We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Giuliana a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Giuliana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?
“B*tch.” “Loudmouth.” “She’s so much.”
I am a loud, loving, larger than life, expressive Italian American woman. Growing up in a small town, my dreams of being a successful singer were laughed at by my peers and perpetuated by a bitter and emotionally abusive drama teacher. As I continued to grow into the woman I am, my opinions and essence grew larger, battling the line between overcompensation and truly finding my voice. I was school smart, but no matter how I tried I couldn’t connect with the people around me- I was confused, discouraged, and immature.
After years of being an outcast, I decided to move to Nashville to pursue music. As I arrived, 17 straight out of HS, I experienced the normal bout of college over drinking while also juggling a damaged self-esteem and body dysmorphia which eventually turned into self hatred, anger issues and depression. I think people understood me because I wasn’t sure what was happening in my own head. At the same time, I was cutting my teeth in Nashville’s music business machine, working long hours, eating and sleeping in my car often, and trying to juggle my grades. As I continued to push myself to the limit and struggled to keep myself afloat, I continued to spiral – and that’s when I turned to journaling. No matter how hard it got, something told me to keep going.
Even on my worst days, I was still the life of the party, and tried my best to make people laugh, and feel included because I always knew what it felt like to be alone. For so long, my larger than life personality had been frowned upon, but I always knew that it was my purpose to continue to live to be my Authentic self, because if it wasn’t my purpose, it would be easier to just “tone myself down.” As I continued to find who I was, I learned that more than anything I loved to songwrite. So I wrote about life, I wrote about my feelings and my head, my flaws, and learning to embrace them – control them so they couldn’t control me. I realize that some of these emotions were so powerful the only way I could truly convey them without freaking out or breaking down was to sing them.
The feedback from new friends and fans have made me realize more than anything, I must continue to fight to be a better person every day and never cower from sharing my story. I am at the start of my career with an EP, all of which is about growth as a strong, loud woman who no one understands, hoping that another woman like me will finally feel less alone. Accepting myself has allowed me to harness my strength and appreciate the loving community and family around me; finally able to be best myself around them and give performance my all.
Giuliana, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I grew up in a small town just north of Boston to a big, loud Italian-Irish-Greek family. My sister and I were the artistic ones in a family of athletes. I started writing music at 15, but did musical theatre for a decade before that. I was never your typical theater kid and always an outcast so I knew that my mission was to write music to express myself since I never fit in a box- I made my own. I write music for everybody, but mostly “angry young women. “ What I mean by this is confident and loud young women, who are struggling with themselves.
The music itself is fun and upbeat, but the lyrics are deep so if you wanna take a little bit more from the music you can if you focus in on different areas. if you listen to my work, you will realize that I do not write about anything that I do not know, all of my songs come from my personal experiences as a woman and struggling to accept my role as a loud, different, intense personality.
It took a very long road for me to get here, I worked in the music industry in Nashville on Music Row for multiple different country music labels, reaching success, working on teams with multiple number one billboard Artists, and realizing that it was not my passion, as I secretly was working with producers to try to find my sound as an artist behind the scenes. For so long, I used my intense work ethic to cover up my insecurities and reach the top of admin, living someone else’s dream, and finally realized that that was not a way to live.
I left years of hard work to pursue my art for real in 2021, and that’s when we put together the first rendition of our band V3RN. I think as I continued to grow as a person I continued to find the right people around me, and in 2022 I found the super crew, and we went down to Pensacola Florida to record our EP. After years of working as a professional in the music industry, I was sharp on what we needed to do, and I was finally in a place where I could accept myself and except the fact that I am worthy to put out music instead of just working to put out other peoples music. We have put out a unique and nostalgic 90s rock inspired coming of age record that I am so proud of. I don’t believe in giving up, and truly always keeping my eyes on the prize.
