ON THE ROAD
WITH
ANGEL OLSEN

Buds co-founder BEN TOUSLEY and correspondent MICHAEL MCKINNEY catch the gracious and self-made musician in Manchester amidst the controlled chaos of a high energy tour across Europe. The always original crooner opens up where art meets profession — touching on the new realities of touring, which hot country star is a stoner, and the creative through line that touches everything she makes.

“Even if I said I wanted to do something else completely,” OLSEN says of the foundation of their art, “I'd still be writing songs.”

MICHAEL MCKINNEY: Hello!

ANGEL OLSEN: Hi!

MM: How are you? Huge fans here. So grateful to have your time and your interest in this. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you here.

AO: Thanks for doing this. I am currently on my bus in Manchester. Everyone is about to soundcheck and I am just chillin’.

MM: Big show tonight, right? Royal Albert Hall?

AO: This one's different. It's still a beautiful hall. It's just called Albert Hall, different from the London one. But it’s a gorgeous building that was abandoned and I think they reconstructed it a few years ago. Really special, beautiful space. I'm excited to play it. I'm a huge fan of Richard Hawley. He played in the band Pulp, but he has very beautiful, minimalist Americana records. He lives here and he's coming to the show tonight. So, I'm really excited.

MM: That's so cool. I've been a big fan for a long time. Have you guys met before?

AO: I've never met him, no. But I really love that record Cole’s Corner. I was trying to tell my agent, “Maybe he can bring a signed copy of Cole's Corner” because it's really hard to find it, but I don’t know…

MM: Did anybody give him the memo?

AO: We’ll see. He's bringing his wife and his kids. So I'm excited to meet the whole family. And hopefully the show doesn't suck. 

MM: I don't see how that’s possible…

You did a photoshoot for Buds back in August, before another big show, in Central Park. How was that experience?

AO: It was so much fun. It felt like being in a family band. Sharon [Van Etten] is one of the least pretentious people I've ever met in the music industry. I think everybody has their time or their grasping… They want to be sexy and interesting and important, and it can be competitive, but I think that she is just so warm and inviting and just wants to share her music with people, and share it with collaborators as well. She really is in it. I don't think everybody has to be in it. But I find that I relate more to people who are like, “This is my life, it's not just because I want to be important to people – I like writing songs.” And even if I said I wanted to do something else completely, I'd still be writing songs. I just love sharing that with her.

I didn't know Julien Baker very well before the tour, but got to know her as well. It was just really sweet to see her. She's very shy in person and just to see her sort of open up and warm up to the idea of doing three part harmonies and stuff on songs. It was cool.

MM: Like Sharon, Julien also is the type of musician who is writing about herself, her hardships, and I feel like the combination of the three of you on tour is brilliant — it works so well.

AO: All the bands got along really well. We started a band chat and we all went rollerskating one day. We all had a day off in Boise. We would just send each other funny videos and stuff. It just really felt like an adults' summer camp. It was really sweet. It was a lot of work, but it was really, really fun.

MM: I can imagine it's a lot of work. It's not often we see a big powerhouse tour like that with multiple, big groups. Very special.

AO: It was wild.

MM: Especially a female lineup, which is so refreshing to see. I feel like it's happening more and more. Back in the day it was like they wouldn't typically book more than one female artist on the tour. I think we need to be seeing more of it. Like a Lilith Fair 2.0. 

AO: Well, the times are just changing, too. I think there's a lot more queer artists, and, you know, there's a lot more female artists and a lot more acceptance of everybody's lifestyle and everybody's identity being supported. I do think it's been like this for a few years now. I think I started to be like, “Well, are women taking over the indie music industry?” It kind of feels like it. Now, I just think that it is changing. I think it's people who are queer who are sort of taking over in a way, which is fun. I just remember when I started out at 20, when I started recording my first record, I was feeling like it wasn't allowed to have more than one woman to be listed on a festival because they were tokenized more. We’ll tokenize this special indie rock woman, but not all of them.

MM: It's so refreshing now. That really wasn't that long ago, ultimately. How's the tour that you're on now going?

AO: Everybody's saying the same things, you know? There's an energy crisis and ticket sales are down, but I'm having a great time. I wouldn't say I'm making money, but I'm having a great time.

MM: Well, that's a big half of it.

AO: Sometimes you just have to invest in what matters. It's definitely made me think about the way that I do stuff and how to be more aware of the way we consume on tour or what we ask for on the rider. Right now, fuel for the bus is twice as much. That's in the US. It was 25 grand or more to have a bus before the pandemic. And now I think it's about double. In the UK, the pound is about the same as the dollar right now, so that gives you an idea what it looks like. So, I've been going out to sign records and talk to people and stuff and kind of interact with people and make it more fun. It does feel different now. Even if this is a tough time for everybody involved, it just feels really special to connect with people in a different way. 

