Feature: Juliet Ivy Soundtracks Existential Girlhood With Soul-Baring 'tiny but scary' EP

Fast-rising indie pop artist Juliet Ivy embraces real life and raw emotions on her soul-baring sophomore EP ‘tiny but scary,’ an achingly intimate, vulnerable, and unfiltered record of what she likes to call “existential girlhood.”

for fans of Phoebe Bridgers, Charli Adams, Adrianne Lenker, Lucy Dacus, Abby Holliday

Stream: “girl talk” – Juliet Ivy

I know you’re not supposed to say it, but I’m not like other girls.

In a sea of indie pop singer/songwriters, Juliet Ivy instantly stands out.

And no, that’s not just a reference to her latest EP’s opening track (“4 foot 2”).

Over the past few years, the 23-year-old born n’ bred New Yorker has steadily cultivated a heart-on-sleeve artistry based around her own uncompromising, unapologetic vulnerability and unadulterated self-expression. Last year’s debut EP playpen, released shortly after her graduation from NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, set a strong first impression with its candid reflections on life, love, companionship, and longing.

Yet it’s on her newly released sophomore EP where Ivy truly flourishes, coming to life with a multi-dimensional vision for her voice – and by extension, her art as a whole. The indie pop singer/songwriter embraces real life and raw emotions on tiny but scary, a bite-sized, achingly intimate and ambitiously expansive EP full of warmth, weight, depth, and catharsis.

It’s a record born out of her innermost, introspective thoughts and feelings, and from those loved ones and cherished connections who have helped make her the person she is today: An unfiltered – and undeniably stunning – storyteller and singer.

tiny but scary - Juliet Ivy — tiny but scary – Juliet Ivy

I know you’re not supposed to play ‘em
But I’m not like other girls
Yeah I’ve had your thought before
Here I go again, I’m bored
Would it be different if I was an idiot?

Oh, nobody wants me, wants me
Nobody’s all up on me
Nobody’s waiting, watching
Nobody’s looking at me
Nobody sees it, gets it
Nobody’s under my spell
Somebody shake me, tell it

Is it my face? Is it my clothes?
Is it my fate to end up alone?

What’s it about me?
Tiny but scary
Dumb but I’m trying
Want you to want me
What’s it about me?
Tiny but scary
Dumb but I’m trying
Want you to want me

– “is it my face?” – Juliet Ivy

Released August 9^th via AWAL, tiny but scary is sonically and emotionally stunning: A breathtakingly beautiful, soul-baring record that puts Juliet Ivy – the artist, as well as the the human – out there for all to see, hear, and feel. Through brutally honest reflections and hauntingly bold inner reckonings, the artist peels back the layers that make up her heart, her mind, her body, and her soul, offering the kind of window into another’s world that seldom comes around more than once or twice in a generation.

“tiny but scary is a record about my brain and my heart as an existential, introspective, modern girl,” Ivy tells Atwood Magazine. “It is about growing up, insecurity, girlhood, time, family, and sense of self. It is a collection of five songs made over the past year-and-a-half that dive deep lyrically and sonically, and I’m super proud of it.”

“I didn’t have much of a pre-set vision going into this record; everything fell into place very naturally,” she recalls. “Out of all the music I’ve made in the past year, these five songs immediately stuck with me and came together perfectly as a project. My production taste developed while recording these songs so over time the production blossomed in a new way and each song started to fit into this new world more, which was really special. I’m so grateful for my collaborators who worked so hard alongside me to make each song exactly what I dreamed they could become.”

tiny but scary arrives just nine months after Ivy’s debut EP playpen, home to her ‘breakout’ song, “we’re all eating each other,” which hit No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Viral 50 and has since amassed nearly 20 millions streams. For her, this new EP continues building out her story, her artistic identity, and her vision for her music.

“I think this record felt like a really natural next step sonically for me, Ivy says. “It introduces me as a multi-faceted and multi-genre artist as we dipped into folk, singer-songwriter, and country more in this project. Lyrically it also introduces people to a deeper side of me – I write about mental health struggles, insecurity, my family, introspection, etc. I always describe playpen as an ‘outdoor’ project, one that shows people how I view the world and my place in it, and tiny but scary as an ‘indoor’ project, one that shows people how I view myself. They saw the house in playpen and I’m inviting them inside with tiny but scary.”

To that end, she candidly describes tiny but scary as a record of ‘indie pop existential girlhood.’

“I feel like [the title] perfectly encapsulates the record and the feelings that each song touches on,” she smiles. “The phrase comes from the lyrics of ‘is it my face?’ when I was trying to describe how it feels to be so unapproachable sometimes, when I’m just a tiny little girl haha, but then it really stuck with me because it applied to so much more in my life.”

“As someone who’s really existential, I feel like my existence as this little person on this rock is so tiny, yet so scary. I also feel like as a girl navigating adulthood, the tiniest changes in my life can feel the most scary. This record deals with existentialism, introspection, girlhood, growing up, and time, and ‘tiny but scary’ was the perfect way for me to describe what all of those things feel like to me.”

True to its name (at least to some degree – it’s not that scary, depending on how deep you listen), tiny but scary is a fleeting but deeply impactful thirteen-minute journey – and one that’s well worth listeners’ full, undivided attention.

