Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Poetic justice that Julia is successful in her own write..
Iowa-born Michaels no longer needs to pen hits for big names as she’s now earning her own recognition with release of debut album
Julia Michaels has penned tunes for some of the hottest acts on the planet: Justin Bieber, (circled) Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Shawn Mendes, Britney Spears, Fifth Harmony, Hailee Steinfeld, and Gwen Stefani.
But just don’t ask her to spill the beans about any of them.
“I’ve been grateful to be in these rooms with a lot of wonderful artists. I think the reason why I still have a job is because I take what I do very seriously,” she told me during a late night Zoom chat.
“I don’t talk about people’s personal lives. I don’t talk about what we do in these sessions. I hold my job very close to my heart. It’s a very sacred and beautiful thing.”
Thankfully, Julia is not a closed shop when it comes to yapping about herself.
Born in Iowa and raised in the Golden State, the 27-year-old’s real name is Julia Carin Cavazos. She took the stage name Michaels because her Mexican-puerto Rican father had already changed his name to that when pursuing an acting career.
“Apparently, my ancestors are from a place called Galicia. I think it’s northern Spain. And then somewhere along the lines they – my dad’s side of the family – went to Mexico, ” she said.
Galicia, I mentioned, is probably the only part of Spain where it rains almost on a permanent basis just like in Ireland.
“Oh, that would explain my personality. Let’s be real,” she said, laughing. Why? What’s her personality like? “Just depressing,” she deadpanned. Yet she doesn’t come across as someone that’s down in the dumps.
“That’s great. I’m very self-deprecating. You’ll learn that,” she explained.
But Julia has suffered from panic attacks.
“I used to have them all the time. They were a pretty daily occurrence in my life, actually,” she said.
“And then I started going to therapy and it changed my life. I probably have a panic attack maybe once or twice a year now, which is amazing when you think about it, because when I was twenty-three I was having them almost every day.
“The things that have helped me have been rationalising with myself: finding something to associate my anxiety to. For instance, if I’m panicking about something, it’s like, ‘OK, why do I feel anxious about this? It’s probably because when I was this age, this happened’.
“I’m like, ‘Try to deep breathe’. And then grounding: putting my feet in grass, putting my feet in a pool. It’s just anything that feels – feels like you’re part of the earth.”
Does she think her panic attacks were related to the pressure of work or situations with old boyfriends?
“Pressure of work. Well a little bit of both,” she confessed. “Pressure at work, though, for sure.
“They started right around the time – like consistently around the time – that I had started writing for other people.
“And those songs had had a little bit of success and I felt like every time I was walking into a room, people had higher expectations of me.
“And it would overwhelm me so much that I wouldn’t be able to do anything. I would just be in a corner, just freaking out.
“And then when it came time to put my own stuff out, I’d had such bad performance anxiety because I never really did it before.”
She added: “And just being on stage, in such a new unfamiliar environment. You know, talking about very vulnerable things. It’s just all these people are staring at you – it’s a scary moment when you’ve never done it.”
But she has hit the ground running with her debut album Not in Chronological Order, which is finally out almost a decade after she wrote her first big hit single at aged only 19 for Demi Lovato.
“I never thought I would do this: I never thought I’d put out my first album. I mean, I put out my first single four years ago and it’s taken me till now to do it,” she said modestly.
“So I’m so happy I’ve gotten to be able to do that. And I’m happy that I’ve gotten the support from so many people to branch out and do my own thing.”
The second single All Your Exes was a brave move considering the X-rated lyrics. This comment made her laugh.
“Well, I wrote it with my boyfriend (JP Saxe). We were basically talking and he was like, ‘Maybe one day in the future we’ll have a healthy relationship with the people from our past that have shaped our present’.
“And I was like, ‘I don’t give a s**t about anybody you’ve ever loved. I couldn’t give two f***s’.
“And he was like, ‘You can’t just live in a world where all my exes are dead!’
“And I was like, ‘Yes, I can’.
“And I sarcastically wrote the first two lines when we were in the car. And we went to the studio the next day and wrote it together.
