Every issue, GRAZIA USA highlights Game Changers, who inspire, educate, and celebrate individuality, beauty, and style. Meet Julia Michaels, the singer-songwriter takes a look at fame, and music in the era of TikTok.
I started in the background. I started writing songs for other people when I was 16 and then really working with other artists when I was 19. And then I decided when I was about 23 to put out my own song. As a songwriter, the only experience you have with artists is being in the room with them and being vulnerable with them and talking to them. You don’t see all the little in-betweens that they have to deal with every day. I remember I would hear managers complain about the artists that they were working with, like, “Yeah, they don’t want to do this today.” I’m like, What’s the problem? They just have to, like, make music! But becoming an artist yourself is so different. There’s just so many things that you don’t realize go into it: the makeup, the hair, the styling, the interviews, the promo, the not sleeping, the touring. … At first I was horrified. I was just like, This is not me at all. I hate attention. This is why I’m a songwriter! It was really scary. You’re like, in front of 15,000 people and you’e like Please, God, like me.
But then you find your fans and your crew and your group of like-minded people. And it’s just so different. It’s so supportive and loving; it feels very unconditional and safe. That’s sort of the place that I’m in now, which is very different from where I was five years ago.
As a songwriter, we’re very emotionally open and emotionally vulnerable at all times. Our brains are trained to hear songs no matter where we go and hear lyrics, no matter where we go. I’ll be talking to somebody and someone will say something and I’m, like, That’s a song. Or, you know, I’ll go through something and I’ll be sitting in the bathroom just, like, self-reflecting and and going through all my thoughts and think, Hey, you know, I haven’t written about that. Or, That’s an interesting way of putting this thing that I’m feeling.
Obviously I would love for songwriters to get paid easier and better. That’s been a really big issue within the songwriting community. But my biggest fear, truly, is that TikTok has become so huge. It’s such an amazing platform for artists all over the world, but I get nervous for the people that are a little bit more like me: the people that are a little bit more internal and don’t have these really wide personalities. Sometimes artists just aren’t like that. Some of them are some of the most incredible songwriters you’ll ever meet, and I get nervous for them in a time where you have to have a big personality to succeed. I hope there’s some sort of balance that happens with that, because I would hate to see the Fiona Apples of the world fall to the wayside because they don’t have these big TikTok personalities.
Still, I don’t feel pressure when I write songs. Because when I write songs, I just write whatever I feel. But I definitely feel pressure afterwards. Like, we do the song, we make it, we put it out and then I’m like OK. Now what?
For me, the next goal really is to be successful enough to have an arena tour. I’ve opened for so many people in different arenas. I’ve played all of the arenas, and then to finally be able to go out there and it’d be my show with my fans would be the most magical thing in the world. It’s on the vision board.
