Welcome to Allie Crow Buckley’s ‘Utopian Fantasy’
In her sophomore project, artist Allie Crow Buckley takes you through a world riddled with mythology and revelation. It is both eerie and whimsical, walking on a line between our realities and imaginations, proposing themes of escapism and surrealism. Released on May 19th, Utopian Fantasy is a dreamy ten track representation of Buckley’s artistry. You come face to face with both the gods, yourself, and the earth beneath your feet. Buckley provides a glimpse into a sonic landscape layered in soft pop sensibilities and psychedelic hues. Along with the release of this project, Buckley will also be embarking on tour with artists Lord Huron and Declan Mckenna along with her own tour run. In a conversation with Unpublished Magazine, Buckley delved deep into the album, talking about dancing, poetry, mythology, escapism, and more.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you doing today? What have you been up to?
[ALLIE]: I'm great. I'm in the English countryside and we're getting ready to head back to California tomorrow. So, we've just been going to various farm shops, getting sacks and treats and getting ready to head out.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You have your second album coming out soon. You’ve been working on it for a couple years, how does it feel to be finally releasing it?
[ALLIE]: I'm so excited. I'm so ready to release this baby into the world. Yeah, it's been really wonderful. I'm really, really ready to get it out there.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I read that certain parts of the album were written in a range of different places spanning from the English countryside to even Ojai, California. Do you feel like the space or location that you are in affects your creative processes? Do you pull things from different places?
[ALLIE]: Absolutely. I think my environment is one of my biggest inspirations and also affects me more than most everything else. I think that in writing a record, I try to create a sort of world for the listener and it tends to be the world that I'm somehow inhabiting. So I wrote so much of this record in the English countryside in this tiny little cottage in the woods. So, yes, my environment is absolutely a huge, huge inspiration for me.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Going into this world itself, the title of the project is Utopian Fantasy. Can you tell me about what a “utopian fantasy” means to you? What is this world that you are introducing us to?
[ALLIE]: For me, I wrote this record as sort of chaos ensued globally. So, I was thinking a lot about a healthy amount of escapism and being able to find beauty in the chaos or be able to submit to it and sort of float down this river with as much grace as possible. And I just think having a healthy amount of escapism is a very underrated thing because I think it naturally gets a bit of a negative connotation because you can go too far. But, I think being able to leave your body and sort of move into different realms is a very healthy and wonderful practice. So, I was thinking a lot about that when writing the record and I was spending a lot of time alone in this cottage writing in just sort of the middle of nowhere. Yeah, it was a lot of self-reflection and moving into this whimsical world. So, that was the world I tried to create or that ended up coming out in the record.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What was your creative process like for this record when working with other minds such as Jason Boesel?
[ALLIE]: So, it was really wonderful because usually with other bodies of work of mine, I would have written the music but then recorded it live to tape with a band. And this time was totally different. Jason Boesel, my producing partner and I, set up this sort of traveling recording rig and we were able to record all over the place. So, we were recorded in the English countryside, in California, in a hotel room in Germany, just all over the place. And I think we really captured or tried to capture the essence of each place. Because all of those places influenced the writing of the record so much. So, it was interesting. He and I played basically everything on the record and it's a very slow process. We kind of chipped away at it and sort of sporadically went into the studio in London. So yeah, it was a much slower process this time.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Can you tell me more about one of your latest singles, “Cowboy in London?” It feels extremely nostalgic. I’m also wondering, did you write this in London?
[ALLIE]: I wrote down about my experience as a teenager in London. I think I wrote part of it here and then part of it in Ojai reflecting on my time in London. But yeah, when I was teenager, I went to London for the first time when I was 16 by myself. I was there for four weeks and I had this crazy jetlag. So I'd just wake up really early and walk around. There was this show called Big Brother in London back in the day, maybe you've heard of it, where they have live cameras on these people all night. And I would leave the television on while they slept because I was so afraid and I was only 16. So I just wanted the company of other people on the TV. So I just absolutely fell in love with London. I just walked around all day, every day and it was a really wonderful experience. I now live here part of the time in the English countryside, I finally got to live out my dream because I absolutely love it. So, yes, that's what that song is about. And I just felt like this young spunky thing cruising around London.
[UNPUBLISHED]: The song “Naked at the Feast” circulates around the god Dionysous. Are there any other gods that you are interested in writing about?
[ALLIE]: I am very interested in mythology. So, I kind of like them all. I try and see who wants to come out with every song. So, there are a couple of other myths referenced in the record, like "Cupid and Psyche," which is a good one. That's about the goddess Venus and her son, Cupid and Psyche. It's a strange myth. But, I do love it because it reminded me a lot of what I was thinking about through writing the record and that Psyche is sentenced to death. So then the god Zephyr rescues her and she floats and wakes up on this bed of flowers. So, it seems so dreamy and whimsical and she wakes up and there is just this self-replenishing feast and all of these things. But, at the same time, it's quite eerie and she can hear her lover's voice through the veil, but she can't see Cupid. So, I thought that was a great way to sort of describe how I felt in writing the record and sort of the way the world shifted. So, then you have to kind of come to terms with this new reality. It's strange and maybe there are some things that are good about it. So, that was a big influence to that myth. Dionysus, I love. I tend to work in mythology to all of my music. I absolutely love it.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I love it, there’s so much wonder in mythology and I feel like proponents of mythology can be found in so many parts of our world.
[ALLIE]: It's archetypal. I read a funny thing, they were talking about how mythology is the parts of yourself that you don't want to admit. You know, the gods in Greek mythology and Roman mythology are jealous and catty and insecure. It's a wonderful way to reflect. Anthropologically, it's a fun thing to experiment with and read about.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I wanted to talk a little more about the theme of escapism in this project. Some of the love ballads such as “Dreamboat Soulmate” and “Angel” depicted feelings of intense devotion and idolization, like in the way people even idolize with and give themselves away to gods and lovers. Do you feel like these songs depict how we find escapism within love?
