Julia Michaels Quotes

If you're performing music that is not who you are or where you're at, it is painful. It's painful for the performer and for the audience.

When I'm writing music, I'm not playing a character. I'm not Alice Cooper or Gene Simmons or someone like that, who has acknowledged that they are writing music for a character.

I loved the Brazilian music I played. But this is finally me. For the first time I think it's really me.

I don't think songs have to be like these super-#1-smash-hit-sounding songs, because I think it's more important that it's like, 'Hey! This is coming out of me. This is something I connect with. This is something that I like to sing.'

Write your own songs. It helps you to mean what you're singing, which will then make it mean something to listeners.

You get a lot of who you are as a musician across through the music you write. If you're writing your own music, then it's important to be really honest.

My biggest challenge was to make sure that the songs I did were who I am.

I've always made music from the heart, and that's what I do.

If I go into a studio and find my truth of the moment, there are a number of people in the world who can relate to what I'm saying and are going to buy into what I'm doing. Not because it's the new thing of the moment, but because it's genuine emotion. Its how I feel. This is how I articulate the world.

I have a lot of written material, and all of it's different. Some records that I have are country, some pop, some alternative rock. I just write what I feel, so I can't specifically say. I just want to be an artist of truth and an artist that stays true to herself.

That's the most important part of all the music I produce: making sure the artist is bringing themselves out in the music.

As an artist, you need to be true to yourself and free and not put yourself in a box that contradicts with what you feel is needed for a song.

I want to relate. I don't want to just rap and go to the next album.

I'm totally open to exploring different types of music. I just have to always remember to be true to who I am.

I urge younger artists to know that you don't have to be anything you don't want. You can do whatever's comfortable for you. From the music I make, to the things I do in my life, I'm true to my R&B core. I have the capability to make pop records and crossover, but that's not my aim.

I try to make my music interesting to me first, then hopefully other people will find it interesting, too.

I don't try to be someone I'm not - I've always followed my heart and trance has always been my main sound.

If I was just to shut up, I wouldn't be a true artist.

I like to make the music that I really love. You're supposed to make your favorite music that no one else played, and I'd like to just keep it at that and not really change it at all.

I think most of my songs are based on an emotion and in every song I write, there's at least a partial truth.

I think, when I started writing songs, my voice just became another tool. It wasn't something that I was going to try desperately to woo a listener. As long as I'm using my voice in a way that helps people understand what I'm trying to say, then I feel like I'm doing all right.

My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter.

My concepts are never bright ideas; they're never notions I think will sell or be trendy or attract new fans. I don't think that way. All I can do is sing from my life.

I've heard some people say that I'm selling out, but I'm not. If I hadn't done 'Black Radio', and just kept on doing just piano trio stuff, I wouldn't be honest with myself; I'd be doing it to please other people. That would be selling out.

I have always tried to work according to what affects me, to a script that I like because it touches me in some way, without deliberately pursuing a commercial career or a particular image.