There are over 1,300 voice memos on Julia Kugel’s phone. The prolific musician, who is best known as part of the punk trio The Coathangers, explains that every fragmented voice memo is “waiting to be somewhere” whether that’s with The Coathangers, the duo Soft Palms with her husband Scott Montoya, her Suicide Squeeze label supergroup Julia & The Squeezettes, or for her solo work.
The random snippets come to her in the middle of conversations with friends or, far too often, while riffing during sound check and they get sorted into files. “I’ll file folder them into which project like Soft Palms or is this Julia, Julia or I just started a new band called Animal Self, so maybe it is Animal Self,” she tells Billboard.
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The collection of memos started during her Coathangers days when each member would bring the recordings to the studio and collaborate. Eventually, some of those recordings felt as though they were Kugel’s alone to express and so she launched Julia, Julia.
Today, Kugel releases her second solo album Sugaring a Strawberry (via Suicide Squeeze and her and Montoya’s label Happy Sundays) under her moniker Julia, Julia and the 10-track record is an intimate collection that speaks only for Kugel. Created at their home studio in Southern California, Kugel co-produced the album alongside Montoya, resulting in haunting and austere vocals with gentle guitar and an unvarnished sound.
For “the first [solo] record, I was like, ‘Oh. I just want to do it by myself, I am so sick of people’ and then by the end of it, I was like, ‘I need people. I’m so sick of myself,’” she jokes. “So, on this one, Scott played a lot on it – percussion and stuff that he’s good at – but I still get to have final word. This is my exploration of my point of view and what I want to do.”
The album opens lead single “Bound” that, with the subtle guitar and the near-whispered lyrics, sounds like the listener is entering a coven with Kugel as she sings “I will be your home.” From there, Kugel continues to draw the listener in with her delicate vocals as she reluctantly reminisces about “A Love That Hurts” or about self-doubt on the smoldering “I Know.” “Feeling Lucky” is a warm respite on a shadowy album that delivers a slick beat tinged with sadness.
Billboard sat down with Kugel to discuss her latest solo effort and how she juggles all so many creative projects.
How do you decide what goes on a solo album versus one of your collaborative outlets?
The group has to be able to meet and do all that real important band communal stuff. So that’s part of it. With The Coathangers, we live on different coasts, so there has been so attempt to do it virtually, but it is not the same especially after 15 years of doing it the more natural way.
It is whatever I am able to accomplish. With Animal Self, we recorded seven songs and those are being mixed and that will come out as an EP. With Soft Palms, we need to finish up because it is due in September. I just wanted to sneak in some Julia, Julia stuff before all that because it did not depend on as many people.
The way I decide on a project is, if it pops up, I have a rule that I say yes to everything. Everything is a challenge. I produced a record for a band last year and that was super cool. Someone says, ‘do you want to do this?’ and I’ll be like, “Ok, let’s figure it out.’”
Have you always been a producer or working on the production side?
When this band reached out and said, “We want you to produce our record,” I was like, “Do I know how to do that?” With production, you have to have an opinion and some knowledge of studio and a vision for the band that maybe they can’t see. I’m good at that. I have a diverse background in music, everything from classical to punk, so I see the nuances. So, it was fun for me, but it involves so many people and the production took a really long time. We’re still waiting for that record to come out.
Do you feel you are able to achieve that same outsider’s perspective when you produce your own music?
Oh, dude. It’s brutal. I am always critiquing the playing or the singing. I’m not seeing the bigger picture. Which is why it is great to have Scott there. He’s been mixing for so long that he’s able to see the bigger picture. So, yeah. It takes some mediation. I have to leave for a while and touch a flower or something then come back in and pretend I am listening to someone else’s song. Then once the album is mixed and mastered, I don’t listen to it until it comes out.
Julia Julia, “Sugaring A Strawberry”
What are you hoping listeners get out of Sugaring a Strawberry?
I want it to be experienced more intimately. I remember getting records and putting them on and being like, “Oh, this is this person’s thoughts” and really connecting with it that way. Out of all my projects, this is the most truthful to my own experience. It is the rawness of me. On this record, I did a better job of adding some uplifting songs, but also the gentle parts of you where you have self-doubt. It’s scarier to release that.
How did you decide to release music that scared you so much?
A lot of songs I wrote a while back. I have been storing them. A lot of it was about connection within a band or friendships – like I wrote “Bound” about The Coathangers – when we were recording Nosebleed Weekend [released in 2016] because my father died at that time. A lot of these songs, there’s no place for them anywhere else in any other project. It’s truly my own experience. For my solo stuff, it is always going to be like that – these slower songs that I don’t really perform a lot because I get emotional. My solo records – they are a softer way to connect with people and maybe they have an experience they can relate to that.
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