Because of its short runtime and concentrated track list, each of Ivy’s five songs really is a highlight. There’s the light dusting of lilting folk and country gilt that warms the ears and nourishes the soul on her confessional opener “4 foot 2”; the unflinching, painful, and poignant admissions on the buoyant (and truly brutal) pop tune “is it my face?”; the gently saccharine “kid,” which serves as a heartrending and all-too-relatable love letter to her parents; the hypnotizing, self-soothing sonic glitter of “sweet dreams”; and the comforting, cautiously optimistic “girl talk,” whose gut-wrenchingly honest lyrics pair nicely with the cinematic, ethereal production to create an all-consuming, instantly memorable, sonically and emotionally charged ode to girlhood.

“I’d say ‘kid’ is a personal highlight,” Ivy says. “It’s a love song to my parents about how much I love being their kid. I’ve always wanted to write a song for my parents, and I don’t think there are many out there, so it is really special to me. I hope it inspires people to tell their family that they love them more.”

“I’m so proud of all the lyrics,” she continues, “but I think the ‘girl talk’ chorus is so magical: ‘My best friend is my intuition / She’s always right and I love to listen / They say that weakness is falling to pieces / But I find my strength in getting up / And going for a cake walk / That’s just girl talk.’”

Juliet Ivy’s story is still only just beginning, and her latest EP captures not just who she is at this present moment in time, but all that she can be as she continues to grow, write, record, and share her music with the world.

If it feels like every Juliet Ivy song is a piece of her heart and soul, that’s because it is; her songwriting is comparable to singer/songwriter contemporaries like Phoebe Bridgers, Adrianne Lenker, and Lucy Dacus, all of whom hold hold nothing back in bringing their authentic, raw, fractured, and fragile selves into view through song. The beauty of such intensely vivid, visceral, and vulnerable music ultimately lies in the returns – how we can continuously come back to Ivy’s songs, time and again, not just to feel connected to this one particular human being, but to feel more connected to ourselves.

“I hope people feel a sense of comfort and feel understood by this record,” Ivy shares. “My goal is always to describe a feeling that people don’t even realize they experience too. I love to sneak up on my listeners like that. This is my most vulnerable music, so I hope they feel more connected to me as an artist and to themselves as well.”

Growing like a flower
Watered from the shower
Watching all my thoughts go down the drain
Paying close attention
Braiding my intentions
Into my hair to start day

Of proving that I’m able
Of earning a seat at the table
And I’m learning

My best friend is my intuition
She’s always right and I love to listen
They say that weakness is falling to pieces
But I find my strength in getting up
And going for a cake walk
That’s just girl talk

– “girl talk,” Juliet Ivy

tiny but scary is small yet mighty, and it will surely prove to be a powerful, positive turning point in this 23-year-old artist’s young and burgeoning career. Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Juliet Ivy’s tiny but scary EP with Atwood Magazine as she goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of her sophomore extended player!

tiny but scary is out now via AWAL.

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:: stream/purchase tiny but scary here ::

:: connect with Juliet Ivy here ::

Stream: ‘tiny but scary’ – Juliet Ivy

:: Inside tiny but scary ::

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4 foot 2

I wrote “4 foot 2” when I was going through a really hard time and what was getting me out of it was the thought of my younger self and how she doesn’t deserve to feel pain like that. I was learning to be kinder to myself and take care of the child that is still very much inside me. It is a reminder to never lose sight of your inner child, all the beautiful, joyful things about them still apply to you.

is it my face?

“is it my face?” is a song about feeling insecure and wanting to be wanted. I wrote it with Audrey Hobert, who is so genius and special. We really bonded over being girls who felt unwanted sometimes and just not good enough. It’s cheeky, funny, honest, and real. I think we really captured all the intertwining, complicated, confusing feelings of modern girlhood in this song.

kid

“kid” is a love letter to my parents. They are the most supportive and best parents I could ask for. I got the idea when I was in LA on a writing trip and I got a text from them cheering me on and I just felt so grateful for them. The verses are about sweet moments and memories I have with them and the chorus is about how grateful I am to exist alongside them.

sweet dreams

“sweet dreams” is a bit of a response to “4 foot 2.” It’s a song written for the version of me who wrote “4 foot 2,” when I was really struggling. I wrote “sweet dreams” about a year after “4 foot 2” when things were so much better and I wanted to tell that earlier version of myself that everything was going to be okay. It has become such a comfort song because it acts as a reminder that I was able to get through even the hardest times, so any time I’m struggling I listen to it as a reminder to sleep tight, the best version of myself is waiting for me.

girl talk

“girl talk” is the thesis of this whole record. I wrote it with Charli Adams on a rainy day in LA with just a notebook and a guitar and it was one of the most magical sessions I had ever had. We talked about how it feels to be a girl – everything is somehow pitted against us but the fact that we persevere through it all is what makes us so powerful. It touches on all the themes of the project: Girlhood, growing up, introspection, insecurity, time, etc. but with an optimistic twist. Being a girl is such a magical thing and as long as we know that, we don’t need other people to validate it… that’s just girl talk.

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