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Jun 14, 2022 By Mark Redfern Photography by Nick Mckk

Australian singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin is releasing a new album, PRE PLEASURE, on August 26 via Polyvinyl. Now she has shared its second single, “I Was Neon,” via a self-directed video for the song. Watch it below, followed by her upcoming tour dates.

“I first wrote ‘I Was Neon’ for a band called rattlesnack, a short-lived much loved 2019 side project that I played drums in,” Jacklin says in a press release. “I rewrote it for my album in Montreal, during a time when I was desperately longing for a version of myself that I feared was gone forever. I was thinking of this song when I made the album cover, this song is the album cover really.”

Previously Jacklin shared PRE PLEASURE’s first single, “Lydia Wears a Cross,” via a self-directed video for it. “Lydia Wears a Cross” was one of our Songs of the Week.

PRE PLEASURE is Jacklin’s third album and the follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed Crushing and 2016’s Don’t Let the Kids Win. The album was written after the end of the world tour for Crushing and was concluded with several months of recording in Montreal with co-producer Marcus Paquin. “The songs on this record took either three years to write or three minutes,” Jacklin said in a previous press release announcing the album.

Members of Jacklin’s tour band—bassist Ben Whiteley and guitarist Will Kidman, who are both based in Canada and also in The Weather Station—played on PRE PLEASURE, as do drummer Laurie Torres and saxophonist Adam Kinner. Owen Pallett (Arcade Fire) provided the string arrangements, which were recorded by a full orchestra in Prague.

“Making a record to me has always just been about the experience, a new experience in a new place with a new person at the desk, taking the plunge and just seeing what happens,” said Jacklin. “For the first time I stepped away from the guitar, and wrote a lot of the album on the Roland keyboard in my apartment in Montreal with its inbuilt band tracks. I blu-tacked reams of butcher paper to the walls, covered in lyrics and ideas, praying to the music gods that my brain would arrange everything in time.”

Seemingly referencing the album’s title, PRE PLEASURE, Jacklin said: “A lot of the time I feel like I need to do all the work before I can enjoy my life. Whether that’s work on songs or sex, friendships, or my relationship with my family – I think if I work on them long and hard enough, eventually I’ll get to sit around and really enjoy them. But that’s not how anything works is it. It’s all an ongoing process.”

Following her huge Crushing tour, Jacklin spent some time reconnecting with music and finding her way back to the joy of listening. “Once music becomes your job, you can lose the purity of music fandom,” she explained. “I spent the last two years trying to reconnect with that. I didn’t play much, I just listened. Especially to a lot of big pop music like Céline Dion, Robyn and Luther Vandross—music that wasn’t so heavy, big feelings, big production. You lose sight of what putting on a big, beautiful song can do.”

Céline Dion was particularly important, with the Canadian singer’s 1996 hit “Because You Loved Me” being a favorite of Jacklin’s dad. She says that revisiting the song in 2020, “brought back a lot of nice, uncomplicated feelings about music. Pure joy and feeling. And as someone relatively introverted and trying to be cool, Céline was a good person for me to lock onto during this period, because she’s definitely not that. She’s dramatic as hell and incredibly cheesy. I think listening to her helped me get over myself.” If you look closely in the “Lydia Wears a Cross” video, Céline Dion is the background photo on Jacklin’s phone.

Of the themes on the new album, Jacklin said: “I care so much about the people around me, so much it makes me want to sleep forever, it feels so overwhelming. I wasn’t raised in an environment where language was used to express love and care, part of my songwriting process is me trying to rectify that, force myself to put words to those feelings”

Read our interview with Julia Jacklin on Crushing.

Julia Jacklin Tour Dates:

U.S. Tour Dates:

08/26 - Stanford, CA @ Frost Amphitheater - Here and There Festival
08/27 - Pasadena, CA @ This Ain’t No Picnic Festival
09/09 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk #
09/10 - Dallas, TX @ The Studio at The Factory #
09/12 - Nashville, TN @ The Basement East #
09/13 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West #
09/15 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club #
09/16 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel #
09/17 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts #
09/18 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club #
09/20 - Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre $
09/21 - Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre $
09/22 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Calvin University $
09/23 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall $
09/24 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line $
09/26 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater $
09/27 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge $
09/29 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom $
09/30 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile $
10/02 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall $
10/04 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore $
10/05 - Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern $
10/07 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre $
10/08 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom $

# w/ Kara Jackson
$ w/ Katy Kirby

UK & European Tour Dates:

11/03 - Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street &
11/05 - Glasgow, Scotland @ SWG3 TV Studio &
11/06 - Manchester, UK @ The Ritz &
11/07 - Birmingham, UK @ The Mill &
11/09 - Bristol, UK @ SWX &
11/10 - Brighton, UK @ Chalk &
11/11 - London, UK @ Roundhouse &
11/13 - Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie &
11/14 - Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix Club &
11/15 - Cologne, Germany @ Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld &
11/17 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso &
11/18 - Hamburg, Germany @ Knust &
11/20 - Oslo, Norway @ Parkteatret &
11/21 - Stockholm, Sweden @ Slaktkyrkan &
11/22 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Dr Koncerthuset &
11/24 - Berlin, Germany @ Columbia Theatre &
11/25 - Munich, Germany @ Strom &
11/26 - Zurich, Switzerland @ Plaza &
11/27 - Milan, Italy @ Magnolia &
11/29 - Barcelona, Spain @ Apolo &
11/30 - Madrid, Spain @ SalaMon &
12/01 - Lisbon, Portugal @ Lav &

& w/ Erin Rae

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