Julia Pratt‘s newest single “Chronos, Cruel Handler” represents an era trapped in time. The Philadelphia singer-songwriter says her songs serve as place-keepers for moments of her life, all of which collectively make up who she is as an artist, as a daughter and as a human. Pratt’s music conveys a never-ending journey of one finding their place in the universe, and listeners feel both healed and reassured when they realize that nobody is on this journey alone.
A track that is as beautiful as it is emotional and tragic, Pratt flawlessly combines her raw lyrics with musicality that tugs on the heart strings of listeners. The song, released on April 12, was joined by a music video which serves as the second chapter of the short film for her upcoming EP Family Feud, due May 10. The project ultimately conveys a death or transformation; one that is sorrowful but graceful. Inspired by her childhood that was deeply affected by family trauma and her relationship with her father , “Chronos, Cruel Handler” delivers a powerful and melancholy message as it’s accompanied by Pratt’s ethereal vocals and soft acoustics. The indie songstress sat down with Melodic Mag to discuss this new single as well as the upcoming EP, her debut headlining show on May 11 and where she believes she falls in the universe.
Thank you so much for taking the time, Julia! Going to the very beginning, how were you introduced to music?
Well, I grew up playing instruments. It was really important to my parents that my sister and I knew how to play instruments. I started off on piano when I was like four or five, then I played cello through elementary school and I started playing saxophone when I was like 8 and played saxophone up until I was like 16 in school ensembles and jazz band. So music was always a part of my life. I also like to write poetry on the side just for fun, and eventually I started combining the writing and playing and started writing my own music.
I had read in your Spotify bio that you write the music that you want to hear. What is the kind of music that you’re looking for that you want to listen to?
I think it really changes depending on the day, and I think that’s why that is my Spotify bio, because I’ve been asked a lot what genre I like to listen to or what genre my music is, and I don’t really know because I think it changes based on the song or the project. I don’t really like to confine music into any sort of box. That sounds so cliche, but I think that music is about the feeling that it brings you. So I think the music I want to listen to is something that’s really authentic and feels real and not forced. Whatever that means for me changes depending on where I’m at mentally, emotionally or even physically. It’ll change depending on what I’m surrounded by. It’s a way to encapsulate who I am. I’m just a bunch of little bits and pieces that are thrown together and it changes depending on how I feel.
I love that description. Going off of that, do you ever face pressure to stick to one sound or fit in a box like you said earlier?
I totally do. I feel that from other people, but I also feel it for myself sometimes just because it’s hard to be an emerging artist. People don’t know me, and the first question you ask someone when you hear about a new artist is, ‘What does their music sound like?’ Sometimes it’s kind of daunting when I can’t give a straight answer. I feel I can’t wrap it all up and deliver it to someone, and I worry that it’s going to be misunderstood or people will think it doesn’t appeal to them because they don’t get it right off the bat. So I definitely put that pressure on myself sometimes, but it comes and goes in waves and I think as more people listen to my music there is a common thread of my voice and my lyricism, and hopefully it’ll make sense eventually, right?
You mention this common thread in your music, and I noticed that a common theme in your songs is telling listeners they’re not alone in their experiences. How do you express that in your work and why is expressing that so important to you?
I think it’s important to me because growing up, and even now, I’ve felt really alone in my feelings a lot of the time. I’m actually not the best communicator of my emotions in conversation. It’s really hard for me to articulate how I’m feeling to other people, which I think leaves me feeling isolated a lot of the time. I find that in songwriting I’m able to look at how I’m feeling and deliver it to someone so that we can communicate. It’s really opened the door to be able to connect with other people as well. It helps me feel less alone when other people come up to me and say that they felt something from one of my songs. Especially with the newer singles. All of us have a family and these songs are all about family and the relationships and dynamics between our family members. I think it’s important for me to feel that I’m not alone in that and it’s really important for me also to let other people know that it’s really hard, but they’re not the only ones going through it and there can be community in the pain.
I did of course want to ask about your new singles as well. “Chronos, Cruel Handler” is the most recent one and “Carolina” was before that. You said writing “Carolina” had killed you and then “Chronos, Cruel Handler” is the result after you reflected on that death. That description is so heavy; how did writing “Carolina” kill you, and what does that death kind of symbolize?
It really broke open an emotional dam that I had internally. My family fell apart when I was a teenager and my dad left our family. It was just a really difficult time. But there was so much happening externally in my life that it just kind of happened and then we moved on and we didn’t really talk about it. I didn’t really acknowledge it as a big change, so when I wrote “Carolina” it was kind of the first time that I really acknowledged to myself that that experience hurt me and that it did end a period of my life. It ended my childhood when I realized that my family could so easily be destroyed. I think that’s what I meant when I said that it killed me. I think with that revelation and reflection I had a long period of rage towards my dad, towards my mom, towards everyone. I didn’t write “Chronos” until about a year and a half after I wrote “Carolina.” I really let it simmer for a bit, and then by the time I wrote “Chronos” I’d had some therapy and I was thinking about why it came to be. I think I had a lot more compassion at that period, and so I think that’s where I felt like I was a little bit more removed from the gut punch of it all. I was able to look back on it and be like, ‘Okay, it wasn’t really all about me even though it impacted me.’
I would imagine the feelings might still be fresh in a way, especially after revisiting it after a long time. How does it feel to write about something that’s so personal that truly hurt you?