[ALLIE]: Yes and it's a lot about being swept up. Like the feeling of "Angel" or "Dreamboat Soulmate," those love ballads, it's very psychedelic. Like "Oh, I love you. I love you." It's like being hit with Cupid's arrow. You're absolutely being swept up or references to worshiping at the altar that you built for me. Yes, absolutely. That's a very poignant observation.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Can you tell us more about the album cover? It’s very dreamy, what was your vision for the cover art and also, how did you decide on the dress that is worn for it?
[ALLIE]: So, the dress is this incredible designer. He's based here in London. His name is Bora Aksu and he just makes these gorgeous tulle gowns that really when you put them on you just are transported. I swear you just feel totally different. It's wonderful. But yes, it was really fun. Actually, we shot the album cover directly outside of the cottage where I wrote basically the whole record. So, that was the garden that I was looking at basically the whole time I wrote the record. So, I worked with an incredible art director, Jeanette Getrost, she's a classical painter. So, we had gathered a lot of references and things. But, the photograph was taken by a dear friend, Katherina Acevedo and she is a very whimsical person and such a visionary and total surrealist. And I just think that she captured the spirit of the record so much in those photographs.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I noticed that this album cover is in full cover which contrasts with your debut, which is in black and white. What have you learned as an artist in the past two years since in between these two releases?
[ALLIE]: It's interesting because we had the most time I've ever had for reflection. 2020 into 2021, it was almost all reflection and sort of checking in with yourself on such a cellular and deep artistic level and really sitting with your emotions. I like to think that with Moonlit and Devious and with my EP before that, So Romantic, I think that So Romantic is water, Moonlit and Devious is fire and this record is air. So, if you think of it in a sort of elemental way, I think that that's the best way I can describe how things are shifting. It's all a part of me and I'm growing as an artist with each project. But, it's interesting to see. You get to see this incredible reflection of what you were feeling. It's sort of like you write these songs and it's not until you have the whole body of work that you can really tie all of these themes together. You don't even realize that they're all happening until after. It's this incredible way of then reflecting on where you were at while you were writing them. So, I think as an artist, each time I make a new body of work, I trust myself more, I follow my intuition or my artistic instincts more and more. And that's, I think, a wonderful part about getting older with creation, you trust yourself more. You're more comfortable in your skin, I think.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I also noticed with this album cover that you were positioned in a dancer’s pose. Are there things outside of music that you find escapism in like dancing perhaps?
[ALLIE]: Absolutely. I grew up classically training as a dancer. So, ballet was my absolute life for many, many years. I grew up training as a dancer, I danced for a company. Yes, dance is such a pure form of expression and artistry. Absolutely, it is a form of escapism in this sort of psychedelic way. It's the closest we get to allowing ourselves to be sort of just possessed by our own movement and artistry. Sometimes I just have psychedelic dance parties at my house by myself, I'll just put music on and just dance around. It's so wonderful to be able to be in your body, this vessel and emote through your body. It's such a gift that we all get to experience. But yes, I grew up dancing, and it's a huge part of my life.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You’ve released a handful of singles for this project. What other songs are you excited for people to dig into and get acquainted with from the album?
[ALLIE]: I'm very excited about “Cupid and Psyche.” That song is very special in that I wrote it as a poem and then went in to record in the studio. It's all harpsichord. We played harpsichord in the studio and then when I sang it, it was just the first time I ever sang the song or came up with the melody. I wanted to see just in an improvisational way, by just saying what was on the page, what would happen, how would that sound. So it felt a little like catching lightning in a bottle, a little magic potion because that's what happened the first time I sang the words. So, I'm really excited about that song and then there's a song on the record that's just all drums. So, that one's pretty fun and I think it really makes you want to move and that one's called "Wrath."
[UNPUBLISHED]: Who are some of your favorite poets?
[ALLIE]: One of my all time favorites is Robert Graves and he also has written a lot of mythological books and sort of interpretations of myths. He is an amazing and huge inspiration for me always. I also really love another Robert, Robert Penn Warren. He's one of my favorites, really, really incredible poetry. I think that there are a lot of musical artists that are poets like Joni Mitchell. But they're not published as poets. So, sometimes I just listen to Joni's prose or read it.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You have a tour coming up, what songs are you excited to perform live?
[ALLIE]: I'm very excited to play "Greatest Hits" live. I think that one will be really fun. I am excited to play "Naked at the Feast" live too, that one is really fun to sing and you can kind of get swept up in the orchestration. So that's what I'm very excited to play. Yes, I'm so excited for tour.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How do you prepare for tour?
[ALLIE]: I probably don't do as much as I should. I will probably just, you know, rehearse and that's about it. I have an incredible friend who makes these silk garments that are all plant dyed. So, I will probably go over to her studio and choose what pieces to bring and how many. So, that'll be a really fun way to prepare. But, other than that, just going to rehearse with the band and get ready to go. I'm very excited.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What are you most excited about for the future?
[ALLIE]: I am most excited about performing live because I think it's such a pure form of connection. And it's really such a wonderful way once your record is out to actually be able to see people face to face and experience this thing together. You know, it's one of my favorite things when I go and see a show and it's just for you. It's just you at the show experiencing this one time performance. In a day and age like we have now where everything is filmed and solidified and finite, to have this thing that you just get to experience is such an ancient thing, performance. So, I'm very excited about that and I'm also very excited to continue to collaborate with other artists and figure out ways to further create from the record and to collaborate. Maybe doing some sort of dance performance or something like that. I love collaborating with fellow artists and painters and dancers. So, getting to continue to do that I always look forward to.
