As she shares her sophomore studio album, Pressure, much acclaimed singer-songwriter Julia Wolf talks reflections, tour, and bringing her new opus to life. 

To be a successful musical artist, you need talent, charisma, ambition. But you also need patience. For Julia Wolf, her big breakthrough came five years after the genesis of her releasing. “The years that I’ve been doing this has set me up and prepared me for this moment that’s happening right now,” she smiles