Julien Baker, Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten tease collaboration

Julien Baker, Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten all took to social media last week to hint at an imminent collaboration.

All three US singer-songwriters posted an indistinct photograph of themselves together on Friday (January 7), with the simple caption “Monday”.

All acclaimed solo artists in their own right, none of the trio are strangers to collaboration. In 2018, Baker teamed up with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus to launch supergroup Boygenius, who released a self-titled EP the same year. Last year, meanwhile, Olsen and Van Etten teamed up for the collaborative single ‘Like I Used To’, performing it live at Pitchfork Festival in Chicago in September – you can watch it below.

All three have remained busy over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic; Baker’s third album, ‘Little Oblivions’, was rapturously received on release last February, whilst Olsen released her fifth album, ‘Whole New Mess’ in the summer of 2020 and followed it with an EP of 80s covers, ‘Aisles’, last August. 

Van Etten teamed up with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age for a cover of Nick Lowe’s ‘(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding’ in May 2020, and contributed a new song, ‘Let Go’, to the soundtrack of the documentary ‘Feels Good Man’ later the same year.

‘Like I Used To’ appeared on many best-of-2021 lists, including placing 12th on Pitchfork’s run-down of the year’s best songs and third on The Guardian’s corresponding list. Boygenius have not released in an official capacity since an EP of demos in summer 2020, but Bridgers and Dacus both appeared on the ‘Little Oblivions’ song ‘Favor’; Baker and Dacus also lent backing vocals to ‘Graceland Too’ from Bridgers’ 2020 album ‘Punisher’. 

Baker and Bridgers featured on Dacus’ last solo album, too, on the track ‘Going Going Gone’ from last June’s ‘Home Video’. The three-piece played a one-off charity show in San Francisco last November. Speaking at the time of ‘Like I Used To’s release last May, meanwhile, Van Etten said of Olsen: “Even though we weren’t super close, I always felt supported by Angel and considered her a peer in this weird world of touring. We highway high-fived many times along the way…”