Rising alt-rock singer/songwriter Julia Wolf opens up to Atwood Magazine about the joys and pains of the music industry, her love for vampires, and the stories behind her third LP ‘PRESSURE.’
Stream: ‘PRESSURE’ – Julia Wolf
For fans of Twilight, Jennifer’s Body, and gothic fiction, please let me introduce you to your new favorite artist, Julia Wolf.
Just over a year ago, the rising star released “In My Room,” the searing alt-rock anthem that skyrocketed to #1 on the Top 50 Viral Charts and captured the hearts of millions across the internet. Today, Wolf is returning stronger than ever before with her highly anticipated third studio album, PRESSURE (released May 23rd via AWAL).
Raw, unfiltered, and aptly titled, PRESSURE shines a light on the darkest corners of Julia Wolf’s psyche. Leaving no stone unturned, the record explores themes of body image, beauty standards, unrequited love, comparison, and the crushing weight of unrealistic expectations so often placed upon women in the music industry. Songs like “Jennifer’s Body” and “Girls” in particular hit a chord, as Wolf indulges in the complicated and somewhat taboo feelings of womanhood.
You know I’m for the girls
But I don’t know what’s worse
I think she’s so pretty,
I see all the ways I’m not
You know I’m for the girls
But I don’t know what’s worse
I think she’s so pretty,
hope she’s knows it’s not her fault
– “Girls,” Julia Wolf
It’s no small feat for Wolf to have gotten where she is now, opening for Halsey on their For My Last Trick Tour and amassing over a million monthly listeners on Spotify alone. Having grown up severely shy to the point of hiding in the music room at school during lunch periods, the Long Island native found it difficult to connect with others most of her life. Time and time again, it was music that came to the rescue and proved itself a forever friend.
Though the path to getting here has been anything but linear for the singer, it’s made her the resilient artist she is today. With PRESSURE, Julia Wolf shows us that perhaps it’s not the absence of fear, but the very existence of it that can be our greatest motivator.
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:: stream/purchase PRESSURE here ::
:: connect with Julia Wolf here ::
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A CONVERSATION WITH JULIA WOLF
Atwood Magazine: Congratulations on PRESSURE! It is truly an incredible album, and I’m really excited to unpack it with you. How are you feeling today? Have you gotten a chance to celebrate?
Julia Wolf: I definitely feel a weight off my shoulders! The anticipation of this has really been the kicker, and just never really knowing how people are going to take it or if they’re gonna like it. But honestly, the support has been overwhelming. There’s so much love already, and I truly could not be happier with everything. I’m very proud of it. I’m happy she’s out in the world now. We haven’t had a chance to celebrate, just cause it’s still early over here, but we will tonight!
Was there a particular song off the record you felt most nervous about sharing?
Julia Wolf: Because “In My Room” did so well, I think a lot of people were maybe expecting me to keep doing that. So I wanted the album to start kind of opposite of that. I was nervous about “Kill You Off” and “Pearl” and some of the more genre-fusion songs. But it seems to be going okay!
So many people connect to your music because you aren’t afraid to really go all the way with your thoughts. You say the hard and quiet parts out loud, which is so refreshing. Where do you think this bluntness in your writing comes from? Who are some of your songwriting heroes?
Julia Wolf: So much of it just comes from me being crazy and delusional and maybe too dramatic about situations I’m going through and feeling like it’s the end of the world all the time. I would say that lyrically my hero is Phoebe Bridgers. There is no one who can top my girl Phoebe. I think Ethel Cain is phenomenal with her songwriting and storytelling. Also Halsey. They’re just such honest women. It just gives you comfort hearing other women who are the most perfect beings feeling the same thoughts as us. I’m always hoping that the music is relatable, so thank you for saying that.
One song off the album called “Girls” really struck me, because I feel like its subject matter is something people really don’t talk about, especially in the music industry. There’s almost a sense of shame or taboo attached to feelings like comparison and envy. I’d love to hear your thoughts on these feelings, if you’re comfortable talking about it.
