Australian songwriter Julia Jacklin releases ‘The Hardest Thing’, the third single from her upcoming album, The Gem (out 25 September). Premiered today by Jack Saunders on his BBC Radio 1 show, the song follows recent releases ‘I Wish’ and ‘Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon)’, and is accompanied by an epic one-shot official video directed by Danny Cohen and filmed entirely from a helicopter winding through the Melbourne city skyline.
LISTEN / WATCH: ‘The Hardest Thing’
Director: Danny Cohen
Producer: Ruby Thomas
Director of Photography: Nyssa Mitchell
Colourist: Trish Cahill
Aerial Cinematography: Peter Beeh, Aerial Film Australia | Aerial Producer: Greg Read
Helicopter Pilot: Brett Newman | PHA Safety Supervisor: Russell Frost
Styling Consultant: Tori Hermitage | Runner: Ed Beaney
Thanks To: Sherwin Akbarzadeh, Sarah Muldoon, Australia 108
The Gem was produced by Jacklin and Robert Muinos and recorded entirely in Melbourne. The 10-track album will be released digitally and on CD, cassette and vinyl on 25 September worldwide. Exclusive colour vinyl editions with retailers will include Turquoise, Green Opal, Ruby, and Rose Quartz. For pre-order information head HERE
To celebrate the release of The Gem, Julia Jacklin will tour North America, UK and Europe beginning October 2026 and throughout 2027. A full list of dates can be found below; further information can be found HERE. Jacklin has rescheduled her Liverpool and Nottingham in-store performances for November 30 and December 1 respectively. Tickets purchased for the original dates will be honoured.
ABOUT THE GEM
“I want to love and be loved, but I also want to be free. The tension between those two things has been the central question of my life,” says Jacklin. It’s also the theme that underpins The Gem.
When Jacklin first moved to Melbourne from Sydney in 2017, she discovered a little bar on a back street in Collingwood, where bands pushed dining tables to the side and set up in a corner on the floor. She didn’t know anyone in town but knew she wanted to make the city her home, so she started hanging out there, forcing herself out of her comfort zone. The pub was named The Gem.
Fast forward eight years and Jacklin, with three celebrated solo records under her belt – Don’t Let The Kids Win (2016), Crushing (2019), and PRE PLEASURE (2022) – was looking to make a fourth. With time on her hands – she was out of contract with her record label, was searching for a manager – she decided to make the record at home in Melbourne, something she’d never done before.
She called up an old drinking buddy Robert Muinos, owner of Rat Shack studios, which is located above The Gem, and brought in friends Jacob Diamond (guitar), Mimi Gilbert (bass), and Jess Elwood (drums). Recording happened in close quarters, in converted hotel room accommodation upstairs at the pub. As it was a residential bar, they couldn’t record late into the night for fear of bothering the neighbour and sound bleed was a glorious constraint: foot traffic to the hairdresser and the tattoo parlour next door, loud music from the bands and the kitchen crew downstairs. If anyone needed a break from the sessions, they would venture downstairs and watch a band playing. Jacklin and the band even played two unannounced shows there to try out the songs before recording them.
They thought they’d smash out the record in two weeks, like she’d always done, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, it took nearly a year of tinkering to arrive at something Jacklin could get behind. “The Gem felt like a metaphor for the whole process, because a lot of it did feel like digging. I felt like I was doing it almost in the dark, just trusting I was going to find something.” It conjures images of excavation, of reinvention, of trusting your instincts and surrounding yourself with the people and things that make life worthwhile. It’s a soaring document of the songwriter’s journey back to herself.
The band got matching tattoos on the last day of The Gem sessions: a neat little circle to represent an opal – Jacklin’s favourite gemstone. Fittingly, one of the bartenders at The Gem did it. “It did really feel like we’d done something special together. And I think as a group, it felt important to commemorate it. I’m glad we all have these little gems on us.”
Julia Jacklin
The Gem
25 September | 4AD 0942
Tracklisting:
- Brand New
- God Sometimes
- If I Had The Hand Of God
- The Hardest Thing
- Angel Vision
- Real Life
- Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon)
- You Turned On The Tap
- Walk On Me
- I Wish [feat. The Maes]
Formats: Digital, CD, Cassette, Standard Black Vinyl, Turquoise Vinyl [Indie Retail Exclusive], Green Opal Vinyl [Artist + 4AD Webstore Exclusive], Ruby Vinyl [Happy Valley / In-Store Exclusive], Rose Quartz Vinyl [JB Hi-Fi Exclusive]
Credits:
Produced by Julia Jacklin and Robert Muinos
Engineered by Robert Muinos
Mixed by Robert Muinos
Mastered by Jordan Power
Vinyl Mastering by Anne Taegert
Recorded at Rat Shack, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia between December 2024-December 2025
JULIA JACKLIN ONLINE
