Bailey Baum On Her Debut Album "I'd love to be who I thought i'd be by now"

Ben: Hey Bailey great to finally meet you and talk! Tell us a little about your background, how you got into music and where you're based now.

Bailey: I’m from Dallas Texas, I moved out to Los Angeles when I was 18. I’ve known since I was little that I wanted to be a singer. It’s always been a part of me. I remember when I was a kid staring into my bathroom mirror singing a Lizzie McGuire song and looking at myself like “I think I can sing.” Since then I've just been chasing after that dream.

Ben: That’s awesome that you have such distinct memories of having that intense desire to be an artist at such a young age. How has it been for you navigating the music scene in Los Angeles?

Bailey: I love meeting new people and making new friends! I knew about 5 people living in LA before I moved here. Everywhere you go in LA there’s always new faces and new opportunities. Thankfully any person I’ve worked with really just happened by being friends and then one day just being like maybe we should try to make something together. I find that not trying too hard actually attracts the right people.

Ben: Oh for sure good networking is key! LA is a great place to create that network especially in music. Let’s talk about your debut album “I’d love to be who I thought i’d be by now” - very relatable title by the way how did you come up with it?

Bailey: Originally I was going for a one word title for the album but couldn’t put my finger on one so I listened through some of my lyrics after struggling to figure out a title. One day when I was in the studio I had been singing that lyric “I’d love to be who I thought i’d be by now” from my song “In Between”. Then when we were making the interlude I kept singing that line over and over and I wasn’t sure if I wanted that to be the title because it was so long but then I decided it resonated with me and artists like one of my favorites, Lana Del Rey do it all the time. The idea of the album is calling back to when I was 6 I would daydream about being a singer while riding my Honda 50 around. I really wanted to tie in that younger version of myself to now and I feel like the dirt bike was the way to convey that nostalgia, which you see in the album cover and music video. 

Ben: I agree. I love that use of symbolism, it definitely adds to the aesthetic and brings a layer of nostalgia to the video. I think symbols tie well with a concept album like this.

Bailey: Yeah and I think the video does a good job of capturing the overall experience of the album, I wanted to create the world of “I’d love to be who I thought i’d be by now”. The intro track “happy and sad” also explains the concept of the album.

Ben: I love that. Albums are the best when a world is created around them and all the songs kind of connect to a core concept. I love how you were able to shoot a video of multiple songs from the album. I think that’s a very creative and an outside of the box way to do a music video that a lot of smaller artists are afraid to do, and I think 10 minutes is a good length where it’s not too dragged out either. 

Bailey: I think people are also not used to long form videos anymore because today everything is so short form on social media. I just got this idea for the video like a year ago and I had to make it happen. We shot the video in Oklahoma with this beautiful landscape and everything turned out exactly how I planned it. I’m really proud of it.

Ben: It’s really impressive and I saw from behind the scenes posts on your instagram that you were on some kind of crane while filming which looked really crazy!

Bailey: Yeah it was insane! The crane was a special part of the video. 

Ben: What direction sonically were you trying to take with this album?

Bailey: I feel like for so long I had been trying to chase a sound and figure out who I was an artist but I felt like that started to slow down my creative process. Then I met Nicolas Gomez, my friend, who I worked on the album with (and also Chad Copelin and Tim Dehnert) and with them I kind of just allowed myself to create and not try to put borders up with my sound. Our approach was let's just make something fun that we love, and everytime I would leave the studio I loved everything we made. I really didn’t want every song to sound the same, I wanted every song to have a unique element to it. I listen to so many genres and I feel like I’m inspired by all types of sounds. I just wanted to make songs that I would want to listen to. I knew at the end of the day my vocal would blend it all together. 

Ben: I did notice your ability to genre hop, the song “In Between” sounds very indie pop while “Slide” sounds more electro pop - and your older work like “Call U Mine” and “Simple Feelings” has an R&B ambience to it. 

Bailey: Yeah I really just wanted to have fun with it. I dropped 7 singles from this album because I really wanted each song to have a spotlight moment.

Ben: That’s a really smart marketing move! It’s funny because I remember running into you at a coffee shop in LA and I recognized you from your song “Call U Mine” and went up to say hi.

Bailey: Omg I remember that yes! And that whole week I was having a crisis about being an artist and feeling like “does anyone listen to my music anymore?” and then I was stopped by you and another person that same week which really felt like a sign from the universe! That’s crazy that was you!

Ben: Yes love full circle moments like this! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview and giving us some awesome insight into your new album “I’d love to be who I thought i’d be by now”.