MM: People who are coming, they really want to be there. 

AO: It’s really expensive. It's expensive because everything else made you broke. And then it's expensive because you're risking your health. So, there's a lot of stuff. I feel very appreciative of people taking the dive into it and supporting us.

MM: Do you find that the lower ticket sales are because people are still worried about COVID and live music venues?

AO: I don't think it's just that. It's an energy crisis and there's a lot of stuff going on in the world that is affecting people financially. I had read, or maybe someone told me, that Glastonbury announced that they would do payment plans for people. Usually they sell out in two weeks. 

MM: Fascinating.

AO: An interesting idea. But yeah, I do think it's tough out there. It's always been tough in Europe, in general, because it's just been expensive and there's a lot of different things you have to pay for to get from country to country as a US artist. Outside of all of those things, I'm having a really splendid time and I really love my band and everybody's really drama free in this group, so that helps.

MM: That helps a lot, especially on a bus. 

AO: In my 20s, I used to go out more and drink a lot more, and I got in my head more, you know? I just feel calmer and I'm just enjoying life more now.

MM: One of the few perks of getting older, for sure.

AO: I feel less embarrassed if I do something someone doesn't like. Like, it doesn't personally upset me.

MM: You realize that the world isn't going to end if you make a mistake, essentially. Or say something incorrectly.

AO: I just used to be so fixated on stuff that doesn't matter.

MM: Do you feel like any of that is shifting not just because of age, but also because we're post-big world changes? 

AO: Maybe.

MM: Traveling in Europe, I just try to close my eyes and remember to appreciate it because I don't know when I can return again.

AO: I feel that way about being in Europe too. I'm so glad to be here. I'm allergic to milk and bread and shit, but I will have this baguette and I will eat this cheese, because I don't know if I'm gonna come back here. It might be a while and I'm gonna enjoy myself. And, you know, I'll hunker down in the winter and workout and be healthy, but like, I'm gonna enjoy this experience for what it's worth.

There's a couple people on the tour who haven't been on a European tour before and it's really fun to relive it through their eyes. They're like, “All right, we're in Paris – Baguette game! Three points if you see a baby with a baguette.”

Tomorrow we're going to be in Edinburgh and I've never been there. It's like a little fairy tale town and I'm really excited about it. I love little towns. We were in Bath the other day, and I was like, “Let's just move here.” Like, what the fuck. It’s the same as Asheville but somewhere in the UK instead.

MM: Maybe a little dreamier? 

AO: Asheville is pretty dreamy. I don't know if you been…

MM: I was there like in the late nineties. It's a very chill place. 

AO: It's very different than it was then. It's definitely booming now. My friend bought a place in the nineties and was describing the neighborhood to me at the time. Very cool. Just like every place, it has annoying stuff going on. Like the government taxing people and then just building more condos and using the tax dollars to do that instead of for a system that allows younger people and poor people to live and work there. They all have to move out sooner or later. It's got its problems just like any place but I really love it there. I have hope in it.

MM: Is there a good music scene in Asheville?

AO: There's a lot of music coming out of there. There's a band called Wednesday. There's Indigo De Souza, who is sort of up and coming. MJ Lenderman! I heard this guy on the radio and I wrote Jag [Angel’s label Jagjaguwar] and was like, “Yo, you guys need to listen to his record.” He's blowing up, I'm very excited about him. There's a lot more younger people making music there now, and I know a lot of musicians who are in Animal Collective or War on Drugs who live in North Carolina or in Asheville and surrounding areas. There's a lot of connections of people that I know there. And what we all have in common is that we’re never there.

MM: When you are there, it's a nice place to sort of regroup and take in some nature.

AO: A friend just started a studio a year ago and it's really successful. He actually recorded Wednesday and MJ Lenderman for some stuff. He produced Aisles with me. His name's Adam McDaniel. He started this studio called Drop of Sun. It's just such a beautiful spot. It's super simple and bands stay there. It's nice to finally have a trusted engineer/producer friend in town with a studio. I do like some of the studios in the area, you're just paying more than you should.

In LA, everybody has every kind of amp and every kind of guitar and every kind of pedal and it’s worth the amount that you're putting into it. So in Asheville, I love working there and often pop in and do stuff. We recorded the Sturgill [Simpson’s] version of Big Time there.