Julia Wolf: Yeah, totally! I mean, I am so for the girls. I feel like my whole audience is basically girls who are just going through the same thing as me. I just really struggle with comparison. Like you were saying, it’s just the nature of this industry, unfortunately, where I’m constantly looking at everyone else and seeing how beautiful and talented everyone is. Everyone is doing cool things all the time. With “Girls,” it’s this weird middle ground where I’m saying I wish I was someone else. I wish I wasn’t me. But at the same time, it’s not the other person’s fault that they’re so pretty and cool. For some reason, I start to feel jealousy that I can’t get rid of sometimes, you know? It’s not a matter of wanting to take any girls down, it’s just a matter of acknowledging that duality. I do try to make it a point in the song to say that those feelings have nothing to do with anyone else except my own brain and my own insecurities.
That makes a lot of sense. “Girls” reminds me of Charli XCX and Lorde’s song “Girl So Confusing” and how the nature of this industry often pits women against each other. It’s important to open the door to having these uncomfortable conversations, so thank you for doing that. This next question is kind of random, but I read somewhere online that you had plans of opening a pizza shop in Italy with your dad before making music? Is this true?
Julia Wolf: It’s true. My parents and my younger sister all live in Italy now. The plan was basically to do this a couple years ago when I was really struggling with music. I was putting stuff out, you know, and I was trying to figure it out, but nothing was happening. So my dad, being my biggest supporter ever, just kind of saw that I was really discouraged all the time and he was like, “What if we move to Italy? We can open up a pizza shop. You can work on your music at night and work at the pizzeria during the day.” And I was so for it, because it gave me a direction to follow. We ended up selling our house to go through with this plan. Literally right after we sold the house, I was packing my room, and my dad was like, “Juge, I have this gut feeling that you need to stay here. You have to just try to pursue music, and I know that if we move, it’s not going to happen for you.” So we stayed. I moved to Queens, and that’s where everything started coming together.
That’s an incredible story. Are you currently still in Queens or are you moving around?
Julia Wolf: I moved to LA last year, so I’ve been here for a little over a year now. It’s really helped career-wise, to just be able to have someone hit me up for a studio session and I can be there.
“In My Room” was recently #1 on the Top 50 Viral Charts, which is incredible. What is your relationship like with virality and apps such as TikTok and Instagram in terms of using them as avenues for music promotion?
Julia Wolf: Everything that’s happened through TikTok and on the internet has been incredible. I think I’m just a lucky one where the hype didn’t just stay with “In My Room.” It kind of trickled down into my other songs too. I feel like the internet is what has opened the door to all these opportunities. It’s something I’ve never experienced. It’s an exposure thing. It really gets you in front of so many new people, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it. I feel like I’ve worked so hard to take that one thing and grow it, and to show me as a person.
What does the album title PRESSURE mean to you? What kind of pressure were you feeling while writing it?
Julia Wolf: I started writing these songs a year ago, so the pressure was more so from the industry and feeling like I wasn’t being accepted and feeling the pressure of my age. But then, as the year was going and things started happening, I also felt like I was starting to apply pressure on other people. That’s why it has songs like “Pearl.” It’s really been a culmination of everything. But there’s also the pressure of asking myself, “How do I keep growing?”
“Pearl” kind of has the energy of a diss track, which I loved honestly. It seems like it was such a cathartic song to make. It oozes so much confidence.
Julia Wolf: I’m the first person to not exude confidence. But there comes a point where I do have to believe in myself and what I’m doing. I’m going to stand up for myself when I need to. I think it was kind of a call back to some of my earlier tunes as well, where I was kind of doing more of the rap-flow thing. And now I’ve just tried to elevate it a little bit.
I love that. I think what makes this album all the more powerful is knowing your story and the fact that you used to be really shy. It’s inspiring to see you unapologetically using your voice.
