed to provide this album. I co-produced it with my collaborator Alex [Farrar] and being one of many producers was essential to me as a result of I felt very able to be totally in command of all of it this time round.

Do you continue to begin a tune in the identical approach with a guitar?

For lots of the songs on the brand new document, sure, however like “Intheskatepark” I wrote on somewhat toy synthesizer in 2019. I wrote a few of the songs on synthesizer. I wrote a few of the songs with none devices. After I choose up an instrument to put in writing, the tune might be modified based mostly on which instrument I choose up, and that’s a really liberating factor to know as a result of if I ever really feel caught, I can simply change to a different instrument. Recently I’ve been taking part in a variety of accordion really.

Accordion positively sounds fascinating. It’s a loopy instrument to see performed in-person too.

It’s such a superb instrument and it’s so fucking onerous. It’s like, actually, actually onerous. However yeah, possibly my subsequent album might be Italian accordion music.

That sounds wonderful.

You heard it right here first.

These music movies that you simply’ve put out seem to be they have been a blast to make.

Yeah, it was so enjoyable.

If you’re making songs are there ones you understand you wish to see visually?

For “Full Time Job” I did have this imaginative and prescient from the get-go. I needed to reference some efficiency artwork I made once I was learning artwork in faculty. I might get a camcorder and go round filming myself cleansing locations that didn’t actually make sense to wash. I’d put on a housewife costume and arrange the tripod and movie myself simply scrubbing practice tracks on the sting of city or cleansing dust roads. I used to be concerned with taking part in with the concepts of domesticity and energy and gender roles and all these pretty issues that faculty college students like to consider.

A variety of this album comes from reflecting upon my previous self and previous artwork. These movies I used to make match completely by way of what the tune is about with regards to management and lack of management. I had the thought of incorporating these actions into it, however then I needed to finish the video smashing a guitar to kind of signify that fucking launch. The relinquishing of management. We shot all of it in someday and we began at 5:00 AM and ended at 7:00 PM. We did every part chronologically just about, so the guitar smashing occurred on the finish. We filmed it throughout a interval that was actually irritating for me, like I needed to transfer the following day and there was a bunch of different shit occurring, so once I needed to smash the guitar I didn’t actually suppose I’d be capable of do it. I used to be actually, actually nervous, nevertheless it ended up being probably the most cathartic factor I’ve ever accomplished. After I did it, I began crying somewhat simply because the discharge that I felt was so unimaginable. I’m very grateful for Lua [Borges] and John [Jadkowski] for rolling with that concept and serving to it come to life whereas including their very own twists as effectively.

I do know it may be onerous to pin down, however as you have been placing the songs collectively was there one thing you have been noticing as a theme to the challenge as a complete?

Yeah, I believe the songs at all times reveal [the theme] to me versus me setting an intention to put in writing an album about one thing particular. A variety of these songs I wrote in a time of desperation whereas surrounded by immense artistic collaboration and group. It was throughout a time the place for a number of months lots of people actually near me in Chicago didn’t have work. We didn’t have any cash however we had lot of time, so we’d simply get collectively to play music and speak about music and make artwork and simply form of go loopy collectively. I didn’t write the songs with different individuals, however I used to be actually impressed by that power, particularly with songs like “When a Plant Is Dying” and “Lastly Rain.” These two songs are instantly about and for the folks that I used to be hanging with at the moment.

I believe on the root of a variety of the songs is how difficult it may be to be a teenager on the planet proper now. We’re all simply attempting to stay artistic lives and never succumb to nihilism or being numb. That may sound actually adverse, however I believe a variety of the songs are actually rooted in hope.

I positively get that feeling in “When a Plant is Dying.” The lyric that caught with me was “As of late it takes a dawn/To recollect you’re alive.” I really feel like there’s this sense of doom or dread, however there’s nonetheless a perseverance there, particularly while you see one thing uniquely lovely akin to a dawn. It provides you a second to only check-in with your self.

Yeah, like utilizing nature as a grounding power, particularly within the period of know-how when it’s really easy to really feel numb on a regular basis due to overstimulation. Simply getting out, taking classes from nature and getting jolted again into what it’s to be a creature on a planet. That’s one thing that helps me quite a bit. However yeah, I believe one root of the album is within the tune “Lastly Rain.” It’s the final line that goes, “If that is what it means to be alive/We received’t develop up.” That’s kind of a double which means as a result of on one hand it’s like, “Holy shit, the Earth has an expiration date.” Then again it’s saying that we now have a greater method to stay and we don’t want to only settle for issues and stay inside the established order. There’s a magnificence in being naive within the sense of being optimistic and caring for one different and making music and, in a way, not rising up.

www.squirrelflower.internet

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