Angel Olsen Is At A Crossroads, Again

On a rainy morning in early August, we spoke with the singer-songwriter about her raw new album, her process, and the age-old quandary of art versus commerce.

If 2020 had gone as planned, Angel Olsen would have missed the stunning explosion of exotic flowers that has overtaken her neighborhood. But instead of touring the world, like (hopefully) you, me, and everyone we know, Olsen has spent the past few months cooped up at home, in Asheville, North Carolina, where she has been taking long walks to create some semblance of a routine. “After living in Chicago for seven years and being really grateful for even one tree, there’s a massive difference in my mental, emotional life now,” she says over the phone as a hummingbird flits by. “It’s important to see what the world is without people and without buildings.” 

At the same time, Olsen has been doing a lot of thinking about people—specifically about the systemic injustice that white people have long accepted as normal, and her own implicit role. “But I refuse to wallow or be depressed about what’s going on, because it has absolutely motivated people,” she says, referring to the surge of Black Lives Matter-related activism. “I want to empirically learn about the things that should be apparent to me despite the fact that I haven’t had to experience them. To me, it’s not about reading a fucking book. It’s about seeing, on a grassroots level, what has been happening forever. I have to go out into the world, into my community, and meet people and hear their stories.” 

While Olsen continues to quarantine, she’s found a way to help locally and nationally by hosting a series of paid live streams that benefit organizations including the YWCA of Asheville and Swing Left. Unlike the homespun performances that have proliferated during the pandemic, Olsen’s live streams are genuine works of art. Directed by frequent collaborator Ashley Connor and filmed at venues across Asheville (including an ornate Masonic Temple), the beautifully produced broadcasts are able to pick up on the kind of nuanced facial expressions that Zoom or IG Live could never. In a June live stream, where Olsen revisited 2012’s Half Way Home, she looked consumed by the memories of the person she once was. On another stream last month, she joined opening act Hand Habits for a duet of Tom Petty’s “Walls (Circus)” that is easily among 2020’s most moving performance videos.

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