It’s a frigid Sunday in Brooklyn and I am running late. Okay, I am running very late. I’m shivering from the cold and somehow also sweating more than I think I ever have before as I run down from the subway to the Sunset Park location of the Yafa Café. As soon as I finally burst through the door of the warmly lit shop, I’m immediately calmed by the quiet and welcoming presence of Amalia Juliane, the very artist I have come to meet. Amalia is as not only understanding of my tardiness, she lifts my spirits with grace and empathy as we sit in the front window with our cappuccinos.
Amalia’s kindness is apparent as soon as you meet her, but it is the genuine passion she speaks about the many corners of her life with that makes me feel lucky to have met her after just an hour. Even though our conversation is the first time I’m meeting Amalia in person, we easily spend most of the afternoon together. When we do part, I leave feeling like her creative enthusiasm has left a wonderful permanent mark. With that zest for life comes a zest for music too, and on her new album, Reach You, that pure love for her craft comes through effortlessly from the very first note.
AS: How and when did music come into your life?
AJ: I began taking music seriously at the beginning of middle school when I started taking voice lessons. Growing up, my dad was a music teacher, so I feel like music has always been in my life in some capacity. It wasn’t until I got a bit older though that I realized, “Oh this is something I’m actually really interested in, too.” I had already been doing a lot of visual art, so I think it was just a development that happened quite naturally when I realized I could expand past the visual and into the performing arts.
AS: That’s pretty epic to grow up around music, do you think that the communal aspect of your music education has influenced your sound?
AJ: For sure, having that family tie has been so important. I grew up always being around instruments and understanding the value of practicing your art form. But now that I am older, I’m also thinking past the routines that music provides, and more about the emotional stability it can provide too. I think one of the beautiful things about being an artist is that you are constantly getting influenced by where you are and who you’re with. I feel like I’m very influenced by my friends and the group of people I feel closest to or collaborate with. We’ve all ended up in different places, so we are all having experiences in different locations that we then get to bring back to the group when we are all together.
AS: Speaking of being in new locations, you’re based in Chicago now although you were born and raised in NYC. Do you think your sound has evolved at all since moving?
AJ: I think that these days music is just in my fingers and in my brain all the time, and part of that is the change of scenery, but also I think part of it is that I now teach music full time. So much of writing and making music is about taking a moment to check in with yourself, and part of what had me wanting to move to Chicago initially, was that I was having a hard time gaging my role in the New York music scene. When you grow up here, you have so much community and so much support, but I also felt like it was important for me to go out and cultivate my own space in a new location. I felt like I had so much here, I needed to explore and go experience a place that wasn’t so established to really be able to look at the big picture. And getting to go somewhere new and to share how I see music with others has been so valuable.
AS: You just put out a new record, if you could only describe this album in 3 words what 3 words would you use?
AJ: Wholesome. Raw. Joyful.
AS: How did this album come about? Did you have a goal in mind for this one since it is your sophomore project?
AJ: Yeah, this one is a little different than my first record. I started college in 2019 and so I had those brief few months of social activity before the pandemic, and in that time I began fleshing out what an album could look like and what the band could be with those new friends. So when we got back after Covid, I was able to re-find my people, re-enter being social and we recorded that first album based off our original plan before the pandemic began. We were playing on a consistent basis, and as it went on our band began to shift into two couples playing together, so there was definitely some learning curves that were taking place as I began writing and recording the second one. I feel like there was so much beauty that came out of that experience, and it was the chance to do so much self work while having a musical outlet. So these songs that are out now, we recorded them back in 2023 and it’s even better to look at them now and be like, “Wow, I have grown so much since then.”
AS: Now that you have found the right time to put it out, do you have any plans to start playing the album a bit, maybe in Chicago? To see what it feels like to play those songs in a space that is so different to where they were recorded?
AJ: Yes! We have a few house shows in the works in Chicago, and I think small shows like that are a great way to introduce my artistry into a new community like the one I am cultivating. We talked about experiences dictating or inspiring art earlier, and I think now that I have put out this project and have been giving it space, I can go out and use it to have new experiences and sort of re-start the whole creative process which is really exciting. I haven’t written anything since moving to Chicago, so I am so excited to see what new inspiration I find.
AS: It really feels like you’re not rushing your process, like you are making music for the love of making music – that feels very rare these days, to have such an earnest passion.
AJ: Yeah! I think that’s right. Making music for me is about connecting with people, I mean the album is called, Reach You. My dad is Brazilian, my mom is French, so I grew up speaking many different languages at home. And when I started school, I remember a lot of my friends had to teach me words in English. So, sometimes I feel like I don’t know how to speak any language – you know? With art though, with my music, I feel like I can encapsulate any feeling in this way that maybe goes beyond language. A bunch of the songs on the album are about writing songs, or about feelings that I think I can’t justifiably describe with words, but that I can describe through other forms of sound. And knowing I have that way to express myself is so beautiful, it’s so valuable.
AS: What’s next, do you think?
AJ: I’m not sure! And I think that’s great. Like I said, I really want to make music that extends beyond the surface level, but I think in order to do that I need to go out and live a little bit too. And now that I am in a new location and really in this new chapter of my life, I am so excited to see how I can keep expanding my horizon musically too.
Amalia Juliane’s sophomore album, Reach You, is available on Bandcamp now.
