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Q&A with trending artist Julia Wolf
SHE’S SO JULIA. After feeling the, ahem, pressure from the music industry and social media—not to mention personal pressures—Julia Wolf’s newly debuted, aptly dubbed album Pressure harkens back to her roots. And now the Long Island-born, LA-based artist’s taking that raw, gritty vulnerability on tour, with a stop at Durham’s Motorco Music Hall June 22.
Released on the heels of her viral hit “In My Room,” which reached No. 1 on the U.S. charts and amassed over 21M streams on Spotify alone (!), the “honest, sad, angry and personal” record (as Wolf describes it) features Evanescence-inspired vocals and an amalgamation of sounds—from emo and shoegaze to metallic and electronic.
“The album’s been a long time coming,” muses Wolf. “So I’m excited for it to finally come out. I’m really getting back to the core of what had me fall in love with music in the first place—and just those influences and sounds.” Leading up to her show, we caught up with the genre-bending artist for an exclusive chat during rehearsal break.
Preshow ritual? I’m definitely always taking a shot before—I love a good dive bar.
Peak “pinch-me” moment? Drake reaching out and wanting to work together is just unreal, especially with the past two years being an endless loop of dead ends and everyone trying to shove us down. It’s just so cool someone like him is actually wanting to get to know us and believing in what we’re doing.
Biggest lesson since your last drop? I really need to trust my gut when it comes to the music, lyrics and message I want to put out there—because when I first decided to switch genres, you would not believe the amount of pushback. But I just had to make that choice because I wasn’t resonating with the old stuff anymore. It taught me to trust myself, be less afraid and say the things I want.
Latest album’s takeaway? The old me was really afraid of vulnerability. I always used to think it would make me seem weaker. But I think, with this album, I made it a point to be as honest and truthful as possible with the lyrics, and I want people to feel understood and better about being vulnerable and not see it as a weakness, but rather empowering. Because that’s how it felt writing it—it was quite cathartic, and I just hope people resonate with it.
This Q&A has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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