Top 89 Quotes & Sayings by Julia Holter
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Julia Holter.
Last updated on November 8, 2024.
Musical themes developing is a lot of what classical music is based on, and exposition and recapitulation - these kinds of things I find oppressive.
There's definitely been a focus on the literary aspects of my music, and I always get a little cringey because I don't feel like I'm particularly literary. There's a sort of academic label that's put on me that seems inaccurate.
I often find that I like the vibe of not having technology around me.
Green tea is my main source of caffeine, so I drink it every day.
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 really love working with Ramona from Nite Jewel. We've kind of grown up together.
I did study with Anne Carson briefly in Michigan. She taught there, and that's where I first encountered her, in her class.
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 started writing music as a composer in school, in the classical tradition.
In L.A., you can play forever, and no one around the world will hear you.
Most records are usually not united by one specific story, but that seems to be something that I like and that I find easy to do.
I think of each record as different and not having very much in common with what went before or what comes next.
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.
I don't use the harpsichord because it evokes a past time period: I use it because I like the sound.
To me, the process of art is very much a process of translation, of borrowing.
I'm inspired by nonmusical things a lot, whether it's a film or a book or whatever.
If I feel like I'm myself, then I'm very uncomfortable.
Putting my audience to sleep isn't what I'm going for.
I listen to the timbre of the music, and I fit my voice to blend with that timbre.
I see myself as a songwriter and a poet.
'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.
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 grew up watching 'Gigi.' My grandmother had it, and I watched it there.
What was special about Leonard Cohen's work was its calm mystery.
It's nice to work with people who know how to mic drums right and how to record properly. But there's something to be said for doing it yourself.
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.
I basically just write stream of consciousness to a certain extent. I let the song kind of go where it wants to go.
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.
You don't have to know about 'Hippolytus' to listen to 'Tragedy.'
When you make music on your own for so long, you get used to just doing whatever you want.
No one recognises me on the street, ever.
Amidst all the internal and external babble we experience daily, it's hard to find one's foundation.
I've never felt at home anywhere.
I'm not, like, always focused; I'm very unfocused. I'm reading, and then I'm looking at my phone, and then I'm on the Internet.
The classic problem in a relationship is a person trying to control the other person. People just want to conquer somebody.
I do develop characters for songs, and I think of everything as storytelling, in a way. But I don't plan out what they're going to sound like. I just sing over what I've done.
I'm not an unhappy person - I'm just an anxious person. It runs in the family.
All I ever know is what I want to do next.
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.
It's hard for me to get shows in the U.S. It's that simple. I don't know what that means. I think it means there's not as much support here for my music?
There's a lot psychologically going on in boxing... I think I relate to some of it. I have a respect for it. It's like performing, but it's also this crazy, self-destructive thing.
I like talking about my music.
I was in school for four years writing music to please my teachers. That was not music I liked. And when I make music that isn't for something I want to make, and it's to please other people, it's - the outcome is really bad.
I played cello on my early recordings, but that doesn't mean I'm a cellist, you know?
I like mantras and repeating things, like in pop music, where you repeat a line over and over again. It's just so beautiful.
I started classical piano when I was eight, but I wasn't a virtuoso. I just really liked it.
I do have a big problem with the idea of music as a form of communication unless it's political - and that's where it's tricky because a lot of music is political, even if it's not overtly so. But my music isn't that; it's about a feeling.
I don't thrive in a school or academic environment, I found out. I thrive better in the world outside the small academy because I find it hard to explain what I'm doing.
I think what's interesting in L.A. is that there's a lot of variety because L.A. is very spread out. I think there is a lot I don't know about, to be completely honest. It's a very mysterious town.
I love '80s beats; everyone does.
If you've ever seen paparazzi go after a celebrity, it's really freaky.
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.
One thing that's really important to me in my music is mystery.
It's so hard to know where you belong, ever. You have to be yourself and let yourself fall wherever you fall.
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.
One thing I've learned is I really want to work with people.
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.
'Tragedy' and 'Loud City Song' are both inspired by stories from the past.
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.
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.
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