Juice Webster has just released her sophomore EP, More Than Reaction. It's a sophisticated collection of powerful indie-folk. Thoughtfully stripped back to just Julia's breathtaking vocals and sombre guitar, then masterfully incorporating the band at the perfect time, adding depth and texture throughout. Hazy Days Music would like to thank Julia for taking the time out and having a chat.

 I think you are one of the most talented musicians coming out of Australia. When did you first start playing? And how did this project start?

I grew up always playing music. I first started playing the violin at the age of eight, then I learned the saxophone, but I have always enjoyed singing for as long as I can remember. I wanted to learn an instrument that I could sing along to, so I started guitar lessons when I was around fourteen, but I really hated my guitar teacher, haha, so I just stopped going but kept playing. I started writing songs when I was sixteen. I just really enjoyed writing. It would've been in 2017 when I first started wanting to make something of this and start turning it into a bit more of a thing. I've played with a few different people along the way and been through the whole process of playing shows, playing a bunch of songs that turn out to be trash, haha, and doing that whole thing for a little while and now here we are.

Stupid Girl is a strong, poignant track. What is the meaning behind the lyrics?

Stupid Girl is the oldest song on the newest EP, More Than Reaction. I wrote this one back in 2018 and it's one of those ones that I don't really remember writing musically. I wrote it in the wake of one of the many horrific murders that happened during that period of time. I wrote it after Eurydice Dixon was murdered in Melbourne, in a park that was really close to my house. I was just reflecting on this time in my high school (I went to an all-girls school). Where we were taught ways we could make ourselves safer when we were out and about. They held these assemblies about certain things, where they would teach us things like - pretending you are on the phone to someone if you feel threatened and all these different types of things to do when you don't feel safe. When I was writing this song, it was just becoming clearer and clearer to me that it doesn’t matter what you do. We can do all these things, but it doesn't make you any safer. I think every time something like that happens, it sends a big shock wave through the community. I think because of my proximity to this one, like I walk there every day. This one was very close to home for me.

You released a beautiful film clip for Stupid Girl. How was the experience of making this? Who else was involved in the planning and shooting of this film clip?

I think this was the first time I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do for a music video. Often I'm like, ah God, I've got no idea, haha. I can't remember exactly when I had the idea, but I thought of this idea of dancing alone in an apartment or an intimate space.

I was very inspired by music videos from artist Okay Kaya and Caroline Polachek. They both have a lot of movement in them, and that was the inspiration behind the type of movement I wanted in Stupid Girl. My friend Oonagh Slater, who I met some years ago and have collaborated with a few times. Oonagh is a dancer and she choreographed the movements. We had a bunch of rehearsals at my place, where she went through it all and taught me the movements. We kind of collaborated on it to an extent, I can't take any credit for the movements whatsoever, but we watched a lot of references together and hashed out how we wanted it to look.

I think when I spoke about how I want to be dancing alone in an apartment, that conjured up a specific connotation and a specific idea that I wanted to avoid because I really wanted the movements to be more gestural than dancy. I worked with an amazing team. My friends Meg Duncan directed it and Boni was the DOP. It was quite a small crew of all women, and it was awesome. We shot the whole thing in just a day, and it didn't take that long. It was helpful being shot on a digital camera and a still cam so we could watch it back, as opposed to shooting on film. We almost had to factor that in when we were thinking of the choreography. Like where it would go and what part of my body would be seen, we were quite considerate about the camera angles.

It was actually a really painless shoot. On the day, I was kind of just expecting things to go wrong, I was all stressed about the shoot leading up to it, then the day happened and it was so nice. But it was a little while before I saw any of the footage, so I got all stressed again thinking the day was too easy, something had to have gone wrong, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

You released your second EP, More Than Reaction about a month ago. I am obsessed! How was it writing this EP?

In terms of when the songs were written, it was kind of all over the place. I didn't have an EP in mind when I was writing any of these songs.

I had demos of all the music and thought they would go well together on an EP. 

My partner and I went down to Blairgowrie, where his family have a little place there. We went down there in summer 2019/2020, so it was when all the devastating fires were happening. It was a really weird time for a lot of people in Australia. We were down there for five days and recorded, More Than Reaction ourselves. It was a really nice, laxed time. We didn't have the stress of being in a studio for a certain amount of days, where we needed to get everything done before our booking was up. There was a lot of trial and error. We had the time to play with things and see what happened. That way the EP felt really organic, and we polished it off back in Melbourne. The bulk of More Than Reaction was done in Blairgowrie.

