Today we’d like to introduce you to Jules Brave.
Hi Jules, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Northern New Jersey, just a hop, skip, and a jump from NYC. My sister was very into musical theatre, so naturally, I pretended to ~hate it~ and opted to listen to pop music instead! My mom was always playing Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and my dad would put on radio stations like The Pulse and Radio Disney in the car; I was constantly listening to singer-songwriters like John Mayer and Sara Bareilles and popstars like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato. I started writing music at the piano when I was 8, and those influences are still apparent in the music I write today.
Thanks to my parents’ support of my passion, I was encouraged to participate in many after-school and summer programs dedicated to learning the craft of songwriting and about the ever-changing music industry. I decided to stay in NYC for college and enroll in BerkleeOnline for Interdisciplinary Music Studies. During my time in NYC, I reconnected with singer, performer, content creator, and vocal coach Natalie Weiss, who I first met when I was 16 and auditioned to be her background singer. I reached out to her for vocal coaching, and she would record our lessons and put them on the internet. To my surprise, her followers really rallied behind me and inspired me to release the music that I was working on perfecting in order to sing them better in demos to pitch to big artists. I was very grateful that the first song I released, “If You Ever Left Me,” garnered over 1 million streams on Spotify and reached people from all over the world. During quarantine, I was able to connect and create meaningful relationships with people who listened to my music when I would go on Instagram Live to document my creative process or just talk and drink chocolate milk in the middle of the night! I was also able to meet more artists and collaborators that I would eventually write with and for in LA.
The day after I graduated college, I moved from LA with my best friend, singer, and actor Joshua Colley, who I met on the internet during the pandemic. I have been here for a year and a half, and I am so lucky to have met such a down-to-earth, hard-working, genuine community of creatives and friends. I work with artists that I’ve admired and seen on my TikTok “For You” page from back when I lived in New York, and it is still so surreal that these people have become consistent collaborators and friends. One of those colleagues and close friends is Ryan Nealon – I co-wrote his single about body dysmorphia called “Feel Good,” which has 2 million+ streams on Spotify and peaked at #32 on the iTunes chart, and his upbeat song about being on the way to the one, called “Second To Last,” which has been featured on Spotify editorial playlists such as Sad Hour, soda, New Pop Picks, and more. I had artists that I’ve always looked up to, like Meghan Trainor and Kristin Chenoweth, support music I was a part of making – when Sara Bareilles reposted “Feel Good” on her Instagram story, I even crashed my car into the wall of my parking garage out of excitement – oopsies LOL!!! I also work consistently with the very talented singers and TikTokers Anthony Gargiula and Jonathan Tilkin, and the American Idol alum and heartthrob David Archuleta, who I’ve loved since I was 7 LOL!!!! I am so humbled by working in LA, and I’m constantly put into songwriting sessions with people who are so much more experienced and talented than me, and it truly pushes me to be better and more motivated to keep growing and pushing forward. I love writing meaningful music that will hopefully help people, and I am just very thankful to help artists tell their stories!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road — I’ve had huge YESes given to me, followed by radio silence. However, I am not someone who believes in the phrase, “don’t get your hopes up”. I will never numb my excitement about something to protect myself from potential disappointment later. I will experience the highest highs, anticipating something that may never come to fruition rather than not letting myself be happy just because it might not result in the outcome I want. My dad has always taught me to act “as if” something is happening, and I believe that is a way to manifest and also “fake it till you make it.”
Another obstacle is that I’ve had anxiety in songwriting sessions that has inhibited my ability to speak up, much less contribute creatively. The only thing that has helped my anxiety in that way is 1) my amazing therapist and 2) exposure therapy to working with great people who intimidate me on a regular basis.
When you zoom out and really think about what occurs in a songwriting session, you are basically showing up to someone’s house or studio that you’ve never met before and then spilling your guts to them about your deepest secrets or personal details of situations in your life, and then you’re asked to make something catchy, relatable, accessible, but still unique and sometimes ground-breaking, out of those experiences. A podcast I like to listen to called “…And The Writer Is” is about songwriting and is hosted by a multi-platinum songwriter named Ross Golan. he says that songwriting is an industry made out of air — you are creating something from nothing every day and it is intangible. There is simultaneously so much pressure but also excitement every day to make quality air. I could talk for hours about melodic math, pop formula, symmetry, etc., but that’s very boring. I love the craft of songwriting so much, even though it can be so scary!!!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
When I lived in NYC, I met with a music executive who told me that my lyrics needed work. I went home and cried, LOL, and then I put my head down and listened to so much music — I was determined to not only change his mind but to make my weakness into my specialty. After moving to LA, I am now brought into sessions specifically to write what I call KTV lyrics (Knife-Twist Vibes LOL!), which are especially extra-sad lyrics in ballads that will hopefully hurt the listener’s feelings when listening hahahaha. I love writing hooky, sexy, early 2000s-esque pop/r&b records, as well as intimate, singer-songwriter ballads. I also love creating background vocal arrangements on the records I write on, and I love performing live backgrounds as well. My two really good friends, Anthony Gargiula and Gaba, and I sang background vocals for Dodie last year for her NPR Tiny Desk, and that was such a bucket-list experience for me!!!
What does success mean to you?
Success for me is being able to live out what I feel my purpose is, which is helping artists delve into their personal lives and tell their intimate stories in order to help their listeners. I wish I was smart enough to try to help people by being a doctor or lawyer or something more notable, but that is not in the cards for me LOL
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imjulesbrave/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imjulesbrave
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/imjulesbrave
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@imjulesbrave
Image Credits
Sophie Sahara
