“Life is difficult for everyone in so many ways. We have to give so much of ourselves over to people and work, sometimes it feels like we’ve run out of things to give. At least, that’s how it feels sometimes for me,” says 21-year-old Miami-based indie artist Julia Bhatt about her melancholic new single aptly titled “For The World.” With candid and forthright lyrics such as “Working and waiting and falling and breaking your back, for the world / I just wanna feel like, like I have a choice / Cuz lately it feels like I’m losing that voice” this second single off her upcoming sophomore EP (Grab Bag out independently on November 17, 2023) speaks about what it’s felt like when she’s dealt with a ‘depressed mind.’ “For The World” is her version of a “big sigh.”
“For The World” follows the release of the EP’s first single, a vibrant rendition of one of her favorite songs right now, “Charmander” (originally performed by Portland rapper Aminé) and, she says, the songs on the EP (two original tracks and two covers) all represent where she’s at right now: “A little lost, a little sad, but still going. They make me happy when I listen to them.” The covers are ones she “couldn’t get out of her head” until she played them, and the original tracks also came “very naturally” and “peacefully” to her which she says, “doesn’t usually happen.” She says she wanted to make this EP as an ode to the “hundreds” of ‘grab bag’ style acoustic cover video performances she’s done on Instagram over the years.
Not one to stick to one genre since there are “so many beautiful ones out there,” this EP shines with Julia’s ever-expanding gen-Z genre-fluid talent. She adds that “people never know what genre to put [her] in” and she promises that this EP “will increase” the confusion. “This is me exploring that without having to stick to a certain image people may have of my music. I’m honestly just proud of the EP, itself,” she says.
From September 2019 to early March 2020, Julia was in a whirlwind of life-changes: she released her first three singles (“Tall,” “Marco” and “I’m Cool“), turned eighteen, and graduated high school. Just as she was really getting started with the announcement of her first ever tour, however, the pandemic brought everything to a standstill. Holed up in Miami and states away from her mentor and producer Elliot Jacobson (Ingrid Michaelson, Elle King, Vérité) in New York City, she started to write songs on software, Ableton Live, rather than on the guitar – a whole new creative experience for her, proving that while the world was in quarantine, she could not be contained. In a creative burst of energy, she’s released the singles “Miami” and “Bird Girl,” as well as her debut EP 2 steps back; all since March 2020. The first music to come from this new approach to making music were her 2021 singles “1:30” and “Hair Salon Vibes” both of which were included on her 2022 debut album (it is what it is) alongside an earlier recording of “Miami.”
Julia Bhatt‘s new single “For The World” was released independently today – October 19, 2023. Her Grab Bag EP will be released on November 17.
