By John McNicholas
Bailey Crone records under the name, Bathe Alone. While she fits comfortably in the dream-pop genre there’s a unique sense of nostalgia, originality and style that stands apart from other artists in the genre.
She recently released “Missionary Ridge,” the last single before the new double EP comes out on August 4th. It was recorded in Decatur with producer Damon Moon (Curtis Harding, Lunar Vacation & more) at Standard Electric studio. They got super heady with it, too, using found objects and sounds to create noises to loop behind the classic instruments.
Fall With The Lights Down will be released as a double EP (Louise) & (Velma) on August 4th. The compilation is a sonic expression of nostalgic longing, with each part dedicated to one of Crone’s great-grandmothers whom she never met and are pictured on the cover of their namesake EP. While the imagery is primarily centered around Crone’s great-grandmothers, the project also considers the many ways we experience loss (which extends to the absence of a pet) and the good memories one makes while young that one will look back on forever. The double EP will be available as one album on vinyl through The Record Machine too.
We talked about the new record and her upcoming show on July 27th, supporting Jadu Heart at Terminal West in Atlanta, GA.
Atlanta Music Guide – John McNicholas (AMG)
How did you first get started as a musician? I see that you’ve been playing drums with other people and you’ve got a couple of records out yourself.
Bathe Alone – Bailey Crone (BA)
In middle school, I joined a band and I was like this little girl playing trombone, and I was having a time in my life and just continued being in concert band. In high school, I actually switched to trumpet and also picked up alto sax and joined percussion, and I was in marching band, like, all four years and couldn’t get enough of it.
I took all the classes I could get my hands on. The thing that made me latch on to music as a writer was taking music theory. So I took all the music theory classes and AP music theory classes. And maybe it has something to do with the teacher at my first school. Something really clicked and he made it really fun.
Learning music theory was really significant. I still think about the way that he taught it. For example, when I’m doing my scale, I don’t go like, full step, full step, half step. I go waffle, waffle house. Waffle, waffle, waffle house.
I still am inspired by the way he taught me music. But that’s where I feel like my love for it really birthed.
AMG
It’s really important to have somebody that at some point says, like, hey, this can be awesome and fun. When I looked up your bio and the picture, I was like, “Oh, I’ve seen you play before,” and I realized it was at Shaky knees with girlpuppy.
BA
Oh, wow. Yeah, I was drumming and yeah, that was really fun.
AMG
What drew you to doing drums with other artists?
BA
So, back to when I was in concert band, I was playing all these classical instruments, but at the same time, I was playing video games and I was playing Rock Band at home. Really loved playing the drums on Xbox. Eventually, when I graduated high school, I bought my first drum set off this guy from my percussion class. And immediately I was already so inspired. I was playing expert, and I immediately went and played real life Paramore drums. It was so natural to be able to switch from the video game version to the real life version. And I was so in love with playing Paramore songs on the drums. And eventually, that’s how I started writing. I would write music so that I could play drums to it.
BA
I would make the song, like, 20 minutes long and then export it with a click, playing out loud so that I could just go take my Ipod and blast it and just play drums on top of it. I still have those files. They’re really obnoxious. But, I just kept meeting musician friends and was just playing drums and I don’t know, I’ve always just kind of played every instrument because of the way that I write. And so I’ve always been like, oh, I can play bass. Let me just play that instead. Kind of, like, meandered my way into being the drummer of girlpuppy for a while just because I happened to play bass in another band. And then I got, like, plucked, right? Yeah. I don’t know. I love playing a lot of instruments, so whenever my friends need a spot filled, I’m happy to fill in.
AMG
Let’s talk about the new record that’s coming out on August 4th. It’s called Fall With the Lights Down, which is actually a pretty stunning lyric on the last song “4u.” How did that end up being the title of the record?
BA
I remember wanting to call the record “Decades & Dreams” just because that was the lead single with the music video that we made. And I was also considering calling it Fall With the Lights Down, just because it was a lyric in the last song.
Honestly, what does it mean? You don’t really know what it means. But Damon (Moon – Producer) was the one that was like, you should call the album that because it makes you think. More than “Decades & Dreams.”
