Interview with Babie Julez
Babie Julez photographed by Isabella Rose Durante @bellarosedurante
Babie Julez is the name of the 22-year-old ever-expressive artist local to New Jersey. Growing up in Central Jersey, Julez was surrounded by music from a young age, whether it be her father’s metal band, classical piano lessons, or her mother’s love for 80s and 90s alternative rock music. With a background in acting, she has had a passion for the arts from a very young age that persists in her music and visual concepts as an adult. As a woman, she recognizes the importance of controlling your own image and sound. As a result, this has always been a strong point in her creative process. I had the honor of sitting down with Babie Julez to discuss her image and how essential strong-willed women in the industry are to her.
This interview took place on March 9, 2025
What is your upbringing in music?
Music was all around me growing up. My dad was in a metal band. He had super long hair and my mom would braid it and dye it for him. It was almost down to his ass. We had a music room in our house, and I started taking piano lessons around when I was in Kindergarten. When I was a little older, my dad gave me my first electric guitar. It had a little Hello Kitty on it. I never learned how to properly play, but it was a real electric guitar. Well, like a kiddie one.
With piano lessons, were you learning classical pieces and performing in recitals?
Yes! My very first recital I performed “Ode to Joy.” Did I ever learn how to read music? No. I did solfège and things like that though. I feel like my approach to a lot in life is very unstructured. Even in school and college I would be listening and then my brain would just go somewhere else. I took sociology three times before dropping out of community college. I wasn’t retaking because I wasn't paying attention, but every time the professor spoke in our lectures, she would say something that would like send signals off in my brain. I would start writing songs in the margins. I wrote three fucking songs in that class, and I never passed it.
Are you playing guitar now?
I'm still learning. I have my own guitar but piano has always been my main instrument. Funny enough, I started out with acting. My parents brought my sister to a talent agency and the audition literally wasn't for me at all. I was three or four just chilling, and I was one of those very hyper and unpredictable children that would just start talking and my mom would be mortified. After chewing the front desk’s ear off, the agent comes out and she's like, “Yeah, so we're not going to take this daughter, but we want that one,” pointing to me. My mom was like, “No. This audition isn't for her.” They did not care though, so I started going on like a lot of auditions out in the city all the time after school. My mom would pick me up off the bus and like drive me straight into the city while still in my Catholic school jumper.
It wasn't until one day I was in my bedroom singing, because we were doing some sort of Christmas show at school that my family realized I could sing. They were like, “It does that?” I then started taking singing lessons and doing theater. I fell in love with theater. My whole childhood I was trying cheer, soccer, basketball, swimming, and none of it stuck until theater. Obviously then my acting auditions turned into both acting and singing auditions.
When did you start writing and creating your own music?
I went into a performing arts high school for freshman and sophomore year of high school. I ended up leaving because I was heavily bullied, but that's where I started writing my first songs on my piano. That was my way of coping because I didn't have any friends. I was in a position where that was all I had.
When Covid-19 hit, me and a friend started one of my first projects which was a little R&B group. It’s funny because that is not what I’m doing now at all. He had this little setup in his bedroom, and I was like, “Hey, we don't have anything better to do and both of our moms are crazy overprotective Spanish moms that won't let us leave the house, why don't we do like a little album?” It was a learning experience for us. He was learning how to produce, and I was still learning how to write songs. At the time, I was working at a pizza place, and a guy came in promoting his band. I took a leap of faith and messaged him asking for advice. He put me in touch with the videographer that does all my music videos now, my current producer, and just all these new connections that helped further my music.
Overcoming those obstacles is a big part of the industry. What keeps you going every day and like keeps you feeling like you still want to make music?
Every time I get frustrated in what I'm doing, I look back and I'm like, “Okay, I didn't even know how to write a song a couple years ago.” It is so nice to learn, see new places, learn new things, connect with new people, and just take a step outside of yourself and see how far you have come. Music and being creative in general have surrounded me my whole life. My mom always said to me growing up, “Your personality was always way too big for your body.” Looking back to the experiences that I had in high school with bullying, while obviously I didn't deserve it, it was meant to happen because I would have never picked up that pen. I would have never sat at my piano emo as fuck. I would have never done any of that. Whatever you believe in, whether it's the universe or God, it was pushing me to do that thing.
As somebody who is super neurotic and has anxiety, I've never looked at my creativity and been like, “Is this really what I want? Is this really what I'm good at? Is this really what I want to do?” That has never been like a question for me. I've always looked at it as being not a matter of if, but a matter of when. When the time is right, people are going to see me and give a shit. I'm going to be that safe space for someone that I didn't have when I was growing up. That’s what fuels me.
As a woman in music, what is the importance of having strong-willed and confident women in the scene?
