She admits that her busy touring schedule can be tough at times, though she wouldn’t have it any other way. “There’s plenty of places that I feel at home to a degree, as a touring musician you just have to get used to it,” she says. “I call it the turtle musician, or the snail, because everything is on my back. I have this one big military bag that’s like my house.
“I do feel homesick, but there’s also an element when you grow up touring you feel like you have mini homes, not just one geographical location where your home is defined by the stuff you bought and the house you pay rent at,” Baker says.
“It comes with its own particular set of challenges, it feels at least abnormal or non-traditional. I have a non-traditional employment to say the least,” says Baker. “But fortunately it gets to be my job and I don’t think I ever stop being appreciative of the fact that I get to do this for a living.”
Baker is known for her harrowing autobiographical lyrics detailing personal struggles she has endured. Her debut album Sprained Ankle sees her baring it all. She speaks of how spending so much time with those songs has helped her gain perspective on them. “I’ve had time to re-contextualise the lyrics and, by extension, how I remember the events, that then formed the lyrics into something positive,” she says.
“I had to think every night on stage like ‘I’m about to go out in front of audience members and scream about ruining everything I do and everybody running from me and are those really the things that I believe?’. I’ve reassessed my values, and now I get to go on stage and say, ‘This song is about thinking that you ruin everything and finding out that’s a fallacy and mistakes are just opportunities for growth,’ and that’s cheesy and it sounds like a birthday card but it’s true, trite or not.
“The thing that makes me able to withstand sharing those parts of myself is saying that’s not the end of the story. If it were that would be tragic and if I were still that self-defeating and self-deprecating then I would’ve learned nothing, and I wouldn’t want people to hear songs and have that be the takeaway,” she continues.
“There was no precise intent behind that record, it’s just a reflection of my thoughts at the time. It’s interesting, maybe that’s what makes the record special, because I’ve had a lot of time to think about it,” says Baker. “I think I’ll always have a good relationship with Sprained Ankle.”
Baker is eager to unveil her upcoming album, which is due for release at the end of 2017. “I’ve been touring Sprained Ankle for so long I’m just excited to have some new material out there,” she says. It’s going to be interesting, there’s more piano and strings. It’s equally as sparse, it’s not like a full band [with a] drum kit and like eight guitars, but I think I took the time to be meticulous and make the best art I possibly could.
“The new songs are equally as autobiographical, but I’m going into performing and having that equipment to have a mental balance about coping with sharing very personal things live.
“At the end of the day it’s all I have to offer, so I’m really nervous because when it comes out I have this thing and I’ll be like ‘I did my best.’ It’s your baby, you put this nascent idea and nurtured it into maturity, and now you’re releasing it out to behave and interact with the listener on its own. I hope it fares well.”
