Julienne Harvey, 21, is a Sydney-based singer on the cusp of a new song release. We talk about how she’s orchestrating her sound, her image, who she’s been inspired by and what she’s writing about now.
brick by brick
Julienne is studying music production at JMC.
“Music has always been something I wanted to do,” she says. “There was definitely a phase during high school where I was like, let’s be realistic. I thought maybe architecture, maybe interior design. But then I did work experience in an architecture firm and I was like, absolutely not, let’s not do that. Thanks.”
If it wasn’t going to be her as an artist, she always knew she wanted to be in the industry in some way. “But so far, I’m still working on me as an artist, and if that fails in 10 years, then I’ll move on.”
As an emerging musician, Julienne has to balance a lot. “I have to be my own marketer, my own manager, my personal fucking assistant, my own PR, everything, on top of just writing and recording.”
But doing it on her own in music is a part of the reason that Julienne decided to study production.
“It was in 2021. I had written a song and I wanted to get it recorded. I went to the studio for the first time and it was a great experience, but at the same time, I could hear my sound in my head but I didn’t know how to communicate that.”
The technical gap, plus the cost of recording as a teenager, made the decision clearer. She told herself, “I need to learn how to do this myself.”
Since then, studying production has made a real difference. “Now I can actually speak to people and know what I’m talking about and feel confident in it. I can tinker with things if it doesn’t sound right. I don’t have to feel like I’m asking for too much if I go back to a producer.”
“I’ve got a guilt complex. I need to be able to do it myself.”
In high school, Julienne says, you learn the basics but that’s only the beginning. “It’s good to know the fundamentals of music in order to learn how to song write, in order to learn anything really. But that’s the first step, it’s the bare minimum of actually having a product that you can put out.”
And songwriting and production are two different things. “You can know how to do scales and read music but then getting it to sound a specific way in tonality and knowing how to program it — that’s different.”
She says it’s true that, as an upcoming artist, she has to do everything but she doesn’t hate that part of it. “I feel like loads of musicians are like, I don’t want to be posting on TikTok 24/7, it should be about the music.”
“I like the marketing, creative direction. I like coming up with a world and brand. I just think I’m suited to come up with that.”
Lately she’s been figuring out her image, not just sound.
“I needed to research other artists, you can’t really create a community and connect with an audience without an image. People need to be able to get into the world that you create with your music, it’s the branding, the way the person presents themselves as an artist.”
visual worlds
Julienne’s been thinking a lot about visual identity: how artists build a look that goes beyond the music, and why it works.
At the moment, she’s been looking into Erin LeCount. “She’s been my recent case study. She’s from the UK and she basically skyrocketed overnight. And she’s just got a very specific vibe, if you will.”
“It’s the same as any other big artist. You know what to wear to a Billie Eilish concert — you’ve got your jersey, you’ve got your jorts. You know what to wear to a Sabrina Carpenter concert — it’s gonna the 50s retro, the lingerie.”
“With Erin LeCount, you’ve got your white dress, angel wings. You’ve gotta have something that people can hook onto.”
Julienne covers ‘Silver Spoon’ by Erin LeCount ↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺
discovery
Julienne’s music has drawn comparisons. “So many people have compared my music to Lana.”
“I don’t know what it was, but my mum’s music influence was just so stuck in me. I was very much into older rock, listening to Radiohead and Portishead, which is also a main inspiration.”
Julienne says that she was surprised when she was told she sounded like Lana Del Rey and Lucy Dacus, she’d never listened to their music previously.
“I was like, let me not be so stubborn about what I listen to.”
Now she says, the likes of Lana and Lucy are “100% my main gals.”
“How had I been missing this for so long? Because it’s obviously what I’ve been searching for but something was blocking me.”
“Maybe there was a good reason for that,” she says.
“Maybe it’s because that’s the type of music that I wanted to make and then I just didn’t want to be copying. I don’t know.”
“I’m gonna say that there’s a reason for everything.”
a year of rest and relaxation
Julienne took a break from music for a while, from everything for a while.”
She had a “year of rest and relaxation” but “it wasn’t restful at the time.”
Julienne says, “I just needed to shut down. Personal things happened. I just couldn’t function for a year.”
Julienne’s new release fits this theme. “It’s the perfect storyline to kick off the next song release. I’ve had this song recorded for over a year now, probably a year and a half. I was saving it.”
Now she’s ready to bring it out of its hibernation — Julienne’s song ‘Self-Care’ will be out soon.
“It’s a song about mental health and feeling guilty about not being able to function. It’s lots of fun. Lovely little tune.”
“It’s a bit of a different vibe production-wise to my previous stuff, but the feedback that I’ve gotten so far from has been good.”
I ask Julienne about the vulnerability of showing up as yourself in music.
“I don’t feel vulnerable putting it out into the world, just because I crave the connection that it brings. I love the way that my experiences, even though they may have been god awful, terrible experiences, I can turn them into something beautiful that someone connects with it. That brings me a lot of fulfillment.”
“The only time that I am like, oh god, this is a lot is the people in my life hearing it. I’ve always said that it’s the most scary thing to perform in front of a small crowd of people I know. But if you were to put me in a room with 500 strangers — fine. I’m okay with that. I’m so comfortable, put me there. But then stick me in a small room with like, the ten people closest in my life, and get me to perform a song that I’ve written, it’s hard.”
self-care
The next release is called ‘Self-Care’. Julienne wrote it in 2022, when she was seventeen.
“The title is ironic,” she says. “Because it’s about how I can’t take care of myself.”
The track is one of her most vulnerable. “I feel like it’s grown more sentimental to me because the song is about one of my most vulnerable states. It’s that cycle of mental health where you get better and then you fall back down into the hole.”
I look outside into the rain,
all I feel is the haze.
I probably should take my meds,
get out of bed and brush my hair,
but I can’t seem to do these things
that everyone expects of me.
I think the weather feels like me too.
I want to know how to get through,
the rain feels like my tears falling,
Iris into the abyss.
I probably should take my meds,
get out of bed and brush my hair,
but I can’t seem to do these things
that everyone expects of me.
My little pill box stares at me,
only two days empty.
At the end of the week,
it’s safe to say I’ve missed a couple of days.
I just want to feel okay.
I know I should take care of myself,
get out of bed and take my fucking meds,
but I can’t seem to do these things
that even I expect of me.
Julienne performs ‘Self-Care’ - available for streaming soon !! ¸¸♫·¯·♪¸¸♩·¯·♬¸¸
Julienne’s been a singer her whole life and even if she’s hesitant around family, she’s known to them as the young girl who would get lost in shopping centres—you could always find where she was by listening out for her voice.
Today, if you listen out for her, you’ll hear the heavenly voice of a singer discovering her sound, vision and the beauty of connection made through song. Her music is rich, dark and cinematic and the perfect addition to your moody, rainy day playlist.
✰✰✰✰✰✰You can keep up with Julienne on all her platforms here✰✰✰✰✰✰
Love Julienne’s sound! It’s a little grungy but also gothic. I can definitely hear the comparison to Lana, but in this very rich, contralto kind of way.