Fiona Apple talks Louis CK, coronavirus quarantine & more in new interview

Fiona Apple‘s amazing new album Fetch the Bolt Cutters is finally here, and Vulture posted a revealing new interview with her, which is a great read while you listen. In it, Fiona explains how the album came to be released today, amid coronavirus quarantine (when we really needed it!) rather than being held until October like her label wanted:

When they sent me the rollout and it said October, I was like, “Oh, no. No, no, no, no. I’m not sitting on that until October.” It seems stupid to be like, “We’re going to wait until October so that I can have the chance to do TV shows and somehow ensure that I’m going to be on the charts.” That’s not going to fucking happen. They’re not going to play me on the radio anyway. I’m not going to go and ask for it. I don’t want to go and ask anybody to put me on their show. I don’t want to ask anybody to put me on the radio. I don’t want to ask anybody anything. If they want me, they can have me if they ask. But I don’t want to ask anybody if I can have the pleasure of being invited.

I’m glad I [argued to change the release date] on a text chain — I had no phone conversations — because now I can just look back forever and see all the arguments I made. Just knocking down all of the arguments that were made against me, like, “But you can’t do this, figure it out.” [I’d reply], “Fuck that. This is why that doesn’t matter, this is why that doesn’t happen.” I was so proud of myself.

Speaking of quarantine, here’s how Fiona has been spending hers:

I’m taking Hindi on Duolingo. And Spanish because I feel like everybody should probably learn Spanish. And Hindi because my friend Nalini speaks Hindi with her family. So I thought maybe I’ll start doing that. Learning a new alphabet makes my brain so happy. I’m actually able to read in Hindi.

Meanwhile, Fiona brought up being “briefly involved” with Louis CK in her recent New Yorker profile, saying that she urged him to “dig deeper” after hearing details of his standup sets after he’d admitted to sexual misconduct. She expands on that here:

Vulture: This reminds me of how you wrote a letter to Louis C.K. after the accusations came out against him, asking him to be more gracious in his response.

Fiona Apple:I don’t think I said gracious, and I don’t want to get into always talking about these men, but with Louis C.K., he did say that I can talk about whatever I want to talk about. I know he’s got such a great brain and he understands why he did that shit. I feel robbed that he’s not giving us what he thinks about that. And the fact that he’s complaining about the money he lost, and that tired joke of, “Hey, how’s everybody’s 2020? Did everybody have a great year?” That was a bad joke when it was done the first time, but it’s not even a joke. The one thing I will say about that situation is that the women he harassed continue to be harassed by his little bros. By the little Louis bros. Fuck you, Louis bros. And fuck him for not even just acknowledging that. And for the record, he didn’t apologize.

I wrote a song a long time ago, “Get Gone,” and it says something like, “How am I going to heal from this — he won’t admit to it” — and this is what I mean. I can’t tell you how many men have advised me not to apologize because “it makes you look weak.” [Louis] recently said something like, “Women are really good at seeming like they’re okay when they’re not okay.” And that’s true, but don’t you fucking act like their discomfort and not-okay-ness wasn’t exactly what got you off. I am a very forgiving person. But I cannot forgive someone who cannot acknowledge what needs to be forgiven.

Fiona also talks a lot about the making of Fetch the Bolt Cutters, getting sober, going off anti-psychotics, and more in the interview. It’s an excellent read, and you can find the rest of it here.

UPDATE: Check out 5 amazing Fiona Apple live videos from throughout her career.

Listen to Fetch the Bolt Cutters HERE.