DAVID ADAMS speaks with Juliagrace…
There are times when New Zealand’s Juliagrace knows as she’s writing a song that it’s going to make an impact.
“Sometimes you just write a song and you think, ‘This is going to make a difference’…,” says the 38-year-old singer-songwriter. “If it makes me cry it’s going to hopefully heal a heart somewhere along the line. I’m a great believer that God uses music in a really personal way and sometimes people hold on to songs because that’s all they have.”
“Basically family life and all that entails and a lot of touring has meant that I’ve been very busy in the meantime. But I’ve learnt a lot and I’ve grown a lot in that time and I think that’s all been reflected on the album.”
– Juliagrace on the gap between her two albums.
Juliagrace (aka Julia Vucich) worked as a school teacher before “inching” her way into working fulltime in the music business in her late 20s and early 30s.
While she describes herself as a “late bloomer”, Juliagrace was introduced to music at a young age and, prior to the release of her much acclaimed debut solo album in 2005, had been in bands including a Christian electronica group called Elevator and New Zealand’s world-renowned Parachute Band – the latter an experience she describes as the “ultimate kick-start” for a career in music.
She initially continued touring with the Parachute Band after the release of her self-titled first album, but has also since extensively toured in her own right in New Zealand – including playing at the Parachute Festival – as well as in Australia and the US. Last month, five years after the release of her first album, Juliagrace released her second, Beautiful Survivor.
“Basically family life and all that entails, and a lot of touring has meant that I’ve been very busy in the meantime,” she says of the gap between the two albums. “But I’ve learnt a lot and I’ve grown a lot in that time and I think that’s all been reflected on the album.”
Having grown up in a Christian home, Juliagrace – who is now married to Brendan and has two children, Bella, 11, and Jesse, seven – says her faith has always been an important part of her life. She can recall making a commitment at about the age of seven but says it was really just an acknowledgement of what she already knew.
Music, too, has been a constant in her life and it was at the age of three, when her older sister was receiving piano lessons, that she started formal training.
“I learnt by color and by ear, so my sight reading has never been my strong point. It’s very much based on what I could hear.,” she says. “Which is how I write now anyway.”
Juliagrace says that when it comes to writing songs for an album, she has no particular strategy in mind.
“I believe that if you start in a variety of different starting places, you will get a variety of different results so I’m always careful not to start in the same spot as far as musical lyrics go,” she says.
“Emotion-wise, my experience is to have kind of lived the story or viewed the story or seen it somehow and then later on to come back and revisit it. There is no strategy. I’m not a strategist, I never sit down and think, I want to write about this or I want to write on this theme. People often ask me, ‘Why do you do this?’ and I’m like ‘I don’t know, I’m an artist.’ Things show themselves later – it’s like when you hang the pictures on the wall of gallery, you step back and go ‘Oh, they’re all kind of like that’. Those things show themselves a little bit later.”
Given the central role her faith plays in her life, Juliagrace says it’s only natural that this ‘leaks’ out into her songs.
“These are not worship songs so they’re not congregationally accessible to sing along…but my worldview and the subjects that I’m very hot on are hugely influenced by my family…Family, love, life, everyone of those is a soapbox for the Gospel, really.”
As with her first album, Juliagrace says that selecting songs for the second involved some trial and error.
“What I did this time was I recorded a bunch of songs together and then went away for a little while, played those ones live and saw how that went, came back and recorded some more, went away and came back and recorded some more. So each time we were able to see what are we missing.
“By the time we came to the last part, we were able to select songs from the ones I had written that seemed to fit the gaps in the album and really complete it. Even though that’s a long process and can be a very frustrating process, it actually gave me the ability to construct a song list that I think is very complete.”
“I just was amazed by how happy they were and on the other hand amazed by how deprived they were of the necessities of life… I was really confronted by their poverty but really inspired by their bravery.”
When she’s not touring, Juliagrace lives with her family on a property north of Auckland. Balancing family life and work can be challenging, but Juliagrace says that she is careful to put a cap on the amount of time she spends touring. She can recall praying when she was pregnant that she would have the wisdom to know when to stay know and that her children would be able to cope with her lifestyle.
Having a husband in the industry has helped – Brendan is the A&R manager at Parachute Music (although it should be noted he came to this position after Juliagrace was signed to them).
Being a mum and an artist has opened up some unique opportunities. In 2008, Juliagrace was able to travel to Cambodia with her daughter Bella on a trip organised by World Vision.
She describes the trip – the first time she had been exposed to such confronting poverty – as “very humbling” and adds that she learnt a lot from village life.
“I just was amazed by how happy they were and on the other hand amazed by how deprived they were of the necessities of life… I was really confronted by their poverty but really inspired by their bravery.”
Juliagrace says the trip was also an eye-opener for Bella, helping her to understand the difference between people’s wants and needs.
“She’s got a really clear understanding for an 11-year-old..and I think that’s a great lesson to learn early on in a consumer society.”
Having finished the second album, Juliagrace is now looking forward to some touring – she was recently in Brisbane – and is taking part in a series of ‘Girl’s Night Out’ events organised by World Vision in both New Zealand and Melbourne.
She relishes the chance to share her music. “My heart has always been that people will be moved by a song and then think ‘Oh, I’ve got a friend who’s really struggling with their identity’…I’m going to give her this album and put a circle around track four or whatever and hopefully she’ll be encouraged,” she says. “(It’s) the whole pass it on concept.”
