If I Never Hit Land was released in October, 2020 by Juletta and Ishan. The debut album reflects Juletta’s inner thoughts, her curiosities and her relationship to both the world and herself. It is deeply introspective as it is inquisitive. The project was inspired by multiple interviews Juletta conducted in the summer of 2019 with an array of women she came across in parks and New York streets. Personable and truth-seeking, Juletta spoke to many women often for an hour at a time, asking them about their life, their fears and their ambitions. After processing these interviews, Juletta then collaborated with her friend and producer, Ishan. Together they created an ethereal sonic landscape of recorded conversations, melodic wonder and genre-defying tunes.
Pass The Crown: How did you meet your collaborator, Ishan?
Juletta: We met through mutual friends within the first couple months of me moving to New York City. My friend who had introduced us had shown me some of Ishan’s music. I was a big fan before I even met him. When we did meet, I ended up spending the night telling him about this album I wanted to make and funny enough that’s the project we just finished.
PTC: What was the inspiration behind the album?
J: I came from a pretty small town in California and I think as a lot of people are upon moving to a big city, I was really fascinated by the diversity and density of people. I was genuinely curious about the lives of people that I would sit next to on the subway or pass in the park. So that fueled the idea. I would go with a video team and interview different women throughout the city. It was a summer of me approaching strangers and we’d sit down for an hour or so. I had these recordings of conversations and I'd watch those and listen to them for like a year, and then I made this album pretty subconsciously after internalizing what those conversations were.
PTC: Is there a particular conversation that stands out?
J: There are definitely a lot. The one I’ve been thinking about lately was with a woman named Mia. She was super interesting because we had talked about her relationship with Jesus. I had asked her who her favorite person was and she said Jesus. She started tearing up and talked about how he had gotten her through her mom getting sick and she genuinely believed after doubting for so long, that he was always guiding her. It was very powerful at the time for me because I always felt spiritually connected to the world in a lot of ways but I haven’t felt religious. My mom raised me somewhat religious but more spiritual so I’ve had a difficult relationship with religion. Mia’s story and testament to Jesus was the first time I witnessed passion towards Jesus and it made me think about what that is to me and what my own definition of heaven is. That conversation inspired the song “Magdalene I.” I decided that heaven to me is the way I grew up with my brother and sister. We grew up on a farm out in nature and had total freedom and no worries. So, I was just illustrating that.
PTC: “Sally Ride” stood out because your spoken conversation is embedded within the song. One line that stuck with me is when the interviewee said, “say yes to everything.”
J: That was a super special interview. It was with Kailey who was one of the videographers who was coming around with me. One of the days, she asked if she could interview. It turned into this really cool conversation and I got to learn a lot about her and the song that really details our conversation is “Wash.” I had this whole crazy experience almost like déjà vu, she so starkly reminded me of my sister when we were talking. I thought I was talking to my sister five years from now. It was crazy to get to hear what I thought was an older version of herself who had found strength in who she was to tell me that it was going to be ok. In this clip particularly, “Sally Ride,” Kailey was talking about her experience with a psychic. This was the message that the psychic was telling her, “to say yes to everything.” She cited all these places that Kailey ended up going. Kailey has seen over one hundred psychics in her life. It’s super cool.
PTC: Wow, that’s amazing and wild. I loved your video for “Airborne.” I am curious about the story behind it and what it means to you particularly.
J: That was also a crazy process, it was a really fun shoot. “Airborne” was probably the most painful song for me to make, I wasn’t in the best headspace at the time. I was frustrated; I felt like I wasn’t really connecting to myself well. Josh, the director, made the film and he really liked the song when I gave him the album. He heard it and loved “Airborne,” and we started building out this scene and he asked me to pick a formative memory. His idea was that the video was going to be as if I was trapped in that memory and I had to work through it and figure it out and come out clearer. We ended up starting with the memory from “But Judy, Everything Changes,” which is where I watch my grandma get knocked over by waves. That was the starting point of the video. To me now, it's turned into this introspective story where I feel like I am meeting an older version of myself and coming to terms with aging. Facing that and facing the fact that I am growing up and getting older and that is out of my control. “Airborne” is a song about control and trying to control what I cannot. I love how it turned out. I can’t believe the whole world he built out of that.
