Today we’d like to introduce you to Juliana Frangella
Hi Juliana, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have been singing since I can remember and playing guitar since fourth grade. I’ve always liked to make up songs, though I consider sixth grade to be the year I started to write “real” ones. Sometimes my art makes more sense to me at one time more than another for whatever reason, and that makes it easier or harder to talk about. Right now, it’s very classically an emotional outlet. It is almost as if I am using it as a means to tie up the loose ends in my mind, though it also very much about the music from a more external point of view as well. I’ve always been rather intense when it comes to my emotions, and my writing has become a means of dealing with that. I put out my debut album in the Spring of last year, my senior year of high school. I had been writing the songs that went on that record since my sophomore year. Being able to make that record affirmed all that I had hoped about making music and it is by far my greatest achievement yet.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Honestly, it feels like songwriting is the only thing in my life that consistently makes sense to me, but it did take time to get to that. It’s hard when you are young (and I’m talking, like, eleven-thirteen years old) to know what your values are as an artist, and even when you do know, it is hard to sort out how those values work with your peers’ and teachers’. I’ve come to realize that my priorities in life are not much different than my priorities as an artist. Above all, I value honesty, independence, and authenticity. As you can imagine, a lot people in the music industry have different ideals. Still, you might work with someone you like as person and find that your creative styles don’t mesh–– that is very confusing for a twelve year old girl, who just wants to feel understood without having the experience to navigate certain creative situations. On the other hand, I did not need any time at all to turn away from other endeavors and potential propositions. For instance, any time I was told that I “had the look,” I was immediately turned off to the situation. It made me feel like they were trying to commodify my being, and that’s not me. The same can be said for any offer to have someone else write my songs. At times, I have felt like some people see me as an easy target, being young and female, nonetheless I do believe it has all made me stronger.
Additionally, being an independent artist, with limited funds, I have had to take on almost every aspect of my career, which includes skills and practices that have little to do with music. Some things I do not mind so much, like video editing, or planning out photoshoots. I also do not mind reaching out and enquiring about gigs. What really gets me, and I’m not supposed to say this, is that I hate social media with every fiber of my being. I know it is the way to reach people today, and so I do it as much as I can manage, as I am also a full time college student. Like I have said, I value authenticity and honesty and I think social media does more to foster the opposites. I try to just behave the way I would in any real life situation in my videos, and hold out for live performances, where I’m much more likely to connect with people.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I write songs about my life. They are sometimes about a friend’s experience, a book or movie, or maybe they started out about me and evolved into something else entirely. Really, they’re all me, though, just maybe not in the most straightforward way. For instance, I have a song called “Roadkill,” in which I am the titular character who cannot seem to avoid choosing unfavorable situations for myself because I find it “funny.” I’m not sure I could even tell you how much of that is always true. It’s often true, and it certainly reflects a part of my being, but like I said before, it’s not so straightforward.
I guess what I am most proud of is my ability to verbalize my emotions in a (hopefully) clever, relatable, and entertaining way. Nothing makes me feel more fulfilled than a friend or even a stranger telling me that I captured something real. Sometimes part of the satisfaction is that I can create closure for myself on a personal level, and so that also ties into it.
I believe what sets me apart from others is this need to express myself–– to write and to feel, sometimes kind of loudly. It has not always been fun being that way, though I would never trade it for another, less dramatic existence. I am quite honestly terrified of experiencing heartbreak, and yet it is always around the corner for me in one form or another. I am trying to accept that while also already knowing that is what my life is for. None of us are immune, I just suspect I might be among those who feel it all more than others, and I am therefore “meant” to document that.
My most recent release is a song called “The Babysitter” that I recorded in the fall. It came out on June 14th on all streaming services, and the video came out June 21st. I wrote that song my senior year of high school, just after I’d finished with the first record. It’s about being idealized to the point that your humanity is no longer considered. You become more like a character in a film, comparable to a “manic-pixie-dream girl,” meant to further the plotline for the male protagonist, but not meant to feel any more than is convenient. That’s happened to me a lot in my life, by friends and love-interests, and I think it has a lot to do with my passions and eccentricity. It’s just especially heartbreaking when it happens at the hand of someone you hoped had understood. My eternal consolation is the ability to write the last word, whether the person who hurt me hears it or not.
I also plan to release what I’d consider a sister song to “The Babysitter” called “The Bite.” That one explores a questioning of identity in a little more depth, outside of the initial hurt of a rejection. It’s going to be released in time for Halloween, which is typical of me. It’s become more of a lifestyle than one day in the year.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Bad luck has been great for me. I am only nineteen, but I have had an absolute surplus of songwriting material since I turned thirteen. People tell me my life is very chaotic, and sometimes I am quite overwhelmed by the truth of that statement, but I also don’t know anything else.
I don’t know if I believe that things are fated or anything like that, I just believe that we make choices, not necessarily better or worse, and we do the best we can wherever we end up. For instance, I started my first semester of college at a school in upstate New York. I was desperate to get out of my hometown and be exposed to more than just what I’d been seeing in high school, however, I only ended up getting exposed to Mono. I was in the hospital twice, and essentially ended up missing most of my first semester. I finished online and managed to make the dean’s list, but my doctors told me it was ill-advised to try to return to campus due to my life-threatening food allergies and the college’s inability to accommodate that. Now, I am at Rutgers commuting to class four days a week. I hadn’t wanted to be so close to home, nor did I want to be on such a large campus, and yet, I’ve found it really isn’t that big of a deal. Now I’m actually on campus with my favorite author Joyce Carol Oates, sometimes, so that bout of bad luck has not been so debilitating. In fact, I actually have more freedom for my musical endeavors being home again. You still won’t catch me saying it was meant to be, though. It just is.
As for “good luck,” I think being spotted and signed by a record label (barring any shady contractual agreements) would be the prime example. However, I am not holding out for that. Instead, I am trying to make the best possible choices with what I have available to me. I believe that I did that in seeking out my producer and mentor, Mike Montrey. He used to give me guitar lessons and we had stopped since COVID, but I just had a gut feeling he was the person to bring my songs to. I was introduced to him originally by a very notorious ex-best friend. It seems like the bad luck is more effective, or rather that it’s good luck masquerading because I am a songwriter. Again, I just think that things happen sometimes without good “reason” and it’s best to try and put your best foot forward with the information you do have.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://julianafrangella.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianafrangellamusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHatxDxiN7sEF56VeJ8x4FA
- Other: Pre-save link for my new single, “The Babysitter”: https://hypeddit.com/mvycof
Image Credits
Andrew Valente
Nicole Bellina (Cover art for “The Babysitter)