Cool People Know: country girl (Q & A)
Photo Credit: Ashley Lieberman
BROOKLYN-BASED ARTIST COUNTRY GIRL IS STRIPPING AWAY HIS CITY-BOY UPBRINGING MOMENTARILY — and inviting in summertime warmth with his debut, 7-track EP, meet me at the fountain. The project is sun-soaked, timid and bold in all the right places, and threaded with that inescapable nostalgic feeling — everything you need to paint the picture of a ‘90s coming-of-age story.
country girl’s desire to create music is innate. He studied classical composition as a teen and now continues to explore outside of his creative comfort zone to uncover new sounds within himself, resulting in the birth of this dreamy project that blends the best parts of acoustic guitars, vintage synths, and an alive rhythm section.
Read below to dive into the origin of country girl, his admiration for The Sundays, the ideal setting to take in meet me at the fountain, and more ⋆｡°✩
SIICK: You probably get this a lot, but why the name country girl?
COUNTRY GIRL: I do get asked this quite often and still don’t have a good answer. I’m a real New York kid, so I’m kind of the opposite of a country girl (laughs). But with an artist name, you get to build a new character with a storyline — it creates mystery. I was out of the city and surrounded by a lot of nature while making a lot of the music on this record. I never set out to make a summery album or anything, but that’s just the type of music that came out of me, and I think the name captures the right energy. It wasn’t very thought through — it just felt right.
SIICK: While you didn’t set out to create this type of album, summertime nostalgia is threaded throughout this project in such a magical way. How do you think you landed on this aesthetic/theme?
COUNTRY GIRL: My previous project before country girl was a darker, Depeche Mode, ‘80s type. It was more electronic, so I knew Ableton production front and back. When taking on a new project, you want to find ways that make you a little uncomfortable so it’s fresh and exciting to create. I dove into real instruments like acoustic guitars and late ‘80s/early ‘90s synths instead of computerized ones to find my way into new sounds. Since I was out of the city, I spent a lot of time in the sun, biking through trees around this lush, verdant area. That environment, plus the acoustic guitar, created this warmth that made me excited to create. I was experimenting with a new, softer voice that was very close mic-ed too. The combination of all those things felt new to me, and that’s where the record’s overall vibe came from.
SIICK: What song of yours best introduces you as an artist?
COUNTRY GIRL: “tastes like cherry”. I think it captures the project’s entire energy.
SIICK: If you had to envision the ideal setting to listen to meet me at the fountain for the first time, where would that be?
COUNTRY GIRL: Headphones and biking. Around the loop at Prospect Park in Brooklyn would be an ideal setting. I bike that all the time. For West Coast people, maybe driving along the coast with the windows down. Maybe you have a flirtatious someone next to you in the passenger seat.
SIICK: Are there any artists you admire that have inspired your sound?
COUNTRY GIRL: There’s a lot of cool stuff happening in New York right now. One of my good friends has this great band called Test Subjects. On a subconscious level, I’m maybe influenced by my peers like them, but in terms of the music I listen to day by day, it’s more artists from the ‘60s through the ’90s. My obsession throughout a lot of making the record was this band called The Sundays — they’re the best. They’re un-fucking-believable. Every track on Static & Silence is a banger. What they do with rhythm is so cool and resonates a lot with the way I do my arrangements. It’s pretty complicated, syncopated drum patterns, then the guitar fits in very nicely. More people should be talking about that album.
SIICK: Diving more into your background, what fueled your desire to create music?
COUNTRY GIRL: I can’t say what motivated me to play music, I just grew up with it all my life. My mom was a professional Opera singer, so classical music was always playing in the house growing up. I studied classical composition at Julliard's pre-college program. I also went to the Manhattan School’s pre-college. I’d go to the library and rent out The Beatles CDs to download onto my iPod and listen on the bus. It felt like contraband to check out rock music because at home and in my music programs, it was classical music all the time. I was kind of like a feral wolf child (laughs). I didn’t listen to much pop or rock I was 16 or 17. My plan was to be a professional flutist — go to a conservatory, Juilliard College, play in an orchestra. But I ended up at Columbia and created my own music community. I got into pop production and played in lots of bands. It didn’t feel very different to switch gears from classical to other genres. It’s the same energy — it’s just being used differently.
SIICK: Your EP — especially “tastes like cherry” — feels like a ‘90s coming-of-age rom-com. What film or TV show do you think your music could soundtrack?
COUNTRY GIRL: I definitely was trying to capture a ‘90s feel, but it was never with movies or TV shows in mind. But I am really hype about Terrence Malick’s films. Although, my music is definitely not the type that would play during his films. He’s too cool to be fucking with some Brooklyn pop kid (laughs). I just love the emotions that he can capture in this sort of reverence and strange mysticism. With Days of Heaven, the whole film was shot during golden hour with a lot of reflective light hitting the lens. I saw it after I had incorporated lens flares into the country girl visual identity, but watching the film reaffirmed that that’s the kind of visuals I resonate with.
country girl’s sonic picks —
SIICK: Who’s an underrated artist we should all be listening to?
COUNTRY GIRL: My Body with Blood. There’s only one song out as of now, but it’s a blend of Patt Metheny meets pitched-up vocals. It’s really strange but in the best possible way.
SIICK: What was your first ever favorite song?
COUNTRY GIRL: “Your Mother Should Know” by The Beatles. I was on the bus in 7th grade when I first heard it and was like, “oh my god, I can’t explain it, but this makes me feel transported.”
SIICK: If you were to create a dream festival lineup, what 3 headliners are you picking?
COUNTRY GIRL: Definitely The Sundays. Cheryl Crow would be really good. And maybe Dido.
