Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire Julian.
Claire, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The first time it occurred to me that I wanted to be a musician, I was in the passenger seat of my dad’s car driving up to Vermont to go snowboarding. The whole ride I’d been listening to The Pretty Reckless’s first record on repeat and I had this really cheesy, but real, epiphany, where I felt “Wow I have to do this !!” I had been playing drums as a hobby for several years before, but it was never something I took too seriously.
At the same time, I discovered The Pretty Reckless, I discovered Joan Jett, and the combination of these two musical influences created an intense, explosive interest in rock n roll. I was in middle school when this happened, which I think was super important because at that age I was so vulnerable and in need of something to revolutionize my life, and music became that! Since those inspiring years when I first picked up a guitar, started writing songs, and was living and breathing classic rock and punk, bands like The Runaways, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin, The Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, The Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam–I’ve been working towards the artist that I have become today.
Now, at 20 years old, I am an out and proud queer woman who strives to make honest, compelling, and fun punk music. I am an accomplished drummer, bassist, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter; I have released several singles, an album, and an EP as a solo artist, composing all my own music and playing all of the instruments; I have authored numerous prose works, one of which chronicled the complex emotions of being in the closet in high school and ended up earning me a National Gold Medal from Scholastic when I was 18; and when I am not writing or playing music I am often on hikes and camping trips which give me the space and inspiration I need to continue being an artist in this world.
Additionally, I am enrolled full time as a Creative Writing student at USC. After about a five year period of creating and releasing music as a solo artist under the name “no reception.”, I’m excited to now transition no reception. into a band, which I formed in January, with Devon Hilander as bassist and Matt Haddad as drummer. Right now I’m focused on developing this project more by doing lots of shows in the L.A area, recording and releasing music as a band, and cultivating an image and presence in the socal punk scene. I’m also continuing to work on stuff independent of the band, including a music video and cover of Halsey’s “Nightmare” which I will be releasing in September, and a poetry book and novel.
Has it been a smooth road?
Honestly, music and writing have always only been supportive, positive forces in my life. Even in moments of personal struggle, these are the things that ground me. I think the hardest period for me as an artist was when I graduated high school and attended a competitive music program at the University of Miami. The environment was super counterintuitive to everything music had always been to me. It was all about comparing your skills and value as a musician to your peers and it forced people to assess music categorically which isn’t even really possible. When you get this idea that a song can be graded from 1-4 by categories like lyrics, harmony, melody, and chord progression–well that is just kind of absurd to me! So I guess what I’m saying is I get why music programs have to do that, but it doesn’t make any actual sense and then it sets conservatory kids up with false expectations of the music industry being some bizarre world where these untrue measures of music are significant when in reality they aren’t. I learned a lot in my one year studying music formally, and I’m really grateful for the experience–all the amazing professors and students–but it definitely was not the right environment for me, personally. I know a lot of people who love music school and conservatory life, though, so I guess it is is all just subjective. I’m happy to now be pursuing music in L.A, while studying creative writing at USC.
Tell us about your business and what makes you different?
I think that to consider myself as an artist, uniquely different from all the other artists doing amazing stuff in L.A, would be a little egotistical, but to consider myself as an individual, uniquely different from all other individuals doing amazing stuff in L.A, is imperative. I say that because I think it is easy to get lost in a sea of “artists” “actors” “musicians” and that vague phrase no one seems to understand fully “industry people”, and then forget that we are not an accumulation of our successes, but rather, we just are! We are. We exist. We are nothing but what we are! I hold on strongly to the notion that I should always be doing what I want to do for myself and my career in that moment, in the present, rather than be doing things with the expectation it will get me something later in the future, because the future doesn’t exist yet and it doesn’t exist until it happens, so it is pretty misguided to think that doing things we don’t want to do will produce a future in which we are doing things we do want to do. So for me, that meant letting go (a little!) of my obsession with honing and growing my social media presence. This was something that never fulfilled me, and actually stressed me out, but felt like something I should focus on because maybe I could somehow pop off on Instagram and then benefit my music career. Now, Instagram is still a tool I use a lot, but I make sure to only do it in a way that I genuinely want to.
So that was sort of a long way of saying we are all unique, and because my art is a reflection of myself, it too is unique. I specifically try to make this statement as true as possible by putting up no walls between myself and whatever I am working on, whether it be a song, a chapter in my book, or a photoshoot. I’m someone who has always been really comfortable laying it all out on the table, which I know a lot of artists sometimes struggle with, but which I think is a lot of people’s biggest takeaway from my work. I get a lot of comments about how honest my lyrics are and how relatable what I’m creating is, and I think everyone is capable of creating content like that, but some people just aren’t comfortable with it. Discomfort is often a good sign with art! Don’t torture yourself but definitely push yourself! A lot of the subjects we are uncomfortable being honest about in our writing–sex, family, self reflection–are the things that need to be made into art the most, both because if we continue to not write about them we create weird taboos about the subjects in our culture, but also because if we, as artists, never venture into those more vulnerable territories, the art that is produced is incomplete, only a half-reflection of the artist.