“So it’s very funny, but it’s definitely rooted in loving somebody so much and the idea of them loving somebody as much as they love you before you – it hurts you, you know.”
It’s hard not to think the song was inspired in some ways by Julia’s old flame Lauv, who I interviewed in these pages only the week before his album went to number one in 2020. They had a very public break-up played out in the tabloids.
“I mean, I couldn’t give two f***s about that kid. I really don’t give a s**t. We can move on from that question for sure,” she said politely.
Was it weird at first to be writing songs with her new BF, JP?
“No, we worked really well together. I mean, we figured if the first song we ever wrote together got us a Grammy nomination, we should probably not ‘not’ write together,” she said. “I’m grateful for him because I can tend to be a bit aggressive in the studio and a bit like neurotic. And he doesn’t take it personally at all. Which
‘‘
Probably. I honestly don’t know where the music comes from. I started with poetry when I was a kid. I loved poetry.
I am like,
‘Thank goodness, because we would probably fight a lot!’” Despite the lockdown, the American singer-songwriter insisted on recording the album in a proper studio. “I recorded most of it with my friends: the Monsters & Strangerz who executive produced this album with me in their studio,” she explained. “We wrote most of it in their backyard, actually, socially distanced, in quarantine, which was quite a challenge.
“But I refused to do an album on Zoom. I didn’t want to do that at all. I really wanted to have that connected process and all of our energies in one room, even if that meant we were all six feet apart.”
Does her artistic side come from daddy, seeing as he was a budding actor himself ?
“Probably. I honestly don’t know where the music comes from. I started with poetry when I was a kid. I loved poetry,” she recalled.
“And then my mom got me a piano when I was 12-years-old. And I started to learn basic chords by ear and then started putting my poetry to chords. And that’s how I really started.
“I don’t know how that was nurtured, but I think a lot of it was, you know, being alone in my room and just having all this time to be by myself and just try things. I don’t know. I’ve just always loved poetry.”
I next asked Julia about her tattoos and she leaned closer to the screen to give me a better view of them. How many does she have?
“Oh boy, I am not sure at this point, but probably over 30 and under 60,” she said.
It sounds like the title of an album, I quipped: Over 30 and Under 60.
“Yes, it does, doesn’t it,” she replied, chuckling.
Does she have a favourite?
“I have so many favourites. This one is probably one of my most favourites,” she said, pointing to the ink on her throat. (above) “It says ‘Speak up’.
“I always think it’s important, especially as a woman, to speak your mind and not take s**t from anybody.”
Julia then pointed to another tat, this time on her right wrist.
“And I really love this one. It’s the symbol for perception (circled) and has two triangles and three circles. And it’s not actually fully formed, but the brain perceives it as whole, even though it’s not,” she explained.
“And I’ve always found that really interesting how the brain can perceive something, or someone, as whole, even though it isn’t right.”
How old was Julia when she got her first tattoo?
“I was 18. I could be totally wrong, but I think it’s illegal in California to get a tattoo before you’re 18, unless you have parental consent, maybe at 16. But I don’t know if that’s changed or not. I probably would have done it a lot sooner if there wasn’t a law,” she said.
She must be getting at least two or three done every year?
“Yeah, many. I’ve definitely gotten like three or four in one sitting before,” she said.
I then asked, “Do you get used to the pain after a while?”
She shook her head. “No, they still hurt like a b***h. It depends where you’re getting them, though. It depends on the part of your body. Basically anywhere the sun doesn’t shine you want to avoid,” she said, laughing.
Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Julia has never sampled a pint of the black stuff whenever she’s played in Ireland.
“I don’t like beer. I know! I know! I see your face. I see the shock. I see the surprise. I’m not a beer fan. I’m just not,” she concluded, laughing goodnaturedly again.
“I’m a tequila kind of girl. I like tequila. That’s where my heart is for sure.”
As the old adage goes, home is where the heart is – and it’s clear Julia’s heart is in her music.
Julia Michaels’ debut album Not in Chronological Order is out now via Polydor Records.