By Sophia Fineza

i listened to the Cherries EP at the recommendation of my dad. thanks, dad! it led to my obsession with Julianna Joy’s music. you could put it on at really any time, but i personally recommend listening late at night, with TikTok and/or fairy lights ON. the vibes in the record are absolutely immaculate. they’re all so calming and perfect for chilling alone in your room. her music and lyrics connect to you in a way that’s relatable regardless of you age, background, or situation. Julianna told me that she wanted her audience to connect to her music in whatever way they wanted, and that she loved hearing different interpretations of her songs. everyone will have a different experience listening to her music. you should definitely start listening to her now, just so when she’s all big and famous, you can brag to your friends that you started listening to her foreeeevvver ago. i’m so so so excited to see what she does in the future, and can’t wait for her debut album!

you can follow Julianna Joy on all platforms at @juliannajoy69 and at juliannajoy.com

so who is Julianna Joy? glad you asked. I recently zoom chatted with this rising star to talk about her music, how she landed a record label deal with Big Deal Music and moved out to los angeles from suburban Chicago, what inspires her, and what her go-to karaoke song is :)

here are a couple of highlights from the interview below. be sure to watch or listen to the full interview found on this page.

s: who would you say inspired you to make music?
j: it’s something i’ve wanted to do since i was in second grade, probably. like one of those dream careers that you have as a kid. like everyone wants to be a doctor or a firefighter. for me, it was being a musician, and i think it’s based off of the fact that i was obsessed with Taylor Swift. even now, i still love her to death, but i think it was around 2009 when i was in second grade and that was when Fearless was going on, and that’s when i really got obsessed with her, and i asked for a guitar for christmas, because i wanted to be able to be like her, and then my dad, just knowing that i was going to be a musician by the way i was so adamant about wanting a guitar, and it all started right there.

s: tell us about your story, about moving out to Los Angeles and record deals.
j: I started writing music when I was in 5th grade. I mostly did it to be like Taylor Swift, but as I started writing through middle school, and I saw how it helped me get through some things, I realized I wanted to make it a career. So when I was in eighth grade, I said I was going to take it super seriously. It’s not just a scapegoat for me, I needed to do this. When I was 15, I got into the Grammy camp. It’s a camp hosted by the Grammy Foundation for young musicians across the United States. I got into the track as a music business student, so I flew to California and I was the second-youngest person attending the camp. I’m glad that I was a part of the music business track, because going to the camp, I learned so much about the music industry. It was a really good experience, and it definitely affirmed for me that this was what I wanted to do. When I got back from the camp, my mom said “yo, I kinda know this person.” She told me that one of her colleagues' college roommates was Jaime Seretta, who is now my label rep, and that he was the co-president of Big Deal Music Publishing in LA, and if I ever wanted to send anything his way, or talk to him, that I could. I wanted to do that, but wanted to wait a year until I was more comfortable in my writing. It took almost exactly a year, and in August 2018, I had my first call with Jaime, and it was set up as a phone call to talk about, “you want to be a musician? Here’s some advice…” At the end of the call, he said “if you’re ever in LA, let us know, we’ll set you up with some of our writers, because we do think you have a lot of talent.” I flew into LA in January of 2019, and I met Dylan Gardner, and we recorded Nevermind on my birthday. I came back home, and three weeks later my mom got a call from Jamie, saying that he can’t stop thinking about this song. He wanted me to do a whole EP, and I’m sitting there, like “Hello. Yes.” I flew out again in April, while we were talking through negotiations, and we recorded Cherry Bomb in April, and I actually lived in LA all of July that year. We recorded the whole EP, and it took about 2 weeks for it to be ready to be mixed and mastered. We released the EP in February of this year, which was incredible.