I love the common thread your EP's share, how they both have a majority of songs that feature only your vocals and guitar, with one or two songs off the EP layered with the band. What is your creative process? And how difficult do you find experimenting with which songs are more stripped back and which songs require accompaniment from your band?

I have kind of had that thought too, but I think me and my partner Simon are big fans of not overdoing things; like does it sound weird if only two of the songs have a full band, and the rest is just me? I found it was very much the case of trying to add things into the other three songs, but they didn't need it. It didn't seem to serve any of the songs by having all these extra elements in there. I think it's a bit harder with an EP because it's such a smaller body of work. With an album, I feel like you have more of an opportunity to have the music build-up, control the flow and add in a bit more light and shade. An EP is much more of a collection. 

When I was putting these songs together, I was thinking, is this a weird body of work? But thinking about each song individually, it made sense for them to just be like that. Stupid Girl was actually a really hard one to produce because we were like, let's try this, and let's try that, and it got to the point where we were just like it doesn't need anything else. Adding in anything else is just taking away from the song itself. I felt the same for Believer, and I Don't Mean to. Where-on Let The Dog Out and Wanna Be Held had a bit more guts to it, and it needed the band. 

That's one of the hardest things about producing is knowing when enough is enough. You can always keep adding things in and trying to make something sound better, but often the song doesn't need it. Having the ability to tell what's essential and what isn't, and what elements are actually serving the music rather than just having them in there just because you can. 

When playing live with a band. It's been super fun incorporating the songs on the EP that don't have that many elements to them. I have enjoyed that, not necessarily adding a drumbeat to Stupid Girl, but have the other members of the band adding in textural elements, like other things you don't hear on the recordings.

Believer is one of my favourites off the EP. What is the story behind this one?

There is a lot to unpack in there for this one, haha.

In a nutshell, when I was writing Believer, I was thinking a lot about how I've always been really afraid of losing my memory. I think most of who we are is tied up in our memory and our experiences shape who we are as a person. If we can't remember those things, I think a large part of ourselves would go away. I was thinking about if I lost my memory at any point, I would just have to take the word of the person telling me who I was, and I have no choice but to believe them. 

But then I was sorting of thinking about that in reference to everything, and it's sort of the same case with our whole lives. Anything we are taught you just have to believe it at the end of the day.

Believer is also just about growing up in general and the changes that come with that. Around the time I was writing this, my sister fell pregnant, and she just had a baby, and one of my brothers also just had a baby, and it's an amazing change and addition to our family. It's just this huge realisation that we are just growing up. It just made me feel very existential.

Have you noticed a change in your writing process between EPs?

It's definitely changed. I think I was still finding my sound on my first EP, You Who Was Myself. My writing process then was to write the lyrics first, not necessarily being lyrically focused. But I felt the lyrics needed to come first, and that was something I was very adamant about. After that EP came out, I felt like I was stuck in my ways. I started changing the tuning of my guitar and changing things up like that. I'm not a super confident guitar player, but I kept finding it sounded a bit too similar. Once I changed the tuning, it was just so freeing and I felt like that really changed the way I wrote music discovering these new chord voicing. Now my process is I'll try and do the melody and chords first, and the lyrics come into it afterwards. That was a real game-changer for me.

It must have been exciting planning your EP launch show and then having it sell out! How was that experience?

I was so excited! The Tote has been great. I previously shot a video there, and they have been really accommodating and really lovely from the start. 

I'm really excited that Alexander Biggs is supporting. I just asked him and didn't expect him to say yes. I was just like I may as well ask. I’m so hyped! And I am a huge fan.

I'm quite shocked that the first show sold out. I was really nervous the night before the tickets were going on sale and was having trouble sleeping. I was thinking that no one is going to come, and based off the people that told me that they were coming, there were going to be 15 attending. The next day, one of my friends messaged me asking if the ticket link was invalid or something? I emailed The Tote and asked them if the link is broken? And they told me the show was sold out! I was completely shocked and so hyped! 

What's planned for the rest of 2021?

I've got a few more shows planned, and I’m writing again at the moment. I’d love to make an album this year.

Stay up to date with Juice Webster on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.

Posted on the 31st of May by Jake Taylor.