Julia Wolf: If you see me in a group setting, even now, I just shut down. I’m still very much carrying a lot of that shyness with me. But I think just having such a supportive group of people around me being like, “Julia, snap out of it. Wake up. You’re fine,” is honestly what helps me the most. And also just seeing everyone’s love and positivity online helps me and my brain relax with the self criticism. It’s been such a hand in hand thing with fans. They really have helped me grow as a person too.
There’s a few songs on PRESSURE that pay tribute to beloved early 2000s films like Jennifer’s Body and Twilight. What is your relationship with those movies, and what was the meaning behind including them in the record?
Julia Wolf: I was in eighth grade when the first Twilight book came out, so I guess maybe I was thirteen. I was extremely shy, as you know. I struggled with friendships. God forbid a boy even looked in my direction. I would turn beet red if anyone tried to talk to me. One day my mom was like, “Juge, there’s this book called Twilight, everyone’s talking about it. Maybe it’ll take your mind off things. Just read this book.” I read the book. It literally changed my life. I feel like it changed my life because I had been alone every day, but then I was eating lunch with Twilight, and things just weren’t as bad. I latched onto it because it was filling this gap in my life. It became a part of me – it’s just in my core. I never really had the intention of writing with Twilight in mind, but it makes so much sense that that’s the one thing that actually clicked for everyone, because I just love it so much. It made me feel seen and understood.
I saw you recently went to where Twilight is set, in Forks, Washington? How was that?
Julia Wolf: I cried. We got to the woods and I just lost it. It was finally a real place to put all my love and be surrounded by it. It was so cool.
That’s so beautiful, I’m happy you got to see it. Which song or lyric from PRESSURE would you say you identify with most at this moment in your life?
Julia Wolf: Oh, what a great question. I would say I identify so much with “You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood.” That song is like my baby. It starts off with the voice memo that I had from years ago when I wrote the song but was too self-conscious to ever share it with anyone. That song just touches a lot on my childhood and the adult that I’ve grown into because of past experiences. It’s a very full circle moment for me, that song. It’s the first song that me, my producer Scro, and my manager Tanner worked on. There’s a lot of memories tied to that one.
Do you remember the moment you knew you wanted to be an artist?
Julia Wolf: I was in high school. I had always done the talent shows and things like that, regardless of being so quiet. I just loved it. I used to eat lunch alone in the music room. One day my teacher came up to me and he said, “Julia, if you want to perform in the last senior talent show, it has to be an original song.” At the time, I was totally mortified by the idea of people knowing my thoughts. But I gave it some time and realized I just wanted to play. So I tried it. And honestly, that was the turning point for me. I was like, “Wow, this is actually so great. I can share my thoughts without having to talk to anyone.” I fell in love with it. That’s when it all started.
Do you remember what song you performed?
Julia Wolf: I do. I was a senior, and my best friend was a junior, and it was a song about having to leave and being afraid that we were gonna grow apart. Spoiler alert, we did. [laughs].
If there was one song off the record that encapsulates what it means to you, which song would it be?
Julia Wolf: Probably the first one, I think. “Kill You Off” just does a really good job at starting the album off in one place and ending it somewhere completely different. I wanted that to be a theme on the album where it wasn’t just one thing. It was a variety of inspirations and genres. I think “Kill You Off” bundles that up in one package.
How do you feel the songs off PRESSURE will translate live?
Julia Wolf: Oh my gosh, I’m so excited! I mean, you know, we got to open for Halsey as you know, so I’ve got a taste of playing them live already, and they sound really massive and emotional. I feel like for the first time I get to pour my emotions into my life set, just because I’ve never resonated more with any lyrics I’ve ever written. I’m so excited to sing with everyone every night. I’m hoping people know some of the words, so we can have that moment with each other. It just feels really emotional and powerful. I’m so stoked.
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:: stream/purchase PRESSURE here ::
:: connect with Julia Wolf here ::
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Watch: “Kill You Off” – Julia Wolf
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© Angelo Kritikos
© Angelo KritikosPRESSURE
an album by Julia Wolf
