We interview Julia Cole ahead of her first headline show in the UK at Buckle and Boots, about her new single ‘Trust You,’ songwriting as therapy and her Texan roots.
This time you’re actually going to have the chance to headline at Buck n Bull.
Ain’t that cool? I’m so excited. Originally that was the first one I was booked for over the twelve dates. CAA threw me on this tour, which first of all I was like ‘thank you’ and second of all ‘oh my god I need to figure out how to pack for a month in one checked bag.’ I have to wear twelve different outfits on stage, and obviously comfy stuff for all the travelling – it’s a lot, but we made it.
There are so many different influences in your music and I really wanted to talk to you about growing up in Houston. Everyone talks about Texas country as being very different to the rest of country music, can you talk to that?
Absolutely, so Texas country is what a lot people would describe as old-fashioned, classic country. The content – people really sing about Texas, not every song but a good majority of them, they’ll talk about Green Hall, they’ll talk about things specific to Texas that people outside of it might not latch onto or understand, but aside from that, sonically it sounds a lot more classic and old-style.
That’s one influence in your music, but then you’ve also got a bit of RnB in there…
So I’m from Houston, Texas and Houston is where Beyonce is from, Slim Thug…. We’ve got the hip hop, RnB influences and on top of that I played sports my entire life growing up, and our playlist would consist of whatever anyone on the team liked, so I would grow up listening to everything.
Yeah because I was going to talk to you about that, you started off singing the national anthem for teams – was that your introduction to singing on the big stage?
It absolutely was, when I was in high school I used to sing for the Houston Texans and I remember being 17 and just singing in front of 75,000 people. It’s crazy though, I was not even nervous, that’s why I was like ‘ok I’m supposed to do this.’ I sang for the Texans last weekend, I was actually at the Wembley stadium, because i know all the folks for the Texans.
That must have been a surreal experience singing for the NFL Texas team in the UK?
84,000 people!
You’ve described your sound as ‘country with a kick’ – what do you mean by that?
I really love having a good rhythm for a song, I don’t write a lot of slow ballad music, I like to have a good time. Even if you’re singing about something that’s darker or sad, I like the high energy and I think that’s been pretty fun. In some of my shows I incorporate other genres in mash-ups and stuff, so it’s definitely been a good time. In general in life I try to keep things pretty high energy.
Your debut single this year was ‘Trust You,’ obviously there’s been such a shift in your music recently, it feels like with this new music you’ve just entered a whole new level – did you feel that when you were writing these new tracks?
Yeah, I released an acoustic project in January 2018 that was the equivalent of what people would call demos, they’re not meant to be on radio, they’re just little acoustic things. I was already out on tour, I was on tour with Jon Pardi and Carrie Underwood and Lee Brice etc. and I just needed to have something out there for the fans, otherwise it was like ‘sorry I don’t have anything.’ It wasn’t until the ‘Trust You’ release that I really had music out that I felt was me, this is who I am.
Had that been a conscious decision to wait for that moment and hold off until you’d found a sound you were happy with?
Exactly, because I didn’t want to do that development and learning process on that public of a stage. It’s so different for us now than for artists of the past, because social media you have the capability to literally publicise everything you do, whereas you used to have a whole team of people approve it before anything was put out and be like ‘this is good.’ Now you can throw up whatever you want, it’s nice that we have such a direct connection to your fans but I think it’s a little dangerous.
Do you find you can use that to try stuff out and see what works?
Yes 100%. I play all my stuff live at concerts before I record it, that way I know which ones people are really into or not. It’s not for me to sit and listen to at home, it’s therapeutic for me when I write it, but then after the writing process the music belongs to the people.
Speaking of therapy, ‘Trust You’ is the ultimate therapy get out of my system song, but it also must have been really hard to write?
Yeah, so in Nashville we do a lot of co-writing and we call them ‘free therapy sessions’ as a joke, but it really is. You sit down with not only really great lyric and melodic writers, but also people you’re probably really good friends with who’ve known you and we get deep into the heart of it, whatever it is that we’re talking about we get it all out on the table, because that’s going to get the most honest lyric.