Honestly, it felt good. When I was growing up, I didn’t really feel like I had a voice in my family because I’m the youngest and I was the little one. I think through these songs I was able to tell my side of the story and validate my own feelings and put it out there and say this is how I felt, which was, ‘You fucked up and you hurt me and I’m not going to take it back and apologize for it,’ which I think is a big step for me because typically I’m very apologetic about expressing myself. So it felt really empowering and it honestly has mended a lot of my own family relationships. I showed the songs to my dad and it was a moment where I actually got an apology and an acknowledgement for everything. I was like, ‘You hear me for the first time. You’re hearing me.’ That was a really special feeling for me.
It takes a lot to write a song about someone who hurt you and then show the song to said person. Was it always the plan to show your dad those songs?
No, it wasn’t. My dad and I have kind of a strange relationship now. He doesn’t even live in the U.S. I haven’t seen him since I was a teenager, so I didn’t know if I was even going to release the songs. But I think once I decided to and once I decided to make this into a project, I felt like, ethically, I had to. I didn’t want to put something out in the world that’s so blatantly about him and our dynamic and throw that out without a warning. So once I decided to release the songs the plan was always to show him. I did wait until they were finished, because I was scared to actually have the conversation, but I’m glad I did. I think I would have wanted someone to tell me if they were going to release a really honest song about my behavior, you know?
That definitely makes sense. I know in “Chronos, Cruel Handler” you compare your upbringing to your dad’s upbringing. After that reflecting and songwriting, what similarities did you find with you and your dad?
I think both my dad and I grew up in environments where we didn’t have any agency over our lives and over our situation. For me obviously that was because of my dad, but my dad was just repeating a cycle that he had experienced himself. I think my dad and I both felt the weight of the world on our shoulders to make something of ourselves and to prove to our parents and to the world that we were deserving of being alive. I think my dad passed that on to me, but I can’t deny that he had a really tough upbringing himself. I just think that he didn’t have the resources and maybe the personality to reflect on all the things that were going on in his life. He coped by trying to survive, and I’m in a different position where I have had too much time to ruminate and think about all of the ways that I’ve come to be. But I think those core feelings of feeling unworthy and unloved were the similarities that we shared.
I’m glad with the song coming out and you sharing the song with him there might be some more understanding. That’s a very sweet aspect of it for sure. The single has a music video, and it’s part of this short film that you had for the upcoming EP. The music video seem to be a continuation of “Carolina.” It’s similar but different. What inspired this new music video?
It really is. It was inspired by what we talked about a couple of minutes ago and that “Carolina” and “Chronos” are so connected for me. I feel like “Carolina” is part one and “Chronos” is part two. In the “Carolina” video, I’m walking around and I’m dying, in a sense. I’m falling apart and I’m in this nightgown. I’m running out of my house and I’m just freaking out, basically. I think “Chronos” in the morning gown is really supposed to symbolize this post-death version of me that’s looking back on the clothes that I used to wear, the paths I used to walk on and the places I used to live. I’m just stoic and taking it all in. There isn’t really emotion attached to it anymore. That was the goal for the video, to revisit all this imagery from “Carolina” and from the other videos in the short film that you’ll see and look at them from afar and accept that they are what they are and I don’t really have to claim them anymore or or keep them as a part of me.
You say upcoming videos, meaning several more will come out, which is so exciting. I’m sure you can’t give too much away about them, but the upcoming EP Family Feud does come out May 10. What can listeners expect from the EP?
I think that they can expect a really visceral deep dive into childhood agony. You’re going to learn a lot about me as a person through the remaining songs and through the body of work as a whole. My goal was to share this part of myself and be really open about it. You’re going to learn a lot about my family and I think that hopefully you’ll be able to take away a sense of growth and a sense of catharsis from it. It’s kind of brutal at points, but I think it ends on a really compassionate note, which was my goal. I hope that it can provide a little bit of peace and a little bit of community for anyone who grew up feeling like they didn’t have community in their family. You’re not the only person who felt that, and I hope that the songs bring a sense of comfort.
You have some pretty exciting shows coming up, including your first ever headlining hometown show soon as well as some shows with Amos Lee. How do those shows feel for you, especially your first ever headlining show?
I’m really excited. I’ve spent most of the last year opening for other amazing artists, which has been really great for me. I’ve learned a lot and I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. I love being an opener and seeing how other bands or other artists operate, but I’m really excited for the first time to do it myself and be able to have a longer set and connect with people who’ve been listening to my music and see who comes out. I’d be excited if even one person came out, that would mean a lot to me. I haven’t really had an opportunity for people to come out and see me, I guess, so I’m really excited to be able to have that experience. I’m really excited for all the other dates supporting these other artists. I’m a fan of everyone that I’ve opened for, so I really have had the most amazing time getting to see all these artists that I love do their thing.
I read that you said your artistry is ultimately a way for you to better understand your journey so far, whether it’s your experience in the industry as a woman of color or your experience growing up with your family. What is it about your journey specifically that you’re trying to understand?
I’m always trying to understand my place in it all. That’s kind of been my lifelong question. ‘Where do I fit into anything?’ I think a part of that was growing up, moving around a lot and not having a stable anything. I’ve always felt like I’m just wandering and trying to figure out where I even want to go, or if anywhere even wants me back. I think that’s what my songs are about. I’m trying to understand through them. It’s interesting to look back on different periods of my life and listen to the songs I wrote then and see exactly where I was and how I felt and what I thought my reality was. I feel like that changes very often for me. It’s kind of just a timekeeper for me and a placeholder for where I am at any given moment. I hope that, looking back, I’ll be able to paint a better picture of who I am and maybe it’ll help guide me to where I want to go.
Thank you so much for taking the time today, I really appreciate it!
Thank you so much! It was so good to meet you and I really appreciate getting to talk to you!
Keep up with Julia Pratt: Instagram // TikTok // Spotify // Website
