Angel Olsen Gives A Track-By-Track Rundown Of Her New Album To 13th Floor

Angel Olsen releases her new album Phases today, a collection of previously unheard songs, B-sides and demos recorded over the last few years.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Angel Olsen yesterday about the album, and more specifically, about each of the 12 tracks that make up Phases. 

Click here to listen to Angel Olsen give a track-by-track commentary on Phases:

Or, read a transcription of the interview with Angel Olsen here:

MD: My first question is: why did you decide that you needed to put together a collection like this, to get these songs heard?

AO: It’s more like a window into my previous works and different production styles and my writing styles along the way, up until My Woman, for, maybe, newer fans who are nostalgic for older material. For me, it’s like a window into my past, or like sharing a diary with people. Some of these songs, I wouldn’t play them in the same style as I had played them on those records; so, for me, it’s like seeing different experiments that I’ve had along the way.

MD: And you’re not worried about a ‘warts and all’ thing being out there, and people hearing things like demos?

AO: No. A lot of that stuff’s already been released, except for Special and Fly On Your Wall] – which was released this year – and Sans and How Many Disasters; those one’s are new, and didn’t really work on any other record. I feel okay about it. I think it’s important – for new fans especially – to see different eras of an artist, or to have something that is an example or a story about their trajectory.

MD: I’ve got the track listing here, and I was able to listen to the album yesterday. I was hoping, maybe, we could just run track by track, and you could just make a comment or two… to do about each of the songs.

AO: That sounds great.

MD: The first one is Fly On Your Wall, which was a Bandcamp only thing, right?

AO: Yes. That was for Our First 100 Days of Trump being President.

MD: Well, it’s been a year now, hasn’t it? Crikey! How are you feeling about it?

AO: Well, you know… one year down.

MD: I hear you! The second track is Special, which you directed a video for… right?

AO: Yeah. I recorded a video on my phone for that one. I’ve been making a lot of my own videos, and I thought, “This song is about wanting to be special,” but I really wanted to make it about just being relaxed and being comfortable; makes a video about me being super comfortable, and being happy and being at home and with people that are friends of mine and who do know me, versus the song being so dramatic and struggling with wanting to feel important. I thought that was a good contrast.

MD: There was some nice countryside with you driving around in the back of a pick-up. Whereabouts were you shooting that? What part of the country?

AO: It was about ten minutes outside of Ashville, where I live; Ashville, North Carolina.

MD: And the next track is Only with You. What can you tell me about that one?

AO: I believe it was a B-side to Burn Your Fire, and it was one of those songs that I always wanted it to go on the record, but it… seemed like… there were enough of those kinds of songs already, but now, listening back to it, it’d be cool to do another version of it with this band, maybe in an upcoming tour, and do a band version of it; wanted to reintroduce that one.

MD: Then we have Alright Now.

AO: A very similar story to Only With You: those two I felt would, maybe, go together on a record of their own, but… friends started reaching out about that one, and ended up doing the round and sinks and film, and I was surprised by it so, I thought, “I’m going to bring that one back, and show the rest of everyone here the song from Bring Your Fire that didn’t make it.”

MD: When you say you were surprised by a song: how does a song surprise you? Is it the emotional impact of it, or something that you hear in the production or the performance?

AO: Sometimes my favourite songs are the ones that are really worrying, and I’m always so surprised that the songs that some other people really love are really simple and to the point, and more emotional but just simple.

MD: And now the next one is a demo that you mentioned, Sans. What’s the deal with that one?

AO: Sans is a song that’s about travelling and how it can affect the psyche, or just where you feel that you are, and you end up over thinking – thinking about your entire life – just being out there. If you spent one day alone in your apartment, imagine that if you were doing that around people, then you’re surrounded but you’re travelling; so, you’re always in survival mode. In a lot of ways, you don’t feel connected to people. You feel isolated, in a lot of ways. The song, for me, was inspired by travelling and also inspired by those people that I stay in contact with, and who were close to me through travel.

MD: Sweet Dreams?

AO: Sweet Dreams was on an EP following Halfway Home, and it was split with California. Sweet Dreams was the first song that Emily – who plays bass with me now, and has played bass with me for four or five years now, maybe longer… – she recorded bass on that song, and that was the first one she played on.

