Allie Crow Buckley and her Utopian Fantasy.

Utopian Fantasy is the second album from American indie singer Allie Crow Buckley, whose debut, Moonlit and Devious, earned praise from the New Yorker for its melodic and otherworldly qualities. Upon its release this May, she will tour across North America, playing ten headline dates in between support slots for Lord Huron and British singer-songwriter Declan McKenna, who co-wrote her recent single “Dreamboat Soulmate”.

The remaining tracks on Utopian Fantasy were co-written and co-produced by Rilo Kiley drummer Jason Boesel, with whom she has collaborated since her 2019 EP, So Romantic. But the working method they established on that EP and carried over onto Moonlit and Devious – recording live to tape on the floor accompanied by various musicians – was jettisoned this time around. Writing and recording were no longer two consecutive processes but were intertwined throughout the creation of the album. Although what she calls “the bones of the record” were recorded at 4AD’s studio in London, they had a portable rig so they could lay down vocals almost as soon as they were written. “It was almost like field recording. We were able to record songs where we were at the time, which felt very special. A lot of the vocal takes I do are oftentimes one take so you’re just allowing it to be whatever it is and capturing the magic of the moment.” Without a studio band, she and Boesel played everything: “It was just he and I chipping away at these songs and layering and layering over time. It was an absolutely new way of making a record.”

Buckley is an enthusiastic traveller whose music is always imbued with the spirit of where it was written. “One of the things that inspires me most is my surroundings,” she says. The immediacy of the recording process for Utopian Fantasy enhanced this sense of place: “being able to record these songs as they were happening, really capturing the feeling of the song, the moment of the song, and the location of the song.” Whereas Moonlit and Devious was a product of her native California, Utopian Fantasy draws on the landscape and lore of the UK. “I was very inspired by my time spent in the English countryside, just walking in the woods. I was in this little cottage that I wrote most of these songs in for months, and it was wonderful. It was a very solitary time and very reflective.”

“I was very inspired by the realm of the faery as well as the general landscape where most of the songs were written”

— Allie

These influences feed into the visuals for the album, which reflect Buckley’s long-standing fascination with mythology. “I was very inspired by the realm of the faery as well as the general landscape where most of the songs were written.” This is even evident in the video for “Cowboy in London”, a nostalgic tribute to her visit as a teenager that sees her dancing in the city streets but also amid the trees and flowers of London’s parks, looking like a fairy-tale heroine in her trademark romantic dresses which fit Utopian Fantasy’s “whimsical vibe”. The dresses she wears on the album artwork were borrowed from the designer Bora Aksu while another close friend, Katherina Acevedo, contributed the photography. “The album cover was taken directly outside of the cottage where I wrote most of the record. Her photograph really captured the essence of the record.” Much of the imagery was the result of research she conducted into an eclectic range of sources with painter and fashion illustrator Jeanette Getrost, who also directed the videos for two singles from Utopian Fantasy: 2022’s “Angel” and the album opener, “Greatest Hits”, which Buckley thinks may be her favourite track. “I always appreciate and love the songs that come through stream-of-consciousness. It feels like a pure expression of what is trying to come out, and it’s a practice in trusting yourself.”

A trained dancer who came to music comparatively recently, Buckley has taken time to develop that trust in her own instincts. “I think the way my craft has progressed the most has been to trust myself completely in my artistic vision for the record and allowing myself to start over if something’s not right.” She has also had to come to terms with the intrusiveness of contemporary culture and the concomitant loss of artists’ mystery, “which was always such a huge part of music – you didn’t know every little thing about them. Oftentimes you wouldn’t hear their speaking voice until you went to see them live.” Buckley says that she deals with the business side by finding ways to make it creative and enjoyable, while also keeping her body of work at the centre of everything – “At the end of the day, it’s a complete reflection of who you are, this world that you are creating.”

That includes carefully crafting the track listing for her albums, which she considers an essential part of making a record. “Sequencing is one of my favourite parts of the process. Like a good book or a dance performance, you want it to have a flow. So many of my favourite records are worlds unto themselves and sequencing is a huge part of that – it’s like a guided trip.” Although her stated influences range from folk to Black Sabbath, she frequently turns to classical music or Brazilian jazz when she needs to get away from the world. “I find it very soothing – I feel that I’m able to embody the music, feel through the music”, something she hopes listeners of Utopian Fantasy will experience as well: “Escapism can be a feeling of being possessed or taken and I feel that way when I listen to my favourite records. Any good record is a form of escapism.”

Utopian Fantasy is out May 19th 2023.

Author: Rachel Goodyear