A lot of people think it is easy to be a woman in music. I feel like that’s not true, especially in a more, you know, alternative sense. To be outspoken and to be strong-willed is hard. I've had countless times where I've been at a show trying to talk to the sound guy about my SPD-S for my drummer or my in-ears and they talk to me like I'm fucking stupid and don’t understand them. Sometimes you get overlooked. Sometimes they don't even think you're in the band. Luckily for me, I've got three girls in my band and only one guy. And honestly, he's one of the girls.
My drummer? Girl. Badass. Every time she says something, I find out new lore about her. My bassist? Girl. Badass. She's seen things, she knows certain things about the industry, ins and outs and things like that. She's a little older and a little more seasoned.
The way I look at Missy from Mannequin Pussy, that is what I want to be for someone. Seeing her live lit this fire underneath my ass. Every time I go to a show, I get that feeling. Whether it's a smaller show or a bigger show, it reconfirms that fire for me. But as far as also just being a woman, I feel like we're drilled to not speak our minds or to conform or behave. That is something that I have struggled with my whole life because I was that weird kid. I was that talkative kid that didn't shut up, and I dressed weird, and I dyed my hair.
What’s also hard about being a girl in music, and I feel like this is with everyone, there's a lot of unnecessary competition. Sometimes it feels like women in music don't have that sense of community because they're taught to be put against each other. There's this unspoken competition that happens. Making people feel welcomed and comfortable and seen and heard, it can exist in any environment. Whether it's music or the office, sometimes you just have to take a step outside of yourself. If you see this badass girl that's killing it whether her art's good or she takes photos or she does this or does that I look at them like, “I want to create with you. I want to be your friend.” You can look at someone and wish you had that but not hate them for it. You know what I mean? There is this drilled mentality that people have where it’s like, “I need to compete. I need to hate. I need to do all of this so I can uplift myself.” I don't understand it and I don't want to condone or enforce it. When I have fans, I want them to have empathy. I want them to be a community.
Being a woman in music doesn't just come down to being sexy and looking good. You can be raunchy. You can be rugged. You can be grungy. You can be loud. You can be “obnoxious.” I know that I am, but you can be so many other things besides sexy. Whether or not people think I’m “sexy” that isn’t what I’m trying to do. That's not the point of my music, but I feel like we're drilled especially in the pop industry to be on a stage in a leotard. Girl, I'm wearing suit pants right now with boxers. There are so many other layers to being a woman in music that don't just come down to how you look and competing with other women, and that's what I want people to see.
A lot of times you do it subconsciously too.
That's exactly what I mean. It's in any environment too, not just music. You do it without even knowing because it is so drilled into your head.
You spoke about the influence of Mannequin Pussy, are there any other women in music who keep you going?
I have so many. I pull so much inspiration from Missy and Mannequin Pussy. I posted a cover from my release show for the Destroy My World EP where we covered “I Got Heave,” and she saw it. I was like, “AHHHH!” I also really love the band Wednesday, Wolf Alice, Tired Lion, Amyl and The Sniffers. Amy is so fucking cool. I love her. The Cartoon Darkness cover where she's running and flashing the camera is so sick. King Woman too, I could keep going.
I'm not saying I pull inspiration from all those bands, but I look at them and I'm like, “They're killing it.” I have this playlist filled with only female-led bands in my genre. that I enjoy. And like, I'll go back to it all the time and I'll listen to it all the time. I really enjoy finding bands that have a woman as the front person. That's my favorite thing.
Do you think any of the music your mom played growing up has affected the way you create or receive music now?
It's so funny because we talk about this all the time. She said to me a while ago that if I had been her age in the 90s, we would have been friends. I keep a photo of her on the stoop in overalls with a little white tank, with purple streaks in her hair in the drawer of my vanity. Sometimes I look at it while I’m getting ready. She gave me a lot of albums growing up from Sponge to The Cure. She loves Bjork. She says that I remind her of Bjork, and I love Bjork. When we moved to one of our houses, she got me a boom box and gave me just a stack of her albums.
Growing up we didn't necessarily listen to too much Spanish music. I love Spanish music now that I've grown up and I've worked in a lot of very Spanish environments. Not saying that we didn't play it at all, but not a lot because my mom was very grunge. She used to be a groupie for Type O-Negative. Now she's overprotective, and I'm the youngest, but she saw a picture of me crowd-surfing once and got mad. I was like, “Remember when you were a groupie for Type-O Negative?
I was exposed to many different genres of music from an early age, whether it was from my mom or my dad. I had an older cousin that was super into emo stuff like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Panic! At The Disco. I'm lucky enough that I had people in my family that all liked different things.
Your EP Destroy My World was released back in October. What was the process of making that, and how long was that in the works?
