Start Listening To: Julianna Joy
A rising star in pop: An exclusive Q&A with Julianna Joy.
In the ever-evolving landscape of pop music, Julianna Joy emerges as a captivating force, unafraid to bend genres and explore the depths of her emotions. Hailing from Chicago, this talented singer-songwriter has been making waves with her infectious melodies and thought-provoking lyrics. As she prepares to release her highly anticipated upcoming project, we sat down with Julianna to delve into her musical journey, the inspiration behind her EP Garden of Eden and the exciting collaborations that have shaped her artistry.
For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
Yes!! HIII THERE. I’m Julianna Joy, I’m from Chicago, and I write pop music. Pop music is my baby and one thing I love about being able to claim this genre is that I can truly do whatever I want under that label and have the name still be true. Pop is diverse and ethereal and I’m determined to bring pop’s good name back into the spotlight.
Your EP Garden of Eden explores a range of musical styles and themes. How would you describe the overall sound and message of the album?
When I was beginning to write Garden of Eden, I was a senior in high school. I was writing so much about change and about heartache and about the bubble I was about to burst for myself by moving and chasing a career most people dream of but never have. There were so many things I was going through and thinking about that I think every senior at that time was also thinking and feeling. I coped the best by writing music and diving into what every feeling until it stopped making sense to. I was listening to a mixture of tons of music, including Lorde, Taylor Swift, Broods, Bleachers, and Charli XCX. I feel like that mixture of what I was listening to really made what I wanted the EP to sound like. When I started building it out with Teddy [Geiger], I was referencing a lot of these sounds and she took what I said and ran with it. She knew exactly what I was looking for. Every song is unique yet sonically coherent to the ones next to it.
You had the opportunity to work with Grammy-nominated producer Teddy Geiger on Garden of Eden. How did this collaboration shape your artistic growth and influence the sound of the album?
Teddy gave me the incredible gift of being able to unapologetically write. She took every idea that I had, every chance that I felt confident in what I was doing, encouraged me till it was perfect, and kept building around what I was doing. She’s got this incredible gift of just knowing exactly what to do, and an amazing way of being able to get everyone on the same page. There are few writers out there like that, who can truly conduct a room and a sound to take it to the next level. I feel really special to be friends and collaborators with one of the industrys’ finest. Everyone should get the chance to work with a Teddy.
Can you share some insights into the song writing process behind the track ‘DEAD!’? What inspired you to explore mental health issues and incorporate them into your music?
The only way I have ever felt like I can truly talk about how I feel is in music. Music has a beautiful way of being able to disguise what you’re trying to say and yet be so obvious and clear. I started writing music about my mental health when I was 14. It’s just so natural to me to explore those subjects because I’ve done it so much. Most of my music has allusions to depression and anxiety, but “DEAD!” is the first one where that is the only subject the song is about. I started writing it in December of 2022, shortly after I had gotten discharged from a 3 month stay in outpatient. Outpatient saved me at the same time it opened a lot of wounds that I didn’t have time to close before I left. “DEAD!” was an aftermath of every emotion I was feeling at that time.
Your music incorporates elements from alternative rock, pop, classic rock, and psychedelia. How do you approach blending these genres, and what impact do you hope it has on your listeners?
I think it’s so cool to genre bend, especially when you’re making pop music. Pop is such an easy place to do that because for every year that music has been alive and commercialized, a different genre of music was considered “pop music”. When you create pop, you naturally make a thousand genre blends. I hope that my music reminds people of why pop IS that genre and why everyone loved pop in the first place.
Moving from the Chicago suburbs to Los Angeles to pursue music full-time must have been a significant transition. How has this move influenced your artistic journey and the themes explored in your music?
I think everything I write now is a byproduct of every session I’ve been in since I moved here and a byproduct of how much emotional growth I’ve had to go through since I moved here. I moved to LA when I was freshly 18 and a few weeks before the pandemic started. I’m 21 now. A lot has happened in the last three years. I find now that I’m writing mostly of politics, of my mental health, and of my childhood. There’s just so much around me that my hometown could never have shown me and so many things I never would’ve understood if I hadn’t broadened my horizons. Moving here changed me for the better.
