Repost: 2019 Interview With Julia Shapiro (in full)

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to land an interview with Julia Shapiro, an artist I adore. The lead singer of Chastity Belt had dropped a solo album and proven herself as a phenom in her own right. I went to her album release show and was already planning on writing a review of it. But soon after I found a bravery I didn’t know I possessed and I asked for an interview too, not thinking I’d be granted one.

While I’m so grateful that some of our Q&A was published last year, a lot of it was shortened due to length, especially since I had written the review part first(such is the nature of journalism; word count, I’ve found, might be my biggest nemesis in this profession.) Some of my review was cut too and that is fine. I think, though, that the entire interview is worth sharing, so I said a year ago that I’d publish it in its entirety on the anniversary. This was one of the most exciting moments of my (still pretty new) writing career. I love music, and to write about music does not feel like work at all.

I have long been appreciative of Medium’s platform where I can post whatever I please. It’s refreshing to have a place free of restriction. So, here goes:

• How was your experience at your release show at Barboza? (I really enjoyed it, btw). Was it what you were hoping for?
  Thanks! I had a really good time. I felt very supported by all my friends who were there and everyone else who came. It’s definitely way different playing solo versus playing with a band… lots more pressure! But I felt great vibes from everyone there that night.
• Congratulations on your debut solo album! What were the things you were feeling/experiencing as you made this record? (I’ve read a lot about how the demos came to be and what was going on in your head and in your life, but not quite as much about how you were feeling during/about the recording process itself as you were pouring yourself into this project).
  I wrote/recorded these songs over the course of about a year, so I guess I experienced a wide variety of emotions during that time, but a big one was feeling lost and unsure about what I was doing with my life. This is a running theme in my brain, so I think it comes out a lot in Chastity Belt songs as well, but that year was particularly hard for me… I just wasn’t that happy with the way things were going, and I felt like I was losing myself a bit in both my relationship and all the touring I was doing with my band. This record sort of captures a bit of my thought process as I was reevaluating things and trying to figure out how to be more proactive and address problems that needed to be addressed that I had been ignoring for a while. A lot of the lyrics were written stream of consciousness. Recording the songs was really cathartic in a way. Finishing a song always felt really satisfying — like whatever I was feeling while writing the song was now outside of me, in this different more tangible form.
• How did you decide that Perfect Version would be the album title?
  Well it’s one of the song titles on the album, and I felt like it was a good representation of a common theme in a lot of the songs: feeling lost and unsatisfied, and striving to do better. Before writing the song I’d just seen the movie Lady Bird, and there’s a scene in it where Lady Bird and her mom go dress shopping, and they end up getting in a fight and her mom says ,”I just want you to be the best version of yourself” and Lady Bird says something like, “What if this is the best version of me?” I related to that scene a lot because I feel like I’ve always had trouble being content with who I am and what I’ve accomplished. I’m always focusing on how I could’ve done things better, and it can sometimes be exhausting. I wish I could be more like Lady Bird in that scene… satisfied with herself despite all her flaws. In making this album I was really restricted in a lot of ways, because I didn’t have much experience recording and mixing, so I had to come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t going to sound perfect, and in a way I think that’s what makes some of the songs more interesting. It’s easier for me to see flaws in other people’s work and admire the work for those imperfections, but with my own work (and my life in general) it’s a lot harder and it’s still something I’m trying to get better at.
• The album is so good; it’s hard to pick a favorite song (but I think mine is “Parking Lot”). Do you have a track that’s your personal favorite? (This could be lyrically, melodically, the one was most enjoyable to make, whatever criteria you choose, etc. Or you might not have a favorite, in which case you can just skip this question of course.)
  Wow, thanks! I think “Shape” is my favorite track on the album. I guess I just really like the pace of the song, the moodiness, and I think it sounds different than a lot of other songs I’ve written. I also was pretty excited when I came up with the chorus melody, and I love how emotional and haunting the lead guitar part is. (Not to toot my own horn or anything)
• How have you changed/grown as an artist since having completed Perfect Version?
  I learned a lot of basic skills in the process of recording and mixing the six tracks that I worked on myself. I feel like mixing in particular made me scrutinize different instruments and sounds in a way that I hadn’t done before. I also feel like it gave me more confidence in myself, being able to put out an album that I put so much work into… it made me feel really self sufficient.
• I know Chastity Belt is working on another album. Is it possible that there will be another solo album in the future as well; is this something you’d like to do again?
  I don’t have any plans to right now cause I’ve been way too busy with this album and the Chastity Belt album to even think about working on new stuff, but it’s definitely something I’d be interested in doing again in the future. I definitely want to keep recording and mixing things on my own, because I had a lot of fun with that.
• Anything you’d like fans/the public to know — about you, about this album, about anything at all?
  Hmm, I guess just that 2018 wasn’t as dramatic for me as a lot of the press is making it seem. It was a hard year, and I was definitely going through some shit, but everyone has hard years, I just happen to have an album and a bunch of interviews to show for mine. I know it’s tempting for people to overdramatize musician’s experiences in order to make them fit into a more interesting and cohesive story, but in reality life is messy, and writing an album is messy as well, and it doesn’t usually just fit into some sort of movie plot type timeline. I guess it’s just been hard reading some of the press this album has gotten, because reporters often get a lot of facts wrong, and I’m not always portrayed the way I want to be. I was so in control of every other aspect of this record that letting it out into the world and not being in control of how other people interpreted it has been sort of difficult. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the articles I’ve read have been really great! I’m just thinking of several in particular that made a couple of my relatives reach out to me and ask me if I was doing okay (lol). I’m sort of a private person, so having personal experiences get out there, especially when I’m depicted in a way I’m not comfortable with, has been hard. I guess it’s been a big test of how much vulnerability I can handle. I’m doing fine!