Search “your favorite artist’s favorite artist” and Google will direct you, of course, to Chappell Roan. But equally deserving of the title is Atlanta’s Faye Webster, who has sensitive indie girls, male rap obsessives, and hell-raising pop divas alike lining up to hear her warm, unhurried folk. Hers is the sort of music that can make an afternoon beer on the porch feel subtly magical; it twinkles with pedal steel, piano, and wry observations. Caught in the crowd at Webster’s Gov Ball set in June was Roan herself, still in Statue of Liberty drag from her earlier showstopping performance. One hand clutched a Liquid Death; the other covered her mouth as if to say “Oops!”
Webster typically splits her time between Los Angeles and her hometown of Atlanta. Lately, she’s been on the road touring Underdressed at the Symphony, her fifth studio album inspired by — well, you can guess. “I was always in, like, sweatpants,” Webster says of her solo excursions to the symphony. “I saw a kid play like Beethoven once, and it was insane. He was so young.” Whenever she has downtime, she hangs out with her girlfriend, the artist Deb Never. “We do everything together,” she says.
What are your preshow rituals?
We do a band huddle, and I say the Jack Black ritual from School of Rock right before we go onstage.
When did you start going to the Atlanta Symphony?
I’ve been a couple times growing up, just because living in Atlanta, you always go as a family. But I didn’t really start going alone until maybe 2022, when I first started writing this record. I love that I don’t know anybody, and they don’t know me.
Even before I started going, I was really into piano music, like Ryuichi Sakamoto–type stuff. And I think that definitely impacted the music.
Generally, how would you describe your personal style?
My homies have a clothing brand called Brain Dead, so I just wear their stuff a lot. Or, like, I wear my girlfriend’s clothes a lot. Whatever’s not mine, really. That’s my style. And I really like the color blue.
One of your songs on this album is called “eBay Purchase History.” What have you recently bought there?
Looney Tunes artwork signed by Andre Agassi. He’s just playing tennis with Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. They only made 500 of them. I got 441 of 500.
I bought a Minions LEGO set. I bought this really old hat from Looney Tunes, a Polaroid camera, some tennis stuff, some Nintendo DS stuff.
How often do you play tennis?
When I’m touring, it’s almost every day, and then when I’m home, a couple times a week. My brother tours with us as our stage tech, so I’ll play with him or my bassist.
Speaking of tennis, I saw that you’re a fan of Naomi Osaka’s new biography. What else have you been reading?
I just read one of the best books I’ve ever read called Martyr. It’s really beautiful, because Kaveh Akbar is a poet before a novelist. It’s about this guy who is a recovering addict who’s obsessed with martyrs and dying. There’s this museum artist who’s about to pass away from sickness, and you can go talk to her. It’s her last exhibit, where she just sits at a table, and he gets obsessed with going to talk to her about this stuff. I don’t know. It’s really crazy. Just read the back of the cover, because whatever that says is going to be better than my explanation.
How did you discover Martyr?
My local bookstore in Atlanta, A Capella Books, has a really great curated section.
What else have you been reading lately?
One of my favorite books I’ve ever read is Andre Agassi’s autobiography, Open. I was in a book club for it. And our plan was to keep changing the book, but now we’re just forever in this Andre Agassi group chat.
Which players are you currently rooting for?
I really like Naomi Osaka because she’s vulnerable. And I like following Coco Gauff.
Have you been making yo-yos recently?
Not recently, but every time we play a show and there’s a yo-yo player that lives there, I always invite them to perform at the show, and they’ll give me their signature yo-yos. So I’m collecting more than making. We played two shows at Koko in London, and Keiran Cooper performed. That was fun.
You’re tight with the Atlanta hip-hop community, and on this album, you collaborate with your childhood friend Lil Yachty. Besides the people you grew up with, who are some of your favorite hip-hop artists?
Because I’m from Atlanta, I’ve always loved Father. And Key.
I think Teezo Touchdown is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. I love how he connects sounds with words. Like in songs, he’ll be talking about a scary movie, and in the back there’s really scary off-key strings, or he’s talking about a smoke alarm and you hear the smoke alarm. One of my favorite songs by him is “Third Coast,” and it’s like three songs in one.
What do you like to listen to when you’re alone?
Alex G. He covers every mood you could possibly be in. I feel like sometimes he won’t take things too seriously, but he’ll execute it in the most serious way possible.
What do you and your girlfriend like to do when you hang out?
I like to build LEGOs. We always have a set that we haven’t built yet that we’re working on. If we start a TV show, we have to wait till we’re together to finish it. We just rewatched The Queen’s Gambit together, and I’ve been teaching her how to play chess.
We love going to the movies. We just saw Mad Max and Inside Out 2. I went into Mad Max not knowing what was about to happen or what it was about, and it was so good. And Inside Out 2 is very cute. My friend Maya Hawke did the “Anxiety” voice.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