‘Trust You’ is meant to be a song of empowerment, it’s a song about having been cheated on, but it’s more so about the aftermath and consciously making the decision not to let that person back into your life because that’s what happens so often. I see time and time again, something that’s a really unhealthy relationship but people keep going back to it and it’s not just relationships love-wise, it could be family relationships, friendships. Anyone who betrays your trust, you’re strong enough to move forward without them, no matter how much time you’ve invested into that friendship. It’s hard sometimes to let go, it’s so hard because you’ve spent however many years with that person but it’s not worth the betrayal and the trust that you don’t have for them anymore.
Another super empowering part of that song was the music video using sign language that shows just how important the lyrics are to that song.
My whole thing is inclusivity, I never liked the people who were all exclusive and you had to be this or be that to be their friend or be included in whatever it was, and it’s so much broader than even a popularity thing. People from all different worlds deserve to be a part of the Cole team and have access, and if I can make it easier for them to have access by having sign language, I’m going to do what I can. The way that that happened was a woman posted a video covering my song but singing it in sign language, so I DM’ed her saying ‘this is incredible, can we do a real video.’ Then we got together and we filmed a real video of it. Through talking with her I met a lot of people in the deaf or hard of hearing community and I learned so much just from interacting with them for a day or two days. I’m grateful that she sent me that video because now my eyes are opened to this whole other platform that I can help provide something that they might not have been getting before.
The latest two singles you dropped were ‘Call It’ and ‘Be Where We Are’ so what was the inspiration behind those two tracks?
So ‘Be Where We Are’ and ‘Call It’ are very different but they both live in the same vein, so ‘Be Where We Are’ is the feel good remember to live in the moment, don’t take anything for granted feeling, and then ‘Call It’ is a little bit sexier, like an empowered female perspective on a new relationship. Then the next two that aren’t out yet, they cover different spectrums too, so I feel like when the project is out in 2020 it’ll be a really well rounded ‘Who is Julia’ and besides that what are the experiences you might feel in life. It’s so hard, let me tell you, picking which songs to record, because I have so many songs – I have over a thousand songs. You don’t want to have three love songs in a row, so of the love songs you’ve got to pick one and then you can’t have too many break up songs – I feel like it’s a little redundant. I know people used to do full albums that were more ‘this is a break up album’ or whatever, but I don’t think people consume music in the same way anymore, so I feel like we have to release in the way that is helpful for the way people want to consume music.
Do you ever have songs that you think would have worked and people would have consumed them but they don’t?
Yeah it’s usually not that, it’s usually the other way of songs that I didn’t think anybody was going to care about, like a song that I didn’t think was going to make the record but I was playing it because I had an extra five minutes in my set and I get 10 people who come up to the merch table and ask me ‘where can I get this song?’ and that’s usually when I think ‘weird, I was so wrong…’ The music industry is a crap shoot, nobody knows what’s going to work, what people are going to connect to, you just have to write what’s true to you and what’s honest and that’s all you can do. Otherwise people are going to cater to what’s going to work and that’s not going to get you authentic, honest music.
Moving into next year and the new project, do you know what it’s going to look like yet?
Yeah I think we’re going to include ‘Trust You’ on the EP, seeing as it was just a single. I think it will be those five songs and that will be the full project. I don’t know the release date yet, we’re going to feel out the singles that were just released and ride the wave.
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Final Few
Would you rather give up songwriting or performing? It’s funny because songwriting isn’t a choice, it just happens. On the flight on the way here I wanted to sleep so badly but I couldn’t because I had an idea and if you don’t write it down and flush out the idea it’s gone forever. I can’t shut it off, it’s not a choice if you’re a writer it happens to you. I mean I’m obsessed with performing to, being able to perform the songs that you do write there’s nothing like it. I don’t think I can pick.
Wine or whiskey? Whiskey’s good for your voice but wine is wine… I’m going to pick wine, red wine.
Record you couldn’t live without if you were stuck on a desert island? Post Malone’s record, I love it.
Record you’re listening to on repeat at the moment? The last Ariana Grande record.
Do you have a pre-show ritual? I don’t really, I wish I did but I usually tune up my guitar, make sure I have water and a drink. I’m pretty relaxed, I don’t really do vocal warm ups.
Complete the sentence…
Music is… a powerful way of connecting people
Country music is… a really powerful way of connecting people.
Julia Cole is… really a team, it’s the Cole team and it’s part of a ton of people that I couldn’t do this without, including the fans.
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