Songwriter Jilian Medford is no stranger to fresh starts; having spent several years moving from city to city, she has also shed the bandmates that helped create ‘Shapeshifter’ – the debut album of her IAN SWEET moniker. Initially a solo project, Medford has kept the name and confronted her past in the intimate sophomore album ‘Crush Crusher’.
Taking a seat in a bleak backstage room in Leeds’ Headrow House, Medford offers me a chilled Becks, along with an array of tour snacks. She is joyful, despite being swallowed alive by a large puffer jacket. Three years on from the release of Shapeshifter, and the songwriter has seemingly mirrored the mythical powers that gave name to her debut – with a new look on life.
‘In the past my bandmates have questioned me a lot and made me doubt myself. In this record I’m playing it because I fucking want to, and no one is going to stop me.’
That is in no small part to Crush Crusher’s producer, Gabe Wax, whom Medford personally sought after: ‘It was the first time I’d worked with a producer who really listened to my ideas and didn’t question the things that I wanted to bring in.
‘This time I was going to write an entire record on my own, so I wasn’t going to have any direct inputs from other people actually playing the music. I thought it’d be cool to have an outside perspective.’
‘In this record I’m playing it because I fucking want to, and no one is going to stop me.’
The record almost comes as a sequel to the ongoing anxious narrative on her personal insecurities and relationships, though it feels more personal than ever. There has been a shift in sound, too; lo-fi distorted guitars give way for more dreamy and clean tones – serving as a physical manifestation of the maladaptive daydreaming that forms the albums concept.
‘This whole record encapsulates this ideal world of mine, a world I can escape to and find comfort in,’ there is a cohesiveness between the record’s audio and visual aspects. ‘The cover photographer and I had got together, and I told them I wanted to build a space with all these textures and objects that match with how I’m feeling. It’s like an interactive world.’
It can’t be hard for the singer to conjure up an expansive world either; native to L.A., Medford moved to New York after finishing her time at Boston’s Berklee College of Music – only to move back to the west coast again shortly after. The ear-to-ear smile posted on her face whilst staring at an uninspiring grey corner of the room suggests she holds all her residencies in high regard.
‘When I got to college I got involved in the D.I.Y scene in Boston and my world was opened up to noise music and more brash elements. The school itself had always pushed me to use my ear in different ways and know more theory. I’ve kinda found myself incorporating the old me and the new me; singer-songwriter Jilian but also noise-inspired Jilian, and I think from there IAN SWEET developed into what it is now.’
‘I wanted to build a space with all these textures and objects that match with how I’m feeling. It’s like an interactive world.’
Despite initial inspiration to get into music coming from Avril Lavigne, it was these distinctive DIY scenes she embraced in each of her residencies that has shaped the geometric and experimental rock synonymous with IAN SWEET today: ‘It can be difficult to start again. You always find the people that are interested in the things you are, but also a lot of those communities are really tight knit already. The fun in it for me is to see how every environment influences my sound.’
In the time it’s taken Medford to leave L.A. and move back, she has not only incorporated a new, shoegazey sound, but has also discovered new ways to deal with past trauma – in this painfully honest, red-hued world of Crush Crusher.
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