Diandra Interviews JULIANA: Sing Your Pain Away

Talking to Juliana was like talking to a friend. She is very sweet, open, and curious, especially when it comes to weaving her musical purpose with her life’s experiences. There is nothing like literally losing your voice and then your first love to have your entire self-identity vanish before your eyes. Not only was her heart abandoned by someone she loved, but her body seemingly turned on her, as well. This led her to a path of healing where she was determined to sing again but with fearlessness. In our interview, we discuss how her newest single, Call It Quits, was another step in her journey to make authenticity and vulnerability mean one in the same.

Diandra: How did 2020 inspire “Call It Quits?”

JULIANA: 2020 is a really difficult year; mentally, physically, and emotionally for everyone. It is such a difficult, stressful time. It has been brutal. 2020 feels like a dark cloud around everyone, and I am hopeful that my music is like a light to people. When I wrote it I was crying every day, and, because I was able to write these songs, I felt like I lifted those negative energies and I want to show people that they can, too.

I was all in my feelings in the beginning of quarantine, and it gave me the opportunity to tap into the creative side of my brain. Before 2020, no one slowed down, and this time has given people a time to breath and ask what is real in life…. what is important. I went through something when I wrote “Call It Quits.” I wrote 20 plus songs, and I said, “I have to share this with people so they know other people are going through it with them.” Quarantine was a way for me to come out with my music, and I am very grateful for it.
JULIANA. – Call It Quits (Official Music Video)

Diandra: You talk about this period being a “lift” of sorts from negativity. Was there something, in particular, that you said, “Okay, I have to get that bad thought or habit out!”

JULIANA: That is a great question! Really important because mental strength is key. I think the biggest thing for me was the ability to feel comfortable being alone. I was always around people. I am a very social person. I like to be around different energies, and I didn’t enjoy being alone with my own thoughts. Music gives me an outlet to express the feelings I wouldn’t tell people or say in a normal conversation. Quarantine gave me an opportunity to stay with those thoughts and still be happy with myself. I used to really go to people for validity and to make them make me happy, and, when they didn’t, I got really down. I would take their negative feedback and run with that for months. Yet, 2020 taught me I can’t do that. I have to love me and be okay with my inner thoughts. I have to be happy.

Diandra: I read that you, actually, lost your voice for years, and had to, basically, relearn how to speak. Do you think that ordeal, in some ways, prepped you in dealing with such isolation?

JULIANA: Absolutely! 100% It was a really taxing time for me. My physical health was being compromised daily, and I would visit all these doctors and no one could tell me why. It was so emotionally taxing because I couldn’t use music anymore. It is my therapy, and I just didn’t have the voice. Not having that outlet to express myself and get to my true feelings and let it out, It made me really appreciate my voice and invest in finding it. I want people to know, through my music, that it is okay to be okay and it is okay to be happy. I think that people, nowadays, are so scared of being happy because they are like, “Something is going to go wrong?” I want people to know there are so many small things like, writing a song, that can make you happy.

Diandra: I feel so bad for you because I think that everybody, at least, once will go through a “Trial of Job” period of years where everything goes wrong, and all they can do is just look up at Heaven and say, “Why God? Why can’t I win one?!”

JULIANA: (laughs) It makes you grow up. It makes you see life in a different way, and I am grateful for it. At the time, it was horrible, but I am happy it happened, and it gave me a better life perspective. I always wanted to be a singer, and I didn’t understand the extent of my wanting it until I couldn’t have it. In that moment, I realized this is all I want and I have to whatever it takes to get there. So now, I don’t jut sing to sing. It feels better. I put so much more emotion. I feel the songs more because of what I have gone through, and I hope it shows through my music. There is a richer sound in my music because there is more story. I went through a lot in my life to get here.

Diandra: If Music was your best friend, how would you describe her?

JULIANA: Music is my stability, and the second I didn’t have it, I became mentally unstable. So, finally, getting my voice back, it was just a weight lifted because I put all these energies and feelings I needed to release. It provided me a clarity to feel okay with my feelings and get closure, which was so important to me. Sometimes, situations don’t give you closure, but you need closure with yourself. So I feel music is my emotional, best friend. She is lively flirty, and, definitely, singing in front of mirrors with a hairbrush. She keeps me real, and teaches me to not be fake and put on feelings. A lot of times, in this industry, you have to act all excited, even if you are not. We all go through these facades in our face, body, and our mind, and it is like, “Fake it till you make it!” My music is not like that, which is why it is exciting.

Diandra: I feel like Music is my margarita friend. I call her when I want to vent over unlimited frozen margs and then karaoke.

JULIANA: I want to hang out with your version of Music.

Diandra: She’s available for brunches.

Juliana: (Juliana laughs) It is a good way to see Music because she is carefree and fun, and then she can get serious and be raw. We need to brunch.
JULIANA. – Burn (Official Music Video)

Diandra: We do! And I think you are right like, brunches, or rather, Music is just so heightened emotionally. Like, they are this blast that lets you crash a little bit because, sometimes, you need to or you can’t fight it.

JULIANA: Yeah! I mean, before quarantine, I was always moving, and, when everything stopped, it was like, ‘Wow! This is kind of nice!” It was nice to not have to talk to people or run to do an errand. I didn’t relax often, and it made me okay with doing nothing. It made me have balance.

Diandra: There is absolutely no point to a plan in 2020. Like, “Where are you going?” This is the first time, I think, where so much of the world couldn’t really have massive goals beyond personal ones like, “feeling better about yourself.”

JULIANA: Totally, which I think is nice!

Diandra: Do you have a movie you would turn into a concept album?

JULIANA: Pretty Woman! I think she is a very strong and powerful woman. She has a sex appeal, and it is okay to be sexy. People look at her in “this way,” but she owns herself and her outfits. I think that is really cool, and we can be sexual beings without being sexualized for what we are wearing. Men should not be sexualizing our outfits; they are outfits! I think she is really strong during a taxing time, and she is so raw and powerful.
JULIANA. – Call It Quits (Live Acoustic)

Diandra: I can honestly say I have not seen a super gorgeous guy in a speedo, and thought, “Yup! GOT TO HAVE HIM!”

JULIANA: (laughs) I studied feminism in college and it was very impactful. I focus on the mental health of everything because, how you approach yourself mentally, does ignite how you see your body positively and sexually. When you mentally see yourself in a better light, you don’t tax your body and you don’t accept toxic men, especially dating them, and how they tell you that you are not pretty or you need to fix your body.

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