Julia Holter Quotes

‘Maxim‘s’ was supposed to be on ‘Ekstasis,’ but it was very much in its own world.

I really write at home on my own, and the demos themselves are very similar to the final recordings in a lots of ways.

‘Betsy’ is one of my favorites because it is the one to which I’ve imposed the least clear narrative. To me, it’s so much more about the feeling – desperation – than any kind of story at all. There’s very little imagery or character development; it’s just about a deep and desperate search for something.

I try to ignore people‘s opinions about my music – you don’t want to hold yourself back because of that stuff.

I’m inspired by nonmusical things a lot, whether it’s a film or a book or whatever.

No one recognises me on the street, ever.

I try to not think too much about how people are receiving my music. And I’m not really famous enough that it’s a problem.

If I feel like I’m myself, then I’m very uncomfortable.

I don’t ever like to see paparazzi much, but I have seen them, and I guess anyone who‘s seen them knows how scary they are.

I started playing piano when I was eight, and I went on to study piano in school, so I have a background in classical piano and studied composition in school. Writing music came later.

‘Have You in My Wilderness,’ the title track, is about the idea of possessing a person, or saying, ‘You’re mine; you’re in my world now.’ I was drawn to that as an idea less from my own experience than from listening to music written by men that was kind of male gaze-y.

In L.A., you can play forever, and no one around the world will hear you.

I prefer to work with mystery, but that doesn’t work well in an academic environment. They want you to analyze what you’re doing, which is toxic to the creative process for people like me.

All I ever know is what I want to do next.

I listen to the timbre of the music, and I fit my voice to blend with that timbre.

I’m happy that I worked alone on ‘Tragedy,’ but it’s obvious that I was trying to create something much bigger than I could do on my own.

You don’t have to know about ‘Hippolytus’ to listen to ‘Tragedy.’

To me, the process of art is very much a process of translation, of borrowing.

I usually like to hide my vocals behind the music. I don’t like to hide them consciously, but I have a tendency to prefer the vocal at the same level as everything else and put lots of reverb on it.

I started classical piano when I was eight, but I wasn’t a virtuoso. I just really liked it.

I think of each record as different and not having very much in common with what went before or what comes next.

I don’t fit into a group very well socially. And that might be reflected in my music.

When I was a kid, I had a xylophone, and I thought that was the instrument I wanted to play. I didn’t realize it was a toy.

I take music very seriously, but it’s important to me that my music is – I don’t know if ‘intuitive‘ is the word, but there’s a really important element of something kind of mysterious. It’s not academic or esoteric.

You can have an Internet presence, but it doesn’t mean anyone has any idea who you are or what you look like. Which is great.

I don’t like to talk too much about my music; I like people to just experience it and not worry what I have to say.

For me, the poetic decisions tend to be calculated, and the musical decisions inspired by the poetic decisions are free.

I don’t know how well I work in traditions. I don’t know if it’s just the way I listened to music growing up and never having my foot in one particular world, and just wanting to do my own thing.

I thought I was gonna get a doctorate in composition or be a composer and be at a university for the rest of my life, mostly because my parents are academics, and that was the logical thing to do.

Musical themes developing is a lot of what classical music is based on, and exposition and recapitulation – these kinds of things I find oppressive.

What was special about Leonard Cohen’s work was its calm mystery.

One thing I do like about L.A. is the fact that you can be – whether you’re famous or it’s just a matter of, like, seeing people you know all the time on the street, you can be pretty anonymous and walk around and, like, not run into people, because it’s such a big city and because a lot of people drive.

One of the struggles that I have with classical music is the way one thinks about a recapitulation. There’s always this idea of themes, and I have trouble with that.

I played cello on my early recordings, but that doesn’t mean I’m a cellist, you know?

I usually work in a room which is totally cluttered with my mess, and there’s stuff everywhere, and it’s kind of chaotic because I am a very messy person. I could totally write in a pristine environment, but it would mean I would have to be at someone else’s house.

I like mantras and repeating things, like in pop music, where you repeat a line over and over again. It’s just so beautiful.

Saying that something is accessible gives it this implication that people need something, and thinking that we know what people need or want is really unpleasant. I don’t like to think that way, like, predicting what it is that the people want.

I just always make honest music. I just always kinda do what I wanna do.

In high school, I would secretly play Joni Mitchell songs all the time. That’s when I started singing and playing at the same time, and I got really into doing that.

It’s so hard to know where you belong, ever. You have to be yourself and let yourself fall wherever you fall.

I say most of my music is very trial-and-error.

If you’ve ever seen paparazzi go after a celebrity, it’s really freaky.

I did study with Anne Carson briefly in Michigan. She taught there, and that’s where I first encountered her, in her class.

The Beatles, even Radiohead, all of my favorite stuff I’d play on the piano. But it was all very secret – for me, for fun. I wasn’t going to record myself playing those songs, and it never occurred to me to write a song of my own.

I’ve never felt at home anywhere.