Still from Julia Jacklin’s music video for Pool Party.

Ahead of her national tour, Julia Jacklin talks Britney Spears, existential spirals and learning that the music industry isn’t that scary after all. She also treats us to a live version of ‘Don’t Let The Kids Win’.

Whether you think of ‘…Baby One More Time’ or Blackout/breakdown-era Britney, the pop star isn’t an obvious origin point for the folk stylings and smoky vocals found on Julia Jacklin’s debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win.

But when she came in for a chat with FBi’s music director Stephen Goodhew, Julia revealed that when she was 11, Britney inspired an existential dilemma in Julia that began her career.

“There was a documentary on TV about her, and I just realised she’d achieved a lot by the time she was 11,” said Julia. “She’d won a lot of dance competitions, she was in the Mickey Mouse club… I felt very panicked that I had achieved nothing in my life. I said to mum, “I’m going to amount to nothing!” So I got singing lessons.”

A similar post-university spiral spurned on Don’t Let The Kids Win too.

“I think a lot of [the album] is just musings on being a 23, 24 year old – and I feel like that was a really defining moment,” she said. “I was like ‘Oh no, I’m getting older and if I want to achieve anything I have to work a lot harder than I am.’ …It came from this sort of panic, similar to my eleven year old self.”

The result is a reflective but far from melancholic album. Julia says she thinks of the songs as self-education:

“I look at myself in the mirror and give myself these lessons. I don’t like to wallow.”

Julia also talks to Stephen about how growing up in the Blue Mountains has affected her music, as well as recording in New Zealand after reaching out to producer Ben Williams – something she was nervous to do, but then realised wasn’t a big deal.

“I thought he’d be like ‘What? Go away, I’m a superstar.’ But he was like ‘Yes! Please come! It’ll be amazing!'” Julia recalls. “And I realised it all might be a lot about just asking… there’s not these special people with special lives, it’s just about talking and making connections.”

Listen to Stephen’s interview and Julia’s performance of ‘Don’t Let The Kids Win’ above, and see her at Fairgrounds Festival in Berry on December 3 or at Oxford Art Factory on December 9.

WHO: Julia Jacklin alongside Japandroids, Big Scary, Angel Olsen, The Drones & more
WHAT: FBi Presents Fairgrounds Festival
WHEN: December 2-3
WHERE: Berry Showgrounds
HOW MUCH:  $160+bf here

WHO: Julia Jacklin (album launch) with Gabriella Cohen
WHAT: Oxford Art Factory
WHEN: December 9
WHERE: Oxford Art Factory
HOW MUCH:  $15+bf via moshtix