MARSHFIELD -- Character is evidenced by the work that you do when nobody else is watching. The character of several members of the Marshfield girls track and field program was on full display all spring as they continued working out and getting better long after the spreading Coronavirus pandemic had officially canceled their spring athletic season.
The hard work did not go unrewarded as sophomore Ava LoVuolo, junior Charlotte Henning, seniors Veronica Julian and Amanda MacKinnon as well as Class of 2020 graduate Olivia Valianti all posted times and distances while training on their own that qualified them to compete at the recent NSAF Athletic.net virtual nationals.
I'm fine, I have so many things I want to ask you. But first, here you were at the beginning of the year January 2020 working on this new album having all of these appearances lined up, Coachella, all this stuff and then wham bam thank you ma'am a little bit of a pandemic kind of screwed that up. So what did that do to you mentally like, did you...did it make you just feel like, "Oh lord, the momentum was going and now what?"
Beabadoobee: It was strange like I, I honestly thought like, "This is gonna be my year." Like I was so excited, for, you know, everything that was going to happen but I think I really needed time. Obviously, of course like, corona is terrible but I think quarantine really helped me kind of go through things that happened on tour and just kind of get over that. There was a lot of healing I had to do because I you know I went like, it went from like playing a few shows and going to the U.S. and touring and then two other tours straight after and it was super intense and I think if you know none of this would have happened and I went to Coachella and I did all these amazing things obviously it would still be amazing but I think I wouldn't have time to be in reality again.
Like I missed my mom, I missed my dad, and I missed my brother, and I missed my friends and my boyfriend and you know things happened on tour that I needed to get over and I was like coming into terms of things that would have that happened to me as a child and kind of going over that which helped me write the album. It was, overall, it was really a positive outcome because it helped me mentally.
And you did openings for The 1975 which I would imagine that was sort of a big arena. I don't want to make you relive what what was hurtful about it but, was it something that came unexpected that you thought, "Oh man is this part of the deal?"
Beabadoobee: Oh it was, I honestly the one thing that I loved about tour was literally playing. I loved playing, I loved hanging out with my band, I loved the shows. I think it was just the mistakes I made as an individual. I was just trying to figure myself out, I was really excited about everything, but then you know that tour specifically, that 1975 tour was the best tour ever. The boys were so amazing, the crowds were so welcoming and I finally felt comfortable on the stage despite it being such a huge stage, but it was so empowering it was amazing. I miss live shows so much. I want to play live so badly.
Beabadoobee: Oh it's still full yes it's getting released at the same day October 16th. I finished the album before lockdown, when lockdown happened in London I had to record one of the songs at my boyfriend's house on a four track cassette recorder which was super fun. It was pretty much done and mixed. Mastering happened in the space of lockdown but I'm super proud of it, and time-wise nothing's changed. I feel like it's given us, it's given me especially more time to kind of think about the creative vision of it. I lived at my boyfriend's house and he directs all my music videos and we pretty much inspire each other so we kind of collaborated and I really thought about what I wanted the whole vibe and aesthetic of the of the album Fake It Flowers would be and especially "Care". It actually turned out pretty okay.
It's interesting because a lot of artists who finish an album don't really have any time to reflect because they're immediately out
promoting it and playing it live and maybe you've had that luxury if you will of being able to sort of visualize these
songs and how you want them to come off live and that's something that maybe a lot of artists don't normally get to have.
Beabadoobee: Yeah no especially like I've definitely had that luxury to just live within my album and really think about the
songs and you know think about the visual side and now I'm like rehearsing again. I've had so much time to rehearse all these album
songs with my band and perfecting it so when we go back into live shows like it's going to sound as perfect as I want it to be. It's been a really nice kind of you know appreciating everything that's happened so far and I don't think, I feel like I hadn't I haven't done that
for a while because I was everything was just going so fast and then all of a sudden there's all this time to kind of just sit back and just you know be really happy and content I guess.
