Waxahatchee

“[For] Cerulean Salt and Ivy Tripp,I worked with the same two people, which is Kyle Gilbride, who engineered it, and Keith Spencer, who produced it and he’s also my guitar player,” Crutchfield explains. “This record was super collaborative. I wrote all the songs, all the melodies and lyrics and things like that, but as far as all the instrumentation goes, that was all done as a group. So definitely, it felt more like a band and it’s a record I never could’ve made on my own. We worked really well together and it was a really fun project.”

Perhaps by virtue of the collaborative gestation, Ivy Tripp journeys from noisy power-pop to computerised emo, fuzzy beach-pop to intimate minimalism. In accordance with the stylistic breadth, the instrumentation and production is more diverse than on previous releases.

“I wanted to challenge myself,” says Crutchfield. “Also, Kyle has been recording so much and he has developed a style. Things have changed since when he recorded Cerulean Salt. It’s the same with Keith and I; we had more gear, we had more ideas. I felt it was important that we do something else and challenge ourselves. It felt natural to make something that was grander.”

Crucially, while carrying out a variety of stylistic excursions, Ivy Tripp attains a sense of cohesion from Crutchfield’s unvarnished vocal performances and empathetically engaging lyrics. The 26-year-old songwriter’s willingness to vulnerably present herself is a core part of Waxahatchee’s blossoming appeal. In spite of this, when making Ivy Tripp, she tried to block out thoughts of what would please her listenership.

“I took a lot of time from when I was touring Cerulean Salt to when I started writing,” she says. “I wanted to take enough space of not playing shows, just to go back to the solitude of it all and focus on the kind of emotions I wanted to evoke in myself and just really listen to how I was feeling. I honestly think that’s the secret for me to be able to write songs that mean something to people. If I’m thinking too much about trying to do that, I don’t know that it’ll be authentic.

“Ivy Tripp was the first record I made where I knew that people were going to be excited about it or want to hear it. When I was making Cerulean Salt,I had no idea that anybody was going to like it. I’ve always had a small group of fans, but nothing like now. So I was definitely conscious of trying to replicate my songwriting process [from] before people were paying attention. And it was easier than I thought it would be.”

Indeed, not every song on Ivy Tripp is sad or miserable, but the whole record has an emotively stimulating subtext. Interestingly, althoughCrutchfield did her utmost to prevent expectations from interfering with her compositional process, she was very aware of what she was working towards. “I always try to write songs in terms of an album,” she says. “I feel like that’s kind of the way that I see things. That’s why I never really make EPs or short releases. So it’s in the back of my mind always. Even if the songs on paper are nothing alike, I try to string them together and keep them cohesive.”

Crutchfield’s album-oriented songwriting approach would explain why the three Waxahatchee records have arrived in relatively quick succession. Nonetheless, she feels no pressure to uphold her reputation for productivity. “That’s a position I would never want to be in, where I am rushing to finish an album. I have some moments that last for months where I am not writing or nothing is coming to me or I don’t have time. I just try to work through it, and there will always be moments where I have a lot of ideas. I really do try not to beat myself up if I can’t think of things, because people go years and years without writing songs and then make a great record. It’s just part of it.”

Since Ivy Tripp landed in April, Crutchfield has been trekking around the US and Europe, joined by her full-force backing band. However, she’ll be heading down to Australia all alone – well, her mother is joining her – which exemplifies Waxahatchee’s innate malleability.

“I’d like to keep Waxahatchee as my solo thing for as long as I do it. I really like having that autonomy creatively. But I also do have a lot of people who are just really important to my process. The next record I do, what I’m leaning toward is taking a step back from that and doing something that’s more solo. Even if I do a solo record, I will probably collaborate with Keith Spencer on it and I’ll probably still record it with Kyle. But I might take a step back and work more by myself.”