JUL!ET's album Egomania was plastered across billboards in Seattle, she knows how to make a statement. The project touches on the attention economy, feeling like you have a constant spotlight on you and how we all deal with it. We talked to her about the making of this album, gaining confidence, and her music journey.
Can you tell me about how you got started in music and your musical journey?
JUL!ET: I actually started writing songs when I was in middle school. I always found it sort of to be like a form of journaling. I had a really hard time with lyrics in middle school, though, because, as you can imagine, I didn't have that much life experience. So I used to actually write my friends' poems into my lyrics and kind of set them to melodies and chords. I always found myself to be pretty good with all that. Writing music is really the heart of why I decided to pursue it and what kind of brought me back into it. I started writing songs again as a full-on adult, working a full-time job, and just feeling kind of bored and uninspired. Honestly, I think boredom is a big part of my background, and I just realized how important music is; nothing else delivers in the same way for me, and I have done a lot of other things.
I feel like you've had a busy time this year with your releases. Can you tell me about Egomania?
JUL!ET: I actually left my job at the top of the year to be able to focus more on this stuff. I've been really inspired by seeing some other indie artists that I write with who really get a lot of mileage out of their releases. So, I kind of wanted to build a world with Egomania. I crowdfunded a bunch of five different billboards around Seattle. They're definitely more expensive than you would think funding them as a solo artist. But it was really nice to receive that support from people. And luckily, it didn't take as much as one would potentially think. I think I've definitely set a cool example for some people in the scene. I've definitely got a lot of comments around that and attention around that within the Seattle market. Egomania, really what it's about, is-- I think the billboards were really fitting for it, not just as a marketing thing for any release, but also because part of the whole world is being sort of famously into yourself.
We all sort of feel really in this era- we feel like there's such a spotlight effect on us, especially when using social media so much. I think a lot about how tech impacts the way that we view ourselves. And for me, that definitely led to feelings of Egomania. Everyone has their social platform, whether you're an artist and you need it for work or just a human being who wants to connect with strangers without them thinking that you have something going on. It's just a game that we all have to play. Even though it's self-indulgent, I thought that sentiment might be relatable to other people.
I think you have to be more confident in yourself than anything because there are so many people who will tell you no. And that saying, have the confidence of an average man?
JUL!ET: Putting yourself out there deciding like, "Hey, my story is worth being told." And I also wonder if that's why women are so much more confident writing love songs and why a lot of female pop artists specifically fall into the canon of a love song. And that's something that I grapple with a lot. I think four out of the seven songs are really just about relationships of sorts, or there's some element of male gaze in some of my songwriting that I'm a little bit conflicted about. At the end of the day, I think that even if I write a song that's phenomenally about some guy, every song really at the end of the day, I am the main character of every song that I write, regardless of whether it falls into the canon of like, "I love you songs, or I hate you songs," and they're romantically inclined. I do think that's why, for me, as a writer, it can be challenging to draw on more diverse inspirations. Because for all my life, I don't do that much dating. That's not that important in my life and what I have to speak about.
I do feel good about Egomania in the sense that I feel like each song really is my writing. I've been really lucky to be able to collaborate with other people, mainly producers who help me with lyrical tweaks, but some people are a little bit more involved. I also have a few co-writers with whom I work. But yeah, I love how much ownership I'm getting to have over my current work. And actually, the song that I have the most ownership over, the only one that I fully produced myself, is actually the one that's done the best. And I find that to be really interesting because I actually don't have that much experience with music production. I literally even know what MIDI was like three or four years ago when I started recording music. And I think I've learned it really quickly because, well, I'm not afraid of computers, and I'm not afraid of brief moments of feeling stupid.
I do want to talk about your billboards because my day job was a music marketing girly. And I love the idea of getting billboards.
