Interview: Lola Kirke

For years, most people knew Lola Kirke primarily as an actor thanks to her work in Gone Girl, Mistress America, and other acclaimed films. But since the release of her 2018 debut album, Heart Head West, “singer/songwriter” has gradually overtaken that label thanks to her cheeky lyrics and thoughtful pop country production.

Prior to making her Hopscotch Music Festival debut on Sunday, Sept. 10, the Nashville-based artist spoke with Asheville Stages about dialing in her sound, full-body SPANX, and retaining creative power within the entertainment industry.

Lola Kirke: So you’re in Asheville?

Edwin Arnaudin: Yeah! Have you been here before?

LK: Oh, yeah. I love Asheville. I got my guitar from this guy, Road Dogg Guitars, right outside Asheville.

EA: How about Raleigh or other parts of North Carolina?

LK: No, never ever. Well, no, I stayed in a bunk bed at App State University once. [laughs] I think we watched Jerry Maguire. It was pretty fun.

EA: [laughs] Nice. Well, I was glad to see you’re playing Hopscotch. It's a good festival. I don't know if you've heard from other artists or friends.

LK: People seem to love it.

EA: I went the last time it was kind of in full bloom in 2019, and it was kind of an embarrassment of riches. I remember I was seeing Dirty Projectors and then I was like, “This is great but Jenny Lewis is playing over there.”

LK: Oh!

EA: And I prefer her, so I left this really good show to go to another really good show. It's just choices like that all over the place.

LK: That’s really hard.

EA: So, for big festivals like this, how does that differ from some of your more regular tour shows?

LK: You know, I've not played that many festivals. This is a new kind of circuit for me, so it differs in its unfamiliarity all around. The festivals I have played, though, I felt really lucky. One of my favorite festivals is Luck Reunion outside of Austin at Willie Nelson's ranch, and that's a smaller festival with a similar kind of embarrassment of riches as a strength of its. But yeah, I'm just excited to start playing festivals.

EA: And I saw that you're playing at 12 30 a.m. on Saturday — I guess technically Sunday morning.

LK: That seems…is that a thing?

EA: Yeah, it goes pretty late.

LK: Now I'm texting my tour manager to make sure. [laughs] Well, in any case, I'm very excited.

EA: I could see that being a really good fit for your music. It could be a really fun crowd at that point of the night.

LK: I mean, I'm down. I'm just like, “Oh my god.” [Laughs] That sounds fun. Who else is playing this year that you're excited about?

EA: Let's see…Japanese Breakfast. Pavement. There's some North Carolina artists — actually this guy [Bryan Reed] who was my editor at the Daily Tar Heel when I was a grad school reporter that's in a metal band called Doomsday Profit. I've never seen them before.

LK: That’s sounds amazing! Yeah, I'm so excited. I love that part of the world. It's so, so beautiful.

EA: Nice. Well, it's been really fun following first your acting and now your music. I was trying to describe your music to a friend this week and I said, “Well, it's kind of like outlaw country with a pop edge to it.”

LK: Cool.

EA: I don't know if that's something you’d say or if that's way off?

LK: I mean, I like to joke that I make in-law country. [laughs] But I feel like in-laws might not be as amenable to all the cheekiness that I’m bringing to the genre — though maybe they would be. It's definitely got the pop edge. That's the thing I've definitely been going for. But I really love traditional country as well. As much as I love Waylon [Jennings] and Willie after they started smoking weed, I really like George Strait and The Judds and Randy Travis and all that stuff, too.

EA: I know you come from a musical family. Are those albums that were played while you were growing up?

LK: No, not at all. My dad [Simon Kirke] has always been a sucker for songwriting and definitely emphasized the importance of Nashville as a town because of that. But I was not so interested in that facet of country music growing up. I mean, I loved Loretta Lynn so much, and Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash and the more classic country offerings. I kind of came to country music through classic rock, which I think is a traditional portal.

But my dad was in Bad Company and Free, so that was a lot of the classic rock influence that I was exposed to. And then through that, I found my way into the Laurel Canyon scene — I wish actually, but you know, just musically — and then through that, Gram Parsons, Emmylou [Harris], and then into the great wide world of country.

EA: And I feel like your sound is very intentional. It feels like what's showing up on the record is what you had set out to do. What have been some turning points in really honing that sonic palette for you? Like, some collaborators or “aha” moments for you along the way?

LK: Well, Lady for Sale, which is the record I put out in 2022 on Third Man [Records], was a really intentional record. Everything that is on there was demoed and belabored over. My partner Austin Jenkins produced it and he Is just, you know — I mean, maybe you don't know [laughs] — but he's so talented and rigorous and thoughtful about music. And we were really trying to make music that sounded in the vein of ’80s country. It's not a live band at all. Everything is tracked individually. And we were just really specific about how we wanted it to sound.

And I think that for the newer stuff, particularly my latest single that came out on Wednesday, “All My Exes Live in LA,” that was similarly like, “OK, this is what I want.” And what I wanted was a more contemporary sound. And then that was kind of the choice to work with Elle King as producer. I think Elle inherently holds this other quality, which is a rootsier capability. And so I didn't know how that one was going to come out, but I'm really happy about it. And that's a live band.

EA: And I was really pleased to see First Aid Kit involved with that [single] as well. How did that connection come about?

LK: They invited me out on tour after we connected on Instagram. I had done a review of a bad review Pitchfork gave me where they basically said that they liked the record except they thought it was egregious I was making country music because I'm from New York. So I posted that and then they said something sweet and in my defense, like, “I wonder what they would think of us making country-inspired music because we're from Sweden?”

