Adrianne Lenker Digs Deep

The Pitchfork Review

Pitchfork

Music, Music Commentary, Music Interviews, Music History

3.3 • 844 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A global pandemic hasn’t slowed the prolific output of Adrianne Lenker, who released her gorgeous solo collections songs and instrumentals this week, not long after making two of 2019’s most celebrated albums with her band Big Thief. On this episode, Lenker chats with Pitchfork Editor Puja Patel about the music that accompanied her occasionally turbulent journey from childhood as a musical prodigy to adulthood as one of her generation’s greatest songwriters. She touches on an early fascination with jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, a teenage encounter with the songs of Elliott Smith, and the story behind her Leonard Cohen tattoo.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Pitchfork Review. I'm Poochipatel, the editor of Pitchfork. Today we're talking to
0:08.9	Adrian Linker. She's an incredible songwriter and the singer for the indie and folk rock outfit Big Thief,
0:16.8	which is one of Pitchfork's favorite bands and a regular best new music contender.
0:22.5	Like the rest of us, Adrian has had a pretty tough year, but there was a bittersweet silver
0:27.5	lining that came from it too. She recorded a pair of beautiful solo records titled
0:33.5	Songs and Instrumentals, and Both Are out today. For this interview, we asked
0:39.3	Adrian to share some songs and albums that have shaped her life and who she's become,
0:44.4	from the records passed down from her great-grandparents to the music that she's been leaning
0:48.5	on for Hope right now. When we talked over Zoom, she had recently reunited with the rest of
0:53.7	the band and was prepping for
0:55.3	their first performance in months. You might even hear her bandmates hanging out in the background.
1:00.7	They're all in L.A. now, and we began by talking about Adrian's cross-country road trip to get there.
1:21.0	So how are you? Where are you? I think the last time I asked, you were in Oklahoma driving?
1:31.6	Oh yeah. I left New York State. I was there working on building out a trailer that I'm living in. And I was just renovating it. And, uh, hey, also. My puppy. Oh my gosh, new puppy. He's like practicing
1:39.8	bark. Okay. Sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, I found him on my way. I was barking. Okay. Sorry. I'm sorry.
1:44.9	Yeah, I found him on my way.
1:47.4	I was driving out west, and I found him just, I was with a couple of friends whose land I was staying on in my trailer.
1:57.1	And the guy was like, he didn't want the puppies.
2:00.6	And he's like, just take whatever.
2:03.2	And I couldn't really leave without bringing him with me.
2:07.3	But yeah, I went through Oklahoma and New Mexico and then came here to Panga Canyon, to California to meet up with my bandmates.
2:17.1	So the trailer is functional.
	...

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