JUL!ET: It was so much fun having the billboards. My idea of getting billboards came from my friend, who helped me with a lot of strategy advice. This guy studied the music business at Belmont and is not afraid to think big. He had this idea to have a billboard in downtown Seattle because we were talking about how I wanted to really go in on this release. I thought, yes, that resonates. That's so amazing because it embodies the whole concept of Egomania. And in my brain, it wasn't only the billboard, but it's also the digital aspect that goes behind that because I actually think, for better or for worse, a lot of the value of doing physical things is in bringing them into the digital world again. Most people who see it, like truly see it, and look at it for an extended period of time are going to see it digitally. In my mind, there was a fair amount of a digital campaign going along with this. I ended up raising almost $5,000 for all five billboards. And I did that through Kickstarter. I had just been to his release party, where he personally invited all of the people who had contributed to the project, and we got to experience this beautiful concert together.
I think that something that is hard for people to do is think of huge artists on a smaller artist scale. And it does make a difference because I feel like even in shows and performances, you can do everything that a big artist does. It's just like you can have a dynamic live show. You can get a billboard. You can record an album in front of your billboard. You can still think big.
JUL!ET: Being able to reach fans directly, too, to support them is something that we haven't had before. I think people's mental model of how things are done. Even working in the music industry, sometimes it's dated by 5 or 10 years. We actually are not beholden to the same forces anymore. We actually can get help from a lot of people. But that being said, online advertising, making content, and stuff like that seem to be the most effective for people- like organic content, which, honestly, I could do a better job creating higher volumes of. But yeah, it was really cool to feel like I had a big artist moment there. I think sometimes it does get tough with imposter syndrome because you sort of think, "Well, who am I to be worthy of this big artist spotlight? I haven't proven myself to be a big artist yet." I think that that is a legitimate barrier to having more bold marketing efforts like this. But I think just remembering who you're going to inspire and also knowing that it's cool and it's very worthy of doing, but not everybody cares that much. People pay attention, but it's just like a small part of their day. I think that takes the pressure off.
What do you think has been one of the biggest challenges in your career?
JUL!ET: I would say getting really distracted by other priorities. I guess that's the biggest one, the biggest obstacle in starting up, really. I didn't realize that I wanted to record my own music, write my own music, perform it, and do all this other marketing stuff and this whole other world-building element. I didn't realize that for a while because my priorities were a lot more in seeking external validation. I thought a lot in terms of likelihoods and probability. Well, that's the same thing, but I thought a lot about statistics. And I was like, "Well, there's just such a long tail for being an artist, and I just don't know if I could swing it." I think I prioritized material gains, as well as societal validation and approval from my parents, a lot more. And so I've had this whole other life where I worked at Microsoft for four years, and I went to Stanford, and I studied engineering. And all of that made sense because I didn't feel super drawn to music at that point. I think I always knew that I would love it, though, because it was hard for me to listen to female artists, actually, when I was sort of in this phase of not letting myself do this myself. I think jealousy was also a barrier. Jealousy and expecting perfection were barriers for me when it came to getting in. I didn't feel entitled to make my own music because I didn't feel like it was good enough yet. I definitely am a big believer in radical incrementalism that way. I think the biggest barrier now that I am part of the music industry and the biggest obstacle that I face now is that there's definitely still some jealousy in comparison. But different people are at different stages.
My last thing would be, what would be your best piece of advice for young women in music?
JUL!ET: My biggest piece of advice for young women in music is, I think, don't be afraid of production. You don't have to identify as a techie whatsoever. You don't have to see production as this-- even though it's such a male-dominated space within music, there are so many great creators out now who really inspired me. So I think that it's really looking out for young women these days because it's so much easier to find content in general that's really helpful to teach yourself how to use Ableton or whatever. It's also easier to find people who look like you and who are not afraid of learning new things to service their craft. It's so great to have that ownership over your vision. Even if you don't end up wanting to be a producer-producer, which I haven't at this point, even if you don't produce all of your songs, it's so nice to be able to have that ownership and create a demo that a producer can work off of. I think that it really helps to make sure that the vision is yours and that your sound isn't like what your producer decided. It's what you decide.
Emily Treadgold