When I was writing the lyrics, though, for the song, I don’t really know, I kind of subconsciously start singing words to be like, frank. I didn’t know what it meant when I said it the first time. I kind of thought it sounded like something Lorde would sing.
Rhythmically, I thought it was pretty cool, but the more I sang it and realized what it meant for me, I was like, that is like a really thoughtful name to call the album.
AMG
It sounds like you’re working on the music first and then kind of just seeing what fits melodically. Is that a typical process for you?
BA
Yeah. In the early days, it was like I would write a whole song, like a whole instrumental, no vocals, just because I wasn’t confident at singing at all. I didn’t even plan on adding words. And now my process is more like I’ll write like a section musically, like and intro and verse. Then I’ll have to add vocals on it before I can even make a chorus musically because I feel like, well, if this is going to be hard to sing on top of, I don’t want to continue writing this song.
So that’s more like my process now. But yeah, it’s never been words first. It’s always in hand in hand with writing the music.
AMG
I just love your videos for the new songs. Who do you work with on your videos?
BA
His name is Nick Huey. He’s from Atlanta. He’s really cool. He’s got like a professional job, like working on Netflix shows. And he just does this part time. He’s killer. He’s like, “Bathe Alone just needs to be in slow mo.”
AMG
So what’s the story behind your new single, “In Your Wake?” When I first heard it, it reminded me of the end of summer. It’s hot out, it’s humid out. I’m thinking about how summer was, and I’m thinking like, 15 year old me is getting ready to go back to school. It feels like a hazy summer evening before hitting fall.
BA
Yeah, I don’t even remember what I was doing when I wrote that song. I don’t remember what house I was in. But I’m always just trying to write musically, songs that I feel like a mood. I remember getting, I think it must have been my first Mustang bass. I remember upgrading basses and then being really inspired writing bass lines, especially ones that had palm muted kind of sounding tones to it, which is what “In Your Wake” is kind of like so I think it was around that time, and I was just like, I don’t remember if it was summer when I wrote that song. I think that’s just like, I can write that type of song even in the darkest day of winter.
It was more about the tones to me and what instruments I had available at my hands and that came out.
AMG
The record covers feature some amazing pictures, as do some of your early work, of your grandmothers. I absolutely love how one looks like she doesn’t want to be there and the other one looks like “this is fine.” What draws you to that aesthetic? Is that nostalgia?
BA
Yeah. I was browsing my Dad’s Facebook for, I don’t know, something completely irrelevant, and he had uploaded all these family photos that he had scanned. I found the boat photos and I was like, this is actually kind of epic, what’s happening here? So I just kind of saved them and didn’t plan on it, I wasn’t even thinking about using them for album art. But then I don’t know why I wrote this song, “Decades & Dreams,” and it was just about me and my friend, two friends, having a memorable vacation, essentially. And then I thought, wouldn’t it be funny if the two grandmas in the photos were like… I started putting the pieces together and then from there I was thinking, wouldn’t it be funny if all the singles were of grandmas?
So then I had to ask my mom, mom, where are these photos of your grandma? Because it’s my great grandma. I’ve never met her.
I have this whole binder of hundreds of photos of this woman. We cherry picked, like, some epic looking ones, and she’s got some fashion.
AMG
Old pictures are fantastic like that. It seems like pictures from that era… It’s like you don’t really see that many candids because it’s film and you get like twelve shots on a roll. And so everybody’s usually posed and with their hair done. They’re not just hanging out.
On your early records, you’re playing all the instruments, which is a pretty awesome thing. What was it like on the new record, working with other people? I know Damon brought in some new sounds, new instrumentations. Was that, like, an easy process to let go? Was it more like a collaboration?
BA
Yeah. So it’s always been just me and Damon on the first one. He’s been much more involved on the second one, as far as I have a guitar line I think could be cool here. I have definitely built a lot of trust with Damon and feel comfortable spending studio time hearing out an idea, because that’s hard to be, like, an indie artist and being like, all right, I’m on the clock right now, I need to finish the song. And it’s been really nice to be able to explore ideas and then hit winners.
