For those who aren’t in the known, ‘julie'(stylized in all lowercase) is an up-and-coming alternative rock band composed of bassist/vocalist Alexandra Elizabeth, guitarist/vocalist Keyan Pourzand and drummer Dillion Lee. julie’s sonic identity is a lot harder to list, with many online fans dubbing them as ‘zoomer-gaze’, a combination between the generational title ‘zoomer’ (due to their young fanbase) and the genre shoegaze, which was popularized in the ‘90s and is characterized by hazy guitars played over spacey vocals. Prominent names of the genre include Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. Other news outlets have taken to calling them grunge-gaze, a mix between grunge and shoegaze, with some opting for just shoegaze. Member Alex Elizabeth has pushed back against this title though due to the limiting potential she feels under it.
Regardless of how you categorize them, julie had comfortably started the year with about 590k monthly listeners on Spotify. While definitely not underground, it was still not enough to say julie had hit the alternative mainstream. Then came Faye Webster’s 2024 U.S. tour following her anticipated release of “Underdressed at the Symphony.” julie opened for several locations of her tour like Boston, Philadelphia and, where I saw them, Washington D.C. The band would see a steady rise in popularity following these appearances, sitting at around 770k monthly listeners by the end of August.
This set them up for September 13th, where they released their debut album “my anti-aircraft friend,” which was met with appraisal from news outlets like Pitchfork and Far Out Magazine. Being both a culmination of all their previous sounds as well as an exploration of new techniques and melodies, MAAF cemented the band’s name as one to look out for. Tracks like “very little effort” and “thread, stitch” saw vocalists Alexandra and Keyan play around with vocal overlays, while tracks like “feminine adornments” saw Alex explore different melodic structures for her hooks.
Similarly to their previous work, lyrics on this project remained vague and sort of ‘storyteller-esque.’ “stuck in a car with angels” encapsulates this eerie feeling of desire and neglect, all while never forming a single sentence within the lyrics. This ambiguity of the song’s true purpose supports the already melancholic instrumentation produced by the band, curating this nervous uncertainty in the audience around the song as whole. With no clear meaning for most of the lyrics, fans are left to resonate with what they interpret them to mean, creating a strong bond between the trio and their fans.
Vocals weren’t the only area that received love on the project. “tenebrist” saw Alex playing with a new sound in both her intro to the track and its subsequent bridge. The isolated bass rings out like metal cans in an empty warehouse with the echo hitting you in a slightly ominous way, almost like a warning. The band also experimented with a more patient build up on “piano instrumental,” culminating into a steady growl of the guitar met with the punching hits of Dillion’s drumming. The work in whole feels like a healthy progression for the rookie group and has proved useful in helping them garner an even more steady following.
With this release, the trio was sent up another 200k listeners, placing them on the upper side of almost 1 million monthly streams as of late September. With their own North American tour on the horizon and a quickly accumulating cult following, things are looking bright for julie and fans alike. Contemporaries like Midrift and Wisp have already soared well over the 1 million mark, so maybe it’s time for julie to beat that milestone too.