We started a little bit before the summertime, I'll say, loosely, just because I don't even remember. I collaborated with a buddy of mine named Greg. He's the lead singer of Fly Catcher, Gregory Thomas Pease, and we worked on a song called “Apathy” that was on my past EP. I really love the song, and it did really well. It wasn't even promoted that heavily because I was still trying to figure out my sound. So, then I texted him and I was like, “Hey, do you want to write again?” Maybe we have some secret sauce or something. He ended up being free, and I drove up to where he lives and I was like, “I’ve been listening to a lot of Deftones and Flyleaf.” I wanted to do something like that.
The first song that we wrote and demoed out was “Soul Tied.” I was obsessed with the sound when we made it. Like this is, this is. I sent it to my producer, Connor, and I was like, “I'm writing with Greg at the moment, this is kind of the direction I want to go in.” I met up with Connor, and we were like, “Let's write something together.” We kind of bounced off ideas from the “Soul Tied” demo I sent him. We then wrote “Desperate for Love” which is kind of the focal point of the EP. The line, “Destroy my world just to heal you…” is where the name of the EP comes from. It was the first single to come out. We did some crazy antics for the visuals. I loved it. I went back to Greg, and I wrote two more songs. “Solstice” didn’t even get finished until the literal recording sessions of the EP. “Pants” is really fun because I came up with the vocal melody before we even had any instruments, so I sent a voice memo and I was like, “We need to figure these notes out.”
Obviously, Connor and Greg agreed to co-produce. They are best friends, so they didn't care. We got into the studio, we figured out the budget, I took some time to make the money, whatever. We got my session drummer, Samir, involved. I have a friend named Bella who does photography and got her on board to do video stuff for the first time.
It was scary for me to have this rebrand. My first project was very indie-alternative and then I was leaning into this hyper-pop thing, and people really liked that, so I was like shitting in my boots. I was like, “What if they hate it?” I knew that it needed to be done though because it felt like me. I'm still proud of my previous music, but this was needed. You always hope that people like what you put out, but I also was mentally preparing to be like, “You know what? I fucking like it and I'm proud of it. So, I'm going to put it out. If they don't like it, I don't care.” Luckily, it was well received which is always so happy.
Have the visual aspects of music always been important to you?
You want a world for your listeners to live in. I always believe singles should have visuals. Whether it's short form content, or a full music video. For the EP, I prioritized short-form content. I didn't have a music video until the whole project dropped, and it was for the one song that wasn't a single.
To conceptualize for my music, I'll listen to the full project and wait for something to pop up in my head. When it came to “Desperate for Love,” I was like, “Ooh, ring of fire.” “Solstice” was like siren song-y. Greg said to me, “Your aesthetic gives like, spooky mermaid.” It’s funny because I have these two aesthetics that are competing - my grunge and my beachy aesthetic. I'm glad that somebody sees them together. I love being creative in that way. I love that I have the freedom to be like, “Okay, this is what I see. How can we achieve this?” We were very DIY with the visuals in that aspect too.
I feel having full control over your visual aspect is important as a woman because your message is not getting lost in someone else’s direction.
I had the luxury of being able to work on it with my friends and give opportunities to smaller creatives. My videographer Justin does a lot of stuff for Fly Catcher, but he hadn't done too much yet, so I wanted him to work with me. Bella is a talented photographer, her work is amazing, and I was lucky enough to be a part of some of her original projects. I met up with her and said, “It's fucking time. It's time.” I told her about the whole video idea, and she was like, “I mean I've always wanted to try video,” and I got to be the first person to do that with her.
It's encouraging to see your friends really tap into what they do. Justin went on to do something with another band, and then Bella went on to do something with another artist and like that's what I wanted. I wanted people to see their work and be like, “That thing you did with Jules, that's cool. Can we do this?”
What is next for you? Do you have anything you are working on or trying?
New music. I can say with full confidence that it's going to be a longer project than the EP, so we're toying with the idea of an album. While that will take longer to create, I think that the wait will be worth it. I'm an independent artist. I fund my music myself. I fund everything myself. Give me a minute for me and my wallet to breathe. Damn.
I do have my set band now and they want to get more involved, so that will be good for the album. I did a lot of stuff with my producers and session instrumentalists, but my guitarist expressed the want to be involved in the making of the project and things like that. It’s going to be super cool. I'm still going to conceptualize visuals. We're looking to play in newer cities. My goal, honestly, is to do a small tour. I would like to open for a larger artist again. We already have done it twice, for Grlwood and Mind’s Eye, so I know it is in the cards for us.
My EP was a toe dip into doing what I wanted, and I can say with full certainty that the album is going to be me pushing even further. We've already tracked four songs. I think it's going to be music that resonates with people. It's going to be outspoken. It's going to be what we were talking about before, how women don't feel like they can voice themselves in that way. No subject is too touchy for me. I just want to keep pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing until people are like, “Oh my god, what are you doing?” I obviously have big goals, but as an independent artist it’s all baby steps.
Cover photo by @bellarosedurante