More often than not. I’ve also kind of just changed my mentality when it comes to approaching studio time. On the first album, I practiced all of my parts before I would come in, I would practice my drums and then get behind the mics and perform drums again and I would be really detail oriented about like, oh, I messed up this part, we need to punch that. Whereas on the next record, I was almost like, I don’t want to practice my parts because I want to see what mistakes are happening and let’s vibe off of that. Honestly, I’ve kept that approach ever since, and it’s brought a lot more magic into moments that are happening in songs now.
AMG
Yeah, I think that’s really important, too. I know a lot of artists, when they’re first writing something, they’ll do, like, an iPhone demo of it or something, just like, playing it into the phone. And I’ve talked to so many people where that demo really captured what the song’s essence was with that first recording, and they spend all this time trying to get back to it. And so I think your approach going into the studio and just letting it fly is like you’re capturing those first and second times through things. That magic.
BA
Yeah. Damon calls that “demo-itis.” You’ve got demo-itis right now. That’s a perfect name.
AMG
So I’ve read where you’ve been compared to Beach House, Slow Dive and Alvvays in other articles. I hear a mashup of stuff that I can’t really say, “Oh, it’s just like this, or It’s just like that,” and I think that’s one of the things that drew me to it. What are some of the artists that you look up to that somebody wouldn’t think about?
BA
Yeah. So it’s really funny being a dream-pop artist or just like any artist in a genre. I’m learning what people are comparing me to, and that’s been interesting. I’ve never listened to Cocteau Twins before in my life. And then people were like, oh, it sounds like Cocteau Twins. Sounds like Slow Dive. It’s been really interesting to go and explore my own genre that people say, yeah, really?
I feel like the beginning of my journey starts with a lot of Lana Del Rey.
I think that’s the core of it. I was obsessed with the slow, almost ballad music, and to me that was so dreamy. And then I went and saw Beach House with my best friend and went home and tried to write a Beach House song, which is what I wrote in “Decades & Dreams.” I took a little organ synth and had some beats going. I really channeled performances that I’ve seen live that I was like… I saw Beach House play Levitation live, and ever since then, I want a song that makes me feel the way that song is live.
And so, when it comes to the dream pop genre, Beach House, I love them to death, but outside of that, it’s pop. It’s Lana and Billie Eilish and even Paramore back in the day. I love from drums, but yeah, pop music for real.
AMG
Where can people see you next, here in Atlanta?
BA
July 27th at Terminal West with Jadu Heart.
AMG
What are some of the songs you are really looking forward to playing live? Anything from the new record?
BA
Some of the new songs I’m trying to do, like a bunch of songs from this new record. Trying to play all the singles. I really want to play “Missionary Ridge.” I know it’s like a slower one, but it’s actually, like, really epic at the end, live.
AMG
Who’s going to be playing with you at the show? What’s the band going to consist of?
BA
So we’re six people. Damon (Moon) is playing guitar and he’s being his own producer. He has so many pedals and he’s got some synths. Andrew Barcow is on drums. Sydney (Eloise) is in the band.
AMG
Sydney’s awesome.
BA
Yeah, she’s playing acoustic and synth. And then we have Tim Holder on bass and Anna Griffith on synth. They’re all amazing. They’re all just, like, part of the standard electric family.
AMG
Yeah, there’s great stuff coming out of that studio, too. What’s the story with the band name?
BA
Originally, I took all the first letters of all my pets and it spelled out the word bathe. And there’s already, like, four other bathe bands out there. So I wrote on a sticky note, like, other words to add to it. And at the time, my husband, he found the sticky note and he was like, I like that one, the one that says Bathe Alone. I feel like he picked that name. But, yeah, I only wrote down alone because I was, like, going to therapy at the time because I have a bunch of anxiety, and it had to do with just, like, being. I got, like, panic attacks and I was driving alone. And, yeah, that was, like, one of the subjects I was just dealing with at the time of my life. And that’s why I wrote it down in the first place.
AMG
So, on August 4th, where can people get the new record?
BA
It’s a double LP. The Louise one was the first one, and Velma is the second one, so they’re all part of the same experience.
AMG
Is it going to be out on vinyl?
BA
It is on vinyl, yeah. We printed it. Side one is Louise and side two is Velma. The vinyl, you can get it at our show and we’re going to be putting them online pretty soon.
Photo by Paul Harding
