Julien Baker

Julien Baker is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist born September 29, 1995, in Memphis, Tennessee. She emerged as a solo artist while attending Middle Tennessee State University, self-releasing songs that would become her debut album Sprained Ankle in 2015 — a stark, confessional record built around her voice, guitar, and lyrics dealing with addiction, faith, and mental health that earned wide critical acclaim despite its minimal production.

Baker's sound sits at the intersection of indie rock, emo, and singer-songwriter folk, often favoring reverb-drenched guitar and restrained arrangements that leave room for her raw, vulnerable delivery. She followed Sprained Ankle with further solo albums exploring similar emotional terrain with fuller instrumentation, and became one of the most acclaimed voices in the 2010s indie rock revival centered on confessional songwriting.

In 2018, she formed boygenius with fellow singer-songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, a collaboration that brought her music to a considerably wider audience and produced both an acclaimed EP and, later, a full album. She has also been a member of the band Forrister (formerly The Star Killers). Across her work, Baker is known for pairing technical guitar skill with unflinching lyrical honesty about faith, sobriety, and queerness.