Being honest about my experience with my sexuality has been a HUGE part of everything I’ve ever made. For the longest time when writing, I would use genderless pronouns when talking about love interests because singing about men was dishonest but singing about women wasn’t something I could do when I was in the closet. It’s actually kind of crazy–I basically came out through one of my songs because it was getting so frustrating to leave the pronouns ambiguous and I just decided “fuck it! I don’t really care!” and wrote this song called “She Wants Me”, which is on my first album Restless Heart. If you cannot already tell by the title, it is like the gayest song ever so I went from avoiding my sexuality in my music to embracing it! This was a really significant change for me as an artist and paved the way for the rest of my music to grapple a lot with sexuality, and in real-time as I was figuring it out, I was putting it out there into the world with my music.
Now, the two most streamed songs on my band’s Spotify, “Moon Girl” and “Penny”, are super queer and I love that! I love that people connect with the queerness and I love that even if I’m not currently reaching a huge audience, the audience I am reaching is finding my music because they are thirsty for content that reflects their lives, a feeling I am all too familiar with because when I was growing up finding a music video with two girls making out (cough cough, Girls like Girls by Hayley Kioyoko) was like the most exciting event of the year. That is changing a lot now–there is so much more representation, art is starting to look a lot more like the real world rather than some bizarre white, heterosexual dystopian universe I don’t wanna be a part of! So as long as I’m being honest with my art and continuing to contribute to the destruction of this false universe being presented in music, books, TV, movies–then I’m doing what I want to do!
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I guess as an independent artist my business/company is me, and all of the things I create. So for me, that means a number of things which I can break down into some separate areas. The main focus of my artistry has always been my music, which I have been putting out into the world under the name “no reception.” ever since my debut album “Restless Heart” came out in 2o16. On this record there are 11 songs, all of which I wrote and performed the guitar, drums, bass, and vocal parts for. Over the course of about five years, I developed no reception. as a solo project. Everything that was no reception. was me. Not only was the music completely me, the photos, the videos, the graphics, the shows, the press–all the behind the scenes stuff people don’t really think about–I did, including spending countless hours searching for small online blogs to review the music and try to get it to some people’s ears. Now, no reception. is no longer a solo project, but is continuing on as a band, with Devon Hilander as bassist and Matt Haddad as drummer. This is an exciting chapter for the project because it means we can start building a presence in the music scene in L.A by playing lots of shows and meeting other local bands, whereas when I was doing no reception. solo, it was mostly online content.
Another creative pursuit of mine is writing, which I have been doing since I was in elementary school. I have always been a fervent fan of literature, influenced primarily by beat writers like Jack Kerouac, Tom Wolfe, and Allen Ginsberg. Last year I was writing articles for the online blog Control Forever, but right now I am focusing on my independent projects, including a novel, several short fiction pieces, and a poetry book, while also studying writing at USC. I plan on trying to publish these works once they are completed. In addition to music and writing, I model. As someone who loves expressing myself through fashion, I’ve always modeled for photographer friends just for fun. I loved designing the perfect, unique look to capture the vibe of each shoot and then would use the photos for music promo or social media, but recently I signed with Otto Models so I’m just now dipping my toe in modeling professionally. I find that when I’m doing shoots with my friends there is more space for creativity and self-expression, and in these moments modeling feels like an art form just like anything else I do, but as a job it stifles me a little more than I am comfortable with. But that journey just started so we’ll see where it goes!
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I grew up in New York, but have had my eyes on L.A since I was 14. Whenever my family would visit California, I thought it was magical. The palm trees as tall as skyscrapers, beaches as big as football fields, the underlying presence of glamour and fame, but also rich, abundant culture, art, peace, mountains. All of these things I saw as a 14-year-old New Yorker, I still see as a 20-year-old now living my dream in L.A. I think there is something really beautiful about how everyone in L.A is trying to make it. Whether it’s movies, music, photography, art, dance–LA is where the people who haven’t given up on their dreams yet live. That sort of energy, that idea that “I am an artist and I can be an artist my whole life and I do not have to abandon this passion of mine for someone else’s idea of the life I’m supposed to live” is really powerful. But the other side of a city where everyone is trying to make the impossible possible is a really negative and disturbing climate of competition. I’ve definitely been in scenes in L.A where it feels like everyone is either trying to tear each other down or use each other as building blocks for personal gain. I hate that. But if you can avoid that sort of energy, you can definitely find artist communities where everyone is building off each other but in a mutual way, not a manipulative way. That energy is what I’m always searching for.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.noreceptionmusic.com/
- Phone: 9147152643
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Christian MacArthur
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