And we developed a friendship and they invited me out on tour. And then when I was kind of dreaming up collaborators for this record after getting Elle to agree to produce, for some reason. First Aid Kit came to mind and I was just like, “Fuck it! Why not? What's the worst that could happen? They'd say no?”

So, yeah, they agreed and I happened to be in Europe at the time that they were recording, so I got to go to Stockholm for the first time and go to their studio where they've recorded a bunch of their music. And it was just so fun and really, really special — something I'll never forget.

EA: And they're so well connected, too. I remember Interviewing them and hearing about the whole Bright Eyes world that they're in.

LK: Yeah! Right, right.

EA: I could definitely see you collaborating with a lot of them, too.

LK: Yeah! I did also just have the pleasure and honor of collaborating with Rosanne Cash. She's singing on this record, too, and I just feel really held and supported by these women that have such a legacy, and it just feels so nice to get to be brought in to that.

EA: And we gotta talk about that music video for the new single, too. [laughs]

LK: Oh yeah! [laughs] Yeah.

EA: What was it like filming that?

LK: Well, I'm wearing a full-body SPANX, but it's so weird. No one thinks that! I was kind of surprised. And I honestly think the fact that we weren't allowed to actually post any clips of it on Instagram made it like even more…like, “Thank you, Instagram!” [laughs] That's actually really helpful in some way because it has kind of empowered people to rally against…I mean it is stupid not to be able to post something like that on Instagram.

But in any case, I had that idea and Josh Shoemaker, who directed it, is a pal of Elle King's, and she was like, “You're making a video with Josh tomorrow.” And I was like, “Oh, I am? I didn't know that.” [laughs] And so I was like, “Josh, I've had this weird thought.” And he was like, “Yeah, we can do that.” And it was really funny to shoot. It was just me and the director and a PA and the camera operator. And people were surprisingly normal about it.

I don't know how much time you’ve spent in Nashville, but in that particular area… I mean, people were definitely like, “What's happening?” But also, I wasn't naked, you know? It was kind of an allusion to Jenny in Forrest Gump. I think the song really is about shedding skins and moving on and that just felt like some kind of funny metaphor for it.

EA: Yeah, I think it's cool. My main gig is as a film reviewer and I'm always kind of thinking about filmmaking tricks and things like that. And I was like, “I bet there was something involved in there that it's not what it seems.”

LK: Oh, definitely! I mean, I would never…I live there, you know? [laughs]

EA: [laughs] And with your strong film background, when you approach music videos… like you say, you're coming up with these concepts: how do you feel like your music videos in general are enhanced by that?

LK: I love all of my music videos so much, with the exception of the one I directed on my first record. [laughs] I have no ambition to be a director whatsoever, but I think the main thing that it's done for me is given me access to a wellspring of incredible filmmakers that want to collaborate — which is crazy because there's no money in music videos at all. And there's no budget. You have to ask so many people to do you favors because that's just the world we live in, which is unfortunate because people work really hard on them.

One of my favorite music videos I've done is with Hailey Benton Gates for a song on my last record, “Pink Sky.” She had just directed her first feature film that has Alia Shawkat and Channing Tatum in it. And I have a very small part in it. But she's an amazing collaborator. And Celia Rowlson-Hall, who I did my “Lady for Sale” workout tape with, is another great filmmaker and choreographer. We did a really fun line-dancing video together. And my sister Jemima directed a couple videos for me. I feel like I've been really lucky to just be around people that want to collaborate.

EA: And with the SAG strike going on, has that been kind of a blessing in terms of being able to focus more on music?

LK: Yes and no. I took a more pronounced hiatus a while ago. I mean, I was so lucky to work as much as I did when I was younger, but as I've gotten older, there's been a lot of emphasis on physical appearance in a way that just feels really confusing and crazy and something I don't really want to participate in.

And I've been watching the industry change for a while now, and there's still amazing filmmakers and great artists making movies and acting. But I also just don't feel particularly inspired by the landscape at the moment. I don't feel particularly inspired always by the musical end of the music industry, either.

I think that there's a lot of really difficult values that you have to contend with as an artist in any entertainment facet of the entertainment industry. But I do think that there's a kind of power and control that I get to retain as a musician and as the kind of person creating the vision that I never really had as an actress. I think that it's just really important for me to be able to create work for myself, and as an actor with no ambition to direct or write, that's hard.

EA: Sure. Well, lastly, one of the first films of yours I saw was Mistress America.

LK: Oh yeah!

EA: It was such a wonderful film and I was reminded of that a lot recently with Barbie being such a global success and how you’re experienced with that team. So I was curious if there was kind of a special significance to you for seeing Noah [Baumbach] and Greta [Gerwig] succeed so well, having played what I think is a pretty major role in their progression.

LK: I’ll tell them you said that! [laughs] No, I am not surprised in the least to see them become so successful. They’re so talented and they have such a unique voice and perspective, and I just think that Greta has always been primed for that. I mean, I'm amazed that it's gone from being something that's so indie-focused and leaning to something that is obviously, you know, the most mainstream ever. I think that that's incredible that she was able to cross over like that. But, in a lot of ways, I'm also not surprised at all.

IF YOU GO

Who: Lola Kirke
When: Sunday, Sept. 10, 12:30 a.m.
Where: The Pour House, 224 S Blount St, Raleigh, hopscotchmusicfest.com
Tickets: Included with festival GA or VIP pass

(Photos by Mama Hotdog)