Australian musician Julia Jacklin releases her fourth album, The Gem. Each facet of the album reflects a different part of Jacklin’s journey, capturing the push and pull of change, disruption and learning how to navigate what comes next.
“I want to love and be loved, but I also want to be free. The tension between those two things has been the central question of my life.”
Julia Jacklin
Named after the pub Jacklin frequented when she first moved to Melbourne from Sydney in 2017, The Gem came to life during a period of reinvention, rediscovery and rebirth. The pub became a place where Jacklin went in search of community and to step outside her comfort zone. For the album, she called Robert Muinos, owner of Rat Shack Studios, which is located above The Gem, and brought in friends Jacob Diamond (guitar), Mimi Gilbert (bass) and Jess Elwood (drums).
With no touring, out of contract with her record label and in limbo with management, Jacklin was forced to look inward. Over the course of a year recording the album, she began looking into what came next and reconsidering her sense of self as an artist. The Gem becomes a soundtrack to that period of change, with Jacklin’s soaring vocals carrying songs that move through uncertainty, discovery and transformation.
That search also meant questioning the expectations we place on ourselves. Jacklin reflects:
“When you get to this phase of being an artist, people have an idea of what you are and the kind of musician you are and the kind of things you write about and the kind of ways you write about them. And then it’s pretty difficult to not let that inform your own sense of self. It can get really weird, where you’re like, Is this what Julia Jacklin would do? And you’re like, Wait – I’m Julia Jacklin.”
A rare gem of an artist, Julia Jacklin isn’t afraid to push through the uncertainty, dig deeper and discover what lies on the other side.
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