Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Calvin.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started playing classical piano and clarinet when I was young, and from pretty early on, I thought I was going to be a concert pianist when I grew up. Midway through high school, I discovered songwriting and fell in love with it. Playing music had always been a cathartic experience for me, but being able to dissect my emotions further through words felt more right for me. And as much as I loved channeling other composers’ emotions, and giving them my own twist, I felt like I had a lot of my own thoughts to share. Now I’m about to be a college senior studying contemporary singer-songwriting and music business, and I couldn’t be happier with the path I chose.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Thankfully, my family is very supportive of me, and I’m incredibly grateful for that. But still, as everyone in the industry knows, pursuing music is a road full of doubt and rejection, and it’s hard to keep your head up sometimes. I’m very glad to have had the musical formation that I did. However, I didn’t start writing songs until the end of high school/beginning of college, and it took a while for me not to feel like I was ‘behind.’ To this day, I still feel like I’m playing catch-up with the contemporary/pop music world.
But I’m trying to practice acceptance of where I am in my journey. Because I do what I love, week after week, and that’s all that really matters (to me) in the end.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I write and sing indie-pop music. I’m half Costa Rican, half US-American, and I grew up both in Costa Rica and in Tanzania. So my music has a combination Latin rhythms and harmonies with mostly English lyrics. Although I recently started writing in Spanish too, and it’s been incredibly fun, so I hope to do more of that.
I’m proud to use music as a platform to empower people, to unify people, and to talk about mental health issues and help anyone I can reach feel less alone.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Recently, I won a BMI/Peermusic Latin Scholarship Award for a song that I wrote in Spanish. This was not only a proud moment for me, but a sigh of relief to have gotten some sort of recognition for my writing. And I got to come to LA for the first time to accept the award!
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliacalvinmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juliacalvinmusic/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/c/JuliaCalvin
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