MD: What was it about her bass playing that drew you to her?

AO: I thought that the song was really dark, and at the time, she was in a dark, noisy band called Mayor Daily, from Chicago, and I always really admired her.

MD: And California

AO: California was inspired from some of the first few weeks that I lived in Chicago, when I would take the blue line from… wherever the train was downtown arriving on the train from St. Louis, taking the blue line to California, and California was right next to this place – which isn’t there anymore – called Ronnies, and they would have shows there, and I would go see a boy, or see friends there playing shows. California was about that street and about that time, and now it’s… Logan Square in early 2000s, but now Logan Square has changed a lot.

MD: And then we have a Bruce Springsteen cover, Tougher Than The Rest.

AO: So, Tougher Than The Rest: my guitarist noticed that I was getting into Nebraska – and he introduced that record to me – but specifically the song, and then I just fell in love with it, and thought that I would do a ‘50s version of it. We played it as a band, and then I played it solo, and I ended up playing it a lot, over the years, at different shows; and so, I decided to put that on there.

MD: Are you a big Springsteen fan?

AO: I’m in and out. I’m not a die-hard that loves every single thing he does, but I really love that song, and I love looking at live footage of him in the ‘70s and early ‘80s.

MD: And then we have For You.

AO: For You: so, Roky Erickson: the first time I saw him perform was actually in Australia, and that was at Golden Planes Festival, singing backup for Will Oldham – we were opening for him at this festival or playing before him. I was going to say, we opened as Bonnie Prince Billy Band, and I was singing with them at the time.

MD: You were opening for Roky Erickson?

AO: Yeah, at Golden Planes Festival.

MD: Are you familiar with The Thirteenth Floor Elevators?

AO: Yeah, but I wanted to choose something of his that was not from those records.

MD: And then we have How Many Disasters; another demo.

AO: That one was written between Burn Your Fire and My Woman, and it didn’t seem to really fit. Like Sans, it didn’t really seem to fit the material of the record when all of it was together, but I really liked it anyway. It kind of reminded me of what, maybe, Connie Converse song, or something.

MD: And May As Well?

AO: May As Well and Endless Road were both put out on an EP….May As Well was written…I went to a family potluck in Chicago, and, I don’t know what, but I left early, and I remember going home and writing it on my rooftop in Chicago. I don’t what inspired me to write that song, but, for me, it was direct throwback; I don’t know. I ended up playing it a lot, specifically ending with that and Tougher Than Tthe Rest solo at shows.

MD: Anything you can add about Endless Road?

AO: Endless Road was a song I heard on Bonanza…. I was watching Bonanza, and I was home for Thanksgiving, and my mom was watching an episode – it was Hoyt Axton’s last day on Bonanza – and there were two cowboys singing, and then later on, I found out that his mother actually wrote the song. I just love it, because it’s very similar to Sans: it’s about travelling and never really being done travelling; you’re always setting back out there. Yeah, I really loved that song.

MD: Is there much else in the vaults that you, at some point, are going to go through and decide whether or not you want to release, or is that, pretty much, it?

AO: Maybe so. There’s definitely a lot of demos and covers I didn’t put on this record, but I plan on working on another full length before I do something like that.

Angel Olsen at The Kings Arms

MD: You were in New Zealand late last year, I think – you played in Auckland. Any plans to come back to our part of the world anytime soon?

AO: Yeah. Hopefully, in the spring sometime; we’ll see.

MD: It’ll be our autumn.

AO: Yeah. We’ll switch.

MD: Are you heading out on the road now? Are you promoting this record with shows? What’s happening with you?

AO: I’m leaving for a wedding in a few days, and then I go to Mexico City. I haven’t been there yet, but we’re going to play a festival there, and then come home for Thanksgiving and the holiday situation, and then we start our last, big finale tour. We start in Charlottesville, and then go to New York and Boston; so, I’ll be in all those places. It’ll be really fun.

Phases:
01 Fly on your Wall
02 Special
03 Only You
04 All Right Now
05 Sans
06 Sweet Dreams
07 California
08 Tougher Than the Rest
09 For You
10 How Many Dreams
11 May as Well
12 Endless Road