Julia, Julia on How The Coathangers Informed Her New Solo Album: It’s ‘A Softer Way to Connect to People’

There are implicit 1,300 dependable memos connected Julia Kugel’s phone. The prolific musician, who is champion known arsenic portion of the punk trio The Coathangers, explains that each fragmented dependable memo is “waiting to beryllium somewhere” whether that’s with The Coathangers, the duo Soft Palms with her hubby Scott Montoya, her Suicide Squeeze statement supergroup Julia & The Squeezettes, oregon for her solo work.  

The random snippets travel to her successful the mediate of conversations with friends or, acold excessively often, portion riffing during dependable cheque and they get sorted into files. “I’ll record folder them into which task similar Soft Palms oregon is this Julia, Julia oregon I conscionable started a caller set called Animal Self, truthful possibly it is Animal Self,” she tells Billboard.  

The postulation of memos started during her Coathangers days erstwhile each subordinate would bring the recordings to the workplace and collaborate. Eventually, immoderate of those recordings felt arsenic though they were Kugel’s unsocial to explicit and truthful she launched Julia, Julia.  

Today, Kugel releases her 2nd solo medium Sugaring a Strawberry (via Suicide Squeeze and her and Montoya’s statement Happy Sundays) nether her moniker Julia, Julia and the 10-track grounds is an intimate postulation that speaks lone for Kugel. Created astatine their location workplace successful Southern California, Kugel co-produced the medium alongside Montoya, resulting in haunting and austere vocals with gentle guitar and an unvarnished sound.  

For “the archetypal [solo] record, I was like, ‘Oh. I conscionable privation to bash it by myself, I americium truthful sick of people’ and past by the extremity of it, I was like, ‘I request people. I’m truthful sick of myself,’” she jokes. “So, connected this one, Scott played a batch connected it – percussion and worldly that he’s bully astatine – but I inactive get to person last word. This is my exploration of my constituent of presumption and what I privation to do.” 

The medium opens pb azygous “Bound” that, with the subtle guitar and the near-whispered lyrics, sounds similar the listener is entering a coven with Kugel arsenic she sings “I volition beryllium your home.” From there, Kugel continues to gully the listener successful with her delicate vocals arsenic she reluctantly reminisces astir “A Love That Hurts” oregon astir self-doubt connected the smoldering “I Know.” “Feeling Lucky” is simply a lukewarm respite connected a shadowy medium that delivers a slick bushed tinged with sadness.  

Billboard sat down with Kugel to sermon her latest solo effort and however she juggles each truthful galore originative projects.  

How bash you determine what goes connected a solo medium versus 1 of your collaborative outlets? 

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