The young songwriter takes the time tell us about the essence of her music.
Julia Bardo’s music is awesome, and so is she. Having been on tour in support of her debut EP ‘Phase’, and now enduring the existential global COVID-19 lockdown can make things hectic, yet she has agreed to do an interview with us. Some time ago, I had the pleasure to do a review of her latest single ‘Please Don’t Tell Me’, an alt-country gem soon to make everyone’s playlist. The review itself was made on assumptions –a la stasi-, which I now get to clarify.
My: Your writing style on ‘Please Don’t Tell Me’ lead to me draw comparisons to a Wes Anderson film. My reading was that the lyrics in the verses and choruses were dissimilar, yet it was their sum what let me draw my conclusion that this song is about soul searching. Was I sort of right? What is its overall message?
JB: Thank you, it’s beautiful for my music to be compared to a film, especially a Wes Anderson one. Definitely is about soul searching. I think it’s about authenticity, being able to look at yourself in the mirror and recognise the person you see in the reflection. I remember when I was younger I kept on thinking “I can’t wait to be 25 so I am gonna know who I finally am” but it hasn’t happened yet, I am still on this path and I think the research is never going to end.
MY: Some of the guitar parts in “Lonely Morning”, and the strings in ‘I Wanna Feel Love’ could easily belong in an Ennio Morricone score. Do you tap on other art forms (e.g. film) for inspiration?
JB: (Thanks, again, for the compliment.) Film is my second biggest passion, I am inspired indirectly by what I watch and what I see, more by the images than the story itself. Images have such a powerful meaning to me, more than words. I’ve never been able to explain myself properly and what goes through my head, but if I think about an image I can describe my feeling as a metaphor and write about it, it’s easier for me.
MY: I came across one of your quotes were you state that you’ve always been very lonely. The lyrics for ‘Into Your Eyes’ also touch upon this, and the title for ‘Lonely Morning’ speaks for itself. Creativity and loneliness do go hand in hand. Is loneliness the spark that gets you to start writing material? Do you find yourself writing songs all the time?
JB: I only write when I am sad or angry or when I feel empty, when I feel defeated, for some reason. I am not the type of person that sits down thinking “Oh, today I want to write a song”. I don’t decide when I write a song, it just comes to me in moments like these, when I get inspired by what I feel and when I am alone.
MY: Every songwriter has that moment where they heard a song or watched a music video that inspired them to say: “I’m gonna do that!” What artist/song did it for you? How old and where were you?
JB: To be completely honest with you, my role model when I was a child were The Destiny’s Child, Jamelia and Ciara and R&B in general was my favourite music. I used to sing their songs all the time and pretending I was in a music video. I was also in love with 60s Italian music like Lucio Battisti, Mina, Ornella Vanoni, Patty Pravo (and many more) because my parents used to listen to their songs all the time. I was about 8 years old and I used to live with my family in our old house in Italy.
MY: Finally, you produced ‘Phase’ with Henry Carlyle from the Orielles. How did he react when you did the spoken word in Italian on ‘I Wanna Feel Love’?? My Italian is pretty rusty, but you sure sold me on the idea…you Italians, doing it all in style!!!
JB: Hahaha, he loves when I speak Italian (or, at least is what he makes me believe!) and I am trying to teach him some words for when we go back to Italy to meet my parents, as they can’t speak English at all. I didn’t plan on singing in Italian in “I Wanna Feel Love” but I came up with the idea when we were in the studio, so I wrote something down and sang it and Henry and Joel loved it straight away so we kept it!
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