‘I’d feel ill after interviews because I said too much’: How Julia Jacklin eased into her new gem

It’s very possible Julia Jacklin has watched Looking For Alibrandi more than any other person in the world. While crammed in a small Collingwood studio making her fourth album The Gem, Jacklin and producer Robert Muinos would sit and fiddle with recordings while Pia Miranda’s Josephine Alibrandi flitted on a TV screen stuck near the mixing desk.

“I would be scared to know how many times we watched [that film],” Jacklin says with a smile, sipping tea in a hotel lobby bar in Sydney’s Surry Hills.

Serendipitously, the film played in cinemas as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations while the band was recording; Jacklin and Muinos went to a screening and snapped a photo with actor Kick Gurry, who played Alibrandi’s love interest Jacob Coote.

“I never ask people for photos,” Jacklin laughs. “He was in the bar area, and I was like ‘I have to get a photo’. I’ve seen that movie a thousand times, and it’s a perfect movie … We either watched that or The Muppet Christmas Carol.”

If recording for The Gem sounds low-key, that’s because it was. After three acclaimed records recorded in various studios around the world – Don’t Let the Kids Win (2016), Crushing (2019), and Pre Pleasure (2022) – Jacklin wanted to embed herself in her beloved Melbourne, which she’s called home since moving from Sydney in 2017.

Jacklin, one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary songwriters, was also out of contract with her label for the first time in her career, allowing her precious time to look around and find a place to whittle away at a new record. She settled on a pub called The Gem.