Check Out Jules Paymer’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jules Paymer.

Hi Jules, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Honestly, I started writing songs as soon as I could form sentences. My parents were theater kids, and music was a constant in my childhood home, whether it was singing together, playing Rock Band, or dancing to The Beatles or West Side Story through our speakers. I began playing guitar and bass when I was 7 and started a band with my friends that stayed together until we were 18. Through the band, I gained an appreciation for the simplicity of harmony, lyrics, and the vulnerability of good songwriting. For college, I moved to Nashville and attended Belmont University for songwriting, where I really started to find myself more. I dug into what my artistry could look like and learned a lot about myself, which in turn taught me a lot about music. After I finished school, I moved back to LA, which is where I am now!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve found that it’s either super smooth or very, very rocky. There’s been so many rough patches, but I will say that there has not been a time where the bad outweighs the good, and I don’t think there ever will be. But if I had to zoom in on some of those negative moments, the ones that stand out are mostly having to do with my queerness, or with the brokenness of the music industry itself. Once I came out as gay and non-binary, people began to see my music through a different lens. There was no longer any neutral feelings toward me or my art. My art became something people either loved or hated, without much space in between. I had adults and family telling me to change the pronouns in a song to he/him from she/her so that it was more “digestible” for an audience. I’ve had people telling me to stop singing about my journey with my identity, gender, and queerness because it doesn’t have to do with them. The business itself has exploited me as an independent artist, industry professionals have taken advantage of me, and everything in between, but the more confident and sure of myself I become, the less that these things seem to happen. The music industry, the world, and myself are all ever-changing, and I’ve gotten good at leaning into that. I’m thankful to say that nothing has and nothing will take music away from me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m an artist and a songwriter! I write lyric-focused music, all kinds of circling around the indie/pop/singer-songwriter world. I tend to lean into writing about relationships of all kinds; in family, love, people I’m close to, my relationship to my queerness, trauma and everything in between. My most recent and upcoming releases all kind of circle the topics of the family being non-binary, but I’m also so excited to start releasing all of the music I’ve been working so hard on that’s about other things, like love and heartbreak. If I had to pick one song I’m most proud of, it would probably be a song I have coming out in the next few months with Miki Ratsula. I won’t give too much away yet but it feels very important- I really believe that the world needs to hear it. It feels necessary. People come to my music to feel heard, validated, and understood. People aren’t used to having a non-binary queer artist who’s saying what other people are afraid to say. It’s scary to be so vulnerable and honest, but the responses to my music have made all of that fear or hesitation so worth it. All I wanna do is be the artist that I never had growing up.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
My favorite childhood memory is going to the Taylor Swift Fearless tour as my first concert with my dad! She was and still is a huge inspiration to me, and my dad always took me out to concerts of my favorite artists. Seeing her play live changed my world… I vividly remember looking at her singing and knowing that’s what I was gonna do.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @julespaymer
• Facebook: @julespaymer
• Twitter: @julespaymer
• Youtube: @julespaymer
• Other: @julespaymer on TikTok

Image Credits
Flasch, Emily Rooney