With over 200 songs composed during your teen years, how did you manage to refine your musical style and choose the songs that made it onto your EP and upcoming projects?
I mainly choose the songs that made the most sense for me to release. Sometimes I write songs hoping for them to make a project but end up needing them to stay as piano demos. Sometimes I develop something completely and find that it just didn’t fit in the project as I thought it did. Sometimes I write the same song in ten different formats and choose the one that did the subject the most amount of justice. As for musical style, I just wanted to continue to push myself until I was writing things I felt were different and an advancement from the last project I was writing.
Your song ‘Cherry Bomb’ has gained substantial popularity, with millions of streams on Spotify. How has this success impacted your career and connected you with a broader fan base?
It has impacted me immensely. It’s my “everyone who is gay probably knows this song” song. The song itself is responsible for comforting myself and my fans around our shared experiences with homosexuality. I get dms all the time from fans telling me that the song helped them come to terms, helped them come out, helped them meet their girlfriends, etc. It’s amazing knowing that my music, something I’ve created, can be so impactful in that way and gives back to a community I feel so lucky to be in.
Could you tell us more about your upcoming project, produced and co-written with Dee Lilly? What can fans expect from this collaboration?
Dee is someone who isn’t afraid to do something exciting and different. The songs we write together feel like an ascending staircase, with every song becoming better and better than the last one we wrote. He’s one of the most talented songwriters and producers in this entire world. We’re definitely a soulmate pairing when it comes to writing.
We started this project in April of 2021 after we did one session together and my publisher fell in love with what we did. We got together and wrote about 10 songs together over the course of 2021 & 2022 and just took my music into a direction I never saw it going. We got weird. We got classic. We got impactful. We got intentional. It’s the thing that I’m most proud of. I’ve never been more excited or confident in a release ever.
Your song ‘California’ is described as a haunting, yet uplifting ode to your new home. Can you share the story behind this track and the emotions it represents for you?
This was a song I wrote for my then boyfriend about my move to California. We had been dating for about five months at that point but I think we both knew that my career and my move to California was going to inevitably destroy our relationship if the pressure from senior year didn’t do it. There’s not many high school relationships that survive that last year of high school and with me graduating a semester early and moving 2 months afterward, I was really struggling with accepting that our relationship wasn’t going to make it. “California” was a way for me to say “I know that this is going to end in a fiery blaze, we both know that my career and my future isn’t going to be put on hold for this, but damn, isn’t it good that we have each other right now? Isn’t it enough to just be together right now?”. I think in many ways, it was a desperate attempt for me to stop looking forward and to stay present even though my future was always in the back of my mind.
The press release mentions your experience at Grammy Camp and attending music sessions with industry professionals. How have these experiences shaped your growth as an artist and influenced your approach to songwriting and production?
Grammy Camp was so special to me because it was the first time I met anyone my age who had the same ambition and drive for music that I did. So many of them had so much more experience than me and I just wanted to feel even relatively close to where they were. That kind of motivation as well as support from the friends I made there shaped how I approached my career. As for sessions with industry professionals, I have learned a lot from every session I did on industry etiquette, on music industry standards, and how being an artist looks versus how it actually is. Every session I’ve done from unsuccessful ones to repeats has pushed me towards the artist I am now and what kind of artistry I want to put forward now that I’ve had the experience to do it.
With your next project due in October 2023, what can you tease about the upcoming music and the direction you're taking with your sound and artistic expression?
It’s going to be very fun. It’s going to push me into another category. It’s going to be my best work that I’ve put forward. One thing that my entire team has said about this project is that it is one of those projects where there are no obvious singles, that every song could stand on its own feet and be successful. There are not many projects where that is the truth. Every person I have played it for has an ultimate favorite and no one can agree on what song is the best one.