PTC: I especially love the symbolism of water in the video. Where did you film that?
J: It was crazy. We filmed at a resort in upstate New York. If you’ve seen the Marvelous Ms. Maisel, it was the same set where they filmed the second season of that show. It's the craziest scenario that we got to shoot there. There was a lake there, so a bunch of the shots were in that lake and it was freezing that day. I was also in a bathtub; we also used a pool for the other shots.
PTC: How do you normally go about writing lyrics or writing in general?
J: I write constantly. I think that’s part of what I’ve done since I was little. It was never a conscious thing where I was like, “I’m going to write.” It’s just part of my everyday habit. I’m always taking notes on things and writing them down in my notes app on my phone. That starts virtually everything for me and when I start playing piano, I’ll just go through the accumulation of notes that I’ve taken over that week. I think for that reason a lot of my writing turns out pretty impressionistic and is linked between my moods and emotions but is not as clearly of a scene or a particular event. It’s all these little fragments that I weave together.
PTC: I love that. There are so many ways for us to process the world and make sense of it. What songwriters are you influenced by?
J: My dad is a huge music fan so as I was growing up, we listened to a ton of alt-rock. The best alt-rock: the Counting Crows for sure, Train, Matchbox Twenty, GooGoo Dolls. “August and Everything After” by the Counting Crows is definitely still one of my all-time favorite records. Originally I would take the chords from those songs and rewrite my own lyrics. Adam Durtiz, the lead singer of Counting Crows, is a huge writing influence for me and has been since I was little. My favorite albums of all time are Frank Ocean Blonde and Channel Orange, Solange A Seat at The Table and just Moses Sumney as an artist. I just listened to Fine Line by Harry Styles, that’s a great album.
PTC: That's a great album.
J: Yea, Adrianne Lenker’s songs and instrumentals I’ve been listening to a lot lately. She’s a huge inspiration for me also. I had a professor tell me a couple days ago that he doesn’t listen to genres he just listens for conviction, I definitely relate to that. I feel like I listen to artists who really sell what they are saying, you buy into it, you believe whatever they are talking about. Oh! “Early to the Party” by Andy Shauf, amazing record.
PTC: I’ll have to check that out. Your eclectic music tastes kind of transpired into your actual sound. Can you talk a little bit about what influenced your sound? The tune “Gut Feeling” reminds me of a James Blake tune with jazzy influences.
J: It has probably come out of the collision of Ishan and I. We both have very different worlds, I grew up with alt rock and folk and got into more electronic R&B the older I got. I fell in love with Frank Ocean in high school and then Ishan comes from a Michael Jackson childhood. He fell in love with Kanye in middle school and started working with rappers in high school and then into college. He came from a much more hip/hop and R&B place and I came from a more folk/R&B learning place. Our middle ground is James Blake and Frank Ocean where we both love the electronic ballad style songs. It’s kind of a mix of everything, but if I was going to place it I think it fits into the Moses Sumney, Frank Ocean, James Blake pool of life.
PTC: That makes sense. Apart from your artistic inspirations, what non-musical things inspire you creatively?
J: This summer I’ve been watching The Office a ton, that’s great. It probably inspires me. I’ve been watching a ton of anime with my brother which I just got into recently and I really like it. Our favorite show right now is Hunter Hunter. The visuals, the animation itself is especially inspiring and beautiful. Nature. I grew up on a farm, so spending time with animals has always been essential in my life. Fitness and hiking and being outside is very inspiring and essential to my health and life.
PTC: How have you stayed sane within this corona-land world we now live in?
J: Focusing on fitness has been really nice. Often, I don’t prioritize working out because I am moving around all the time. Being home has given me a lot of room to get back into basketball which I love.
PTC: What’s next? Are you working on any new music?
J: We have several short EPs that have been in the works for a while so we’re finishing those off. Me and Ishan are always making music, it’s part of our relationship and that’s just what we do so that’s awesome.
PTC: Lastly, when do you feel most alive?
J: When I’m farthest from everything man made. Total isolation, I feel very elevated.