Our band provide a very high energy show, I am first and foremost a performer, so anyone who comes to a live show will definitely be entertained and feel less alone. We don’t do pretentious bullshit- I always try to fill the room with a feeling of strength and positivity. For so long, I tried to find a “Sasha, fierce,” and I realized: the more I tried to hide myself the less authentic I was coming off on stage. When I leaned into who I was, that’s when the magic began to happen. The people around me support me and our mission in V3RN, so it makes it really easy to finally accept myself.
I think what I most proud of is the feedback that I’ve gotten from so many young women about being able to articulate things that they have felt but not able to say themselves. I wish I had this as a 15 year-old kid who was so messed up in the head because maybe I wouldn’t have felt like I was so crazy for feeling how I did. Looking back I have made so many questionable decisions influenced by pain, but I never quit. I always listen to the voice inside me that told me it was gonna get better.
My lyrics have an undertone of never quit be yourself and fuck anybody else who tells you differently. Never quit. Be yourself and find those who love you because someone out there will but you have to love yourself first. But there is also a very important message of being self-aware and learning to grow and accepting the people around you who love you, because I have become a more mature and adjusted woman and realize that community is important and those who do treat you right, should never be taken for granted. I think I will always have a bit of a community feel to me because that is such an important part of my upbringing and I think that it’s an important to show a real person with real values on stage in today’s climate. I think that’s why I love being in a band, not just a solo act. I am also so proud of my band, as we are truly collaborative effort on all of the music, and they truly support me as a front person but they are geniuses behind their instruments, and we all work together to make an amazing show and believe in the music.
More than anything we are working on the music and the music will always come first, because I love to perform, and I love to provide people with a little slice of whatever they need during their day – whether that’s to escape or to rock out. We don’t follow trends. We are just ourselves, and I truly feel as though that is timeless.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A lesson that I had to unlearn is just because someone tells you something, doesn’t mean that it’s true. I am somebody who is very self-aware and desire to grow, so I have always taken criticism as a way to improve on myself. Growing up with Italian American values respect is so important, so I always listened to elders, no matter if they were the correct role models for me.
I have bent over backwards, trying to make changes in myself at the guise of people who had my best interest in mind but didn’t understand my goals, and in return felt bad about myself I was confused on why I was still hating myself and acting out when I was trying to live someone else’s life. We cannot grow without being held accountable and having hard conversations, but just make sure that the people who are giving you those pieces of wisdom are people who want you to grow not to stifle you – even if it’s unintentionally. A wise friend of mine said, never take advice from somebody who doesn’t live the life that you want because they will never understand the perspective that you need to gain. And always stay true to yourself because no matter what if you have good intentions, that’s all that matters.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I think there needs to be less of a focus on what’s popular and more of a focus on what really resonates with us. Unfortunately, I think that the music industry is built around preying on people trying to fit in with their friends and meet a certain image, rather than trying to find bands that truly connect with their soul. Visual art, and social media are very important things, but they have become the prime piece necessary to gain attraction in music because they drive social media.
Listen to bands even if they aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing on the outside because sometimes they don’t have the resources to make their visual art to the potential that it could be, but but if you listen to them and support them, they’ll be able to get to that point. You have to take the radio approach with them: if you heard them on the radio you’d like them even if you’d never seen them. Unfortunately that edge is gone now. Also, definitely try to go out and support local shows as much as you can instead of just liking on social media. If you do want to use social media, send people the undiscovered music, use it in your personal content, and truly uplift people who are in your community and who you believe, in rather than just what’s popular. “You” need to be the driving factor of what goes viral, and I think if we focus more on spreading messages rather than spreading what looks good or flashy or “viral”, we will truly start to uplift some really seriously talented people.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsv3rnmusic?igsh=ZWI2YzEzYmMxYg==
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@V3RNMUSIC
- Other: Our most important is Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/54L5mDT6ncwjJxgp8PBZ73?si=OJ7fdnAGRB6tI_poZ_Wrug
- Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/v3rn/1675074234
Image Credits
Chloe Walden Miranda Jenson Allison Shrum