juniper

$ cat tracklist.txt

1. fluorescent
2. top ten bae
3. same feelings
4. cuz u need me
5. california killer
6. dreaming in my penthouse
7. tastes like poison but i like it
8. don't know better
9. just a phase
10. be with u
11. the vice

$ cat statement.txt

juniper is named for a plant that has followed me through my whole life, at home, growing up, and while traveling. Before I started the album, I went to Los Angeles, and my mom and I drove through the hills, where the cypress trees were some of the most beautiful I’d ever seen. They reminded me of Call Me by Your Name, which is set in Italy and is a deeply impactful film for me. They also reminded me of home. You don’t often see cypress in Wisconsin, but you do see Taylor juniper, and there are many other kinds of juniper, both trees and shrubs, all in the cypress family and all evergreens.

Evergreens are my favorite trees, and the reason is the Wisconsin winter. In fall the leaves come off the trees and everything is left like bones. The grass and fields disappear under snow, and it’s always grey and freezing. Evergreens don’t drop their leaves. They stay green all year, and that makes it a little better. The symbolism matters to me too. To me they say: it gets cold, it gets miserable, but spring is around the corner, and you will get through it and stay bright without losing your color.

I started juniper the summer after I left public school and began online schooling. I released cuz u need me just a couple of days before I saw Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT tour in Chicago with my mom, who has been a fan as long as I have. We took the Amtrak to Union Station, and on the train I was adding to the demo for dreaming in my penthouse. I remember it very clearly: the countryside passing by outside the window while I listened to my own song.

Some of the album came out of events I had to work through. the vice was written about a school shooting in Madison a few weeks before Christmas 2024. I didn’t personally know anyone involved, but it messed with my head. I tell myself that something like that would never happen nowadays, here, and it very much does. It was a lot to process. Then the Palisades wildfires broke out in Los Angeles, a place I had been less than a year earlier. I had stayed in Ventura and Topanga for a few weeks after a conference at UCLA, and I loved it. I knew I wanted to live somewhere with that many talented, amazing people. I wrote be with u in immediate response to the fires, imagining myself there, surrounded by fire, thinking, I’m going to die and there’s nothing I can do to escape.

I wanted the listener to take a journey that is different but still familiar. The album opens with fluorescent: a dark, atmospheric and industrial track built on a distorted beat, haunting vocals and a glitchy, computer-like feel. top ten bae brings in a classic rock sound, partly shaped by the music my dad played while I was growing up, like Toto, Wham! and Phil Collins. same feelings is a more restrained, acoustic take on that sound, with a simple drum kit and guitar, but the drums add more accents and fills, and the guitar sounds like a modern, emotional alternative love song. cuz u need me turns it into slow R&B, starting with reversed, VHS-like pads and then layering a modern beat with trap-style hi-hats on top. california killer goes dreamier than same feelings, with an acoustic guitar base, drums, and shiny, glittery pads.

$ cat credits.txt

• Written, produced, recorded, mixed by Nathan Etes
• Label: A1 Records, a division of Etes Entertainment LLC
• UPC 199329441554
• (P) Nathan Etes, under exclusive license to A1 Records, a division of Etes Entertainment LLC. (C) Nathan Etes.

ISRC

1. fluorescent QZPLS2516762
2. top ten bae QZHNA2555100
3. same feelings QZZ7W2466111
4. cuz u need me QZZ772411288
5. california killer QZMER2580767
6. dreaming in my penthouse QZZ7M2484065
7. tastes like poison but i like it QZPLS2516763
8. don't know better QZPLS2516764
9. just a phase QZPLS2516765
10. be with u QZPLS2516766
11. the vice QZPLS2516767