That was Beabadoobee doing "Sorry" for The Current virtual sessions and that will appear on the new full-length debut album called Fake
It Flowers in October. I want to know more about you, you have a very interesting backstory and I always find it very interesting when a person, a young person, has a real affinity for - in your case - some of that Sub Pop, that cool stuff that's not always expected that someone like you would go yeah Pavement, Stephen Malkmus, he's like, you know. He's it. So where did all that music just come through to you like what was your resource? Internet?
Beabadoobee: It was definitely the internet. But it was just the people I knew as well, like I found Pavement through my boyfriend's brother who showed me Pavement and I was like obsessed with the band straight away and I think the music my mom used to play in the background of my childhood just stayed with me. You know, like The Cranberries, but then also The Cardigans and Alanis Morissette and just amazing women and I recently got into them and just from that like it's through the internet I see like all these little strands of other eyes like I found Liz Phair and I found Juliana Hatfield and then found Veruca Salt and Sonic Youth and you know these amazing bands. But yeah it's definitely internet and people I know.
Beabadoobee: It wasn't, I guess I was playing but it was not forced, but I feel like it was definitely that thing, I was a stereotypical Asian child doing so many clubs and and playing violin and I wanted to be a doctor and I had all this pressure and then thankfully my parents kind of loosened up a bit and just like let me drop all the clubs I was doing and I dropped violin. I was just getting super stressed and super anxious and then it took a few years for me to get on guitar like it took me um like all throughout high school and a year of sixth form and also getting kicked out of sixth form and then being able to play the guitar because I had nothing else to do and my Dad was like, "Oh my god you look so bored here's a guitar just play it because you look so sad." And I was like, "Yeah true." And then I guess I think having that history of playing violin and because not being forced to do all these clubs I guess I was super into learning how to play guitar and it was super familiar to me already because of the violin.
And then you, I love the fact too that you, like anybody, you you learned how to play guitar from YouTube tutorials. What was the first song that you thought, "All right I've got to learn the chords."?
Beabadoobee: This is so funny, but it was "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer and if you listen carefully they're very similar chords to the first song I ever wrote on guitar which was "Coffee". I'm a visual learner so if I typed in like, how to play Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer I'd watch how the person would play, they could have how they play the chords and then mimic it and then just find my own way of playing it and you know I don't know any chord names still, I just like know the shape of my fingers that I play them in um but I guess it works.
Beabadoobee: No I used to be so good at reading music but I think maybe because I was reading strings and I couldn't read it, yeah I mean I used to do it so well when I was a kid but for some reason I've just forgotten, it sucks.
No I think the brain eliminates what it doesn't need it's like I don't need you anymore you know I'll figure this out I'll figure this out on my own yeah so when okay so you also recorded in Abbey Road what was that one like?
Beabadoobee: That was insane because I'm a massive Beatles fan, like one of the second posters I ever got in my room. I have like all of their albums on cassette so I went into Abbey Road and I was like "Aaaaahhhh!" And there was a picture I think of Paul and George I think it was George by these steps in the room I was recording in and I was like oh my god they're literally like, yeah it was it was pretty...it was...it was pretty wild.
I mean you know to go from, like, most artists are making their records at home or in a basement studio or a home studio, and then getting the opportunity not only to go into a studio but then you're going into Abbey Road. Did you feel ghosts in there?
Beabadoobee: Dude it was I honestly cannot remember like I went out the night before so I was not hungover but I was just super...I was in a weird head space and to go into Abbey Road like probably being awake for like 24 hours. I walked in I was like, this is wild. I did feel like a ghost but I think I felt like a ghost before I even entered.
It's religion. I'm telling you it is called Living in the Material World. Martin Scorsese directed it, it's really thorough, it's, I watch it, it's like I don't know if you have movies or documentaries that you will literally almost like books you'll go back to every couple of months yeah remember exactly how it makes you feel you have to rent this and then you have to let me know how changed a person.
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