Julien Baker was the featured musical guest on Friday’s (1/8) episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where she gathered her full backing band to the stage at Nashville’s Exit/In for a remote performance of “Faith Healer”. The song is one of Baker’s new originals set to be included on her forthcoming studio album, Little Oblivions, due out next month on February 26th via Matador Records.
Baker previously shared a lengthy statement about the song to go with the album’s announcement back in October, which reads,
Put most simply, I think that ‘Faith Healer’ is a song about vices, both the obvious and the more insidious ways that they show up in the human experience. I started writing this song 2 years ago and it began as a very literal examination of addiction. For awhile, I only had the first verse, which is just a really candid confrontation of the cognitive dissonance a person who struggles with substance abuse can feel– the overwhelming evidence that this substance is harming you, and the counterintuitive but very real craving for the relief it provides. When I revisited the song I started thinking about the parallels between the escapism of substance abuse and the other various means of escapism that had occupied a similar, if less easily identifiable, space in my psyche.
Relive the entire performance from Friday’s episode below.
Julien Baker – “Faith Healer” –Â The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
[Video: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert]
Click here to pre-order Little Oblivions which is set to arrive on CD, digital, vinyl, and colored vinyl formats.