Julia Holter

We’d love an opening paragraph for your Tone Deaf Spotlight. Introduce yourself…

I’m Julia Holter, I come from Los Angeles

This will be your first tour of Australia, what are you most excited about?

I’m excited to see this beautiful land on the other side of the world I have heard so many good things about. It’s a little bit fantastical-seeming! I can’t believe it’s happening…tomorrow.

There’s a vast array of instrumentation on Ekstasis, do the choices of sounds ever overwhelm you?

As a listener, no. But if you mean, was it hard to put together, the answer is yes.

How many tracks come spontaneously as opposed to having a clear idea of where a song will go?

I think most of them are written somewhat spontaneously, but the truth is, even if a song is ‘written’, that doesn’t mean it has a clear path production-wise. so I never have a ‘clear’ idea of where a song will go when I start. and i don’t expect myself too. I just have a sense of it – it has an urgency that propels me to keep working with it. and I would say 95% I am surprised by where it takes me.

With the critical success of Ekstasis do you feel the recording process for your next album will change?

It has, but only for the better. It hasn’t taken out the intimacy of it for me. I wrote everything myself still, and even recorded some of it at home, vocals and keyboard. But in the studio, I was able to a) have other musicians play parts I had arranged b) bring out a million things I couldn’t do on my own, by having producer Cole Greif-Neill at the computer to help me realize certain things.

For example, if I want to EQ something, I generally do it with very broad strokes, whereas someone like Cole with knowledge and access to better machines and plug-ins, can find the perfect fit, and he does it really quickly, so it’s way more efficient. This is why my albums took two years to mak, because I was trying to do all that stuff myself!

Have you had a chance to look at the Laneway Festival lineup, if so who are you looking forward to seeing?

Not sure if these guys will be around when I’m around but: Jessie Ware, Nicolas Jaar, Perfume Genius, Real Estate. Of course I see Nite Jewel all the time but always happy to see again

How do you go about creating the same atmosphere in the live setting as you do on the record?

I don’t know if I do actually! For me it’s not about trying to create “the same” anything, it’s just about bringing that composition (with its fundamental attributes like the melody for instance) into a ‘new’ atmosphere. Because you can’t fake like it’s the same atmosphere you know?

A stage outdoors with three people playing in realtime isn’t the same as me in my room recording with unlimited amount of tracks, unlimited amount of time, etc.

What would be the ideal setting to listen to your music?

None! I think if it had an ideal setting that would be a fault.

Where we can see you play next, what releases do you have available and where can we get them?

Australia! then I’m not playing for a while until record comes out. I have a lot of things, different compilations and things, but what I will mention are “Tragedy” and “Ekstasis”. “Tragedy” is a bit hard to find right now, but in the future may be easier to find. “Ekstasis” is available on all formats via RVNG Intl (North America) and Domino (outside of North America). Also check out “Live Recordings” (NNA Tapes)

Ekstasis by Julia Holter is out now on Spunk Records. Julia Holter plays Laneway Festival nationally plus two intimate sideshows.

St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2013 Dates

Brisbane – Friday 1 February 2013
Sydney – Saturday 2 February 2013 – SOLD OUT
Melbourne – Sunday 3 February 2013
Adelaide – Friday 8 February 2013
Perth – Saturday 9 February 2013

For maps and set times for each of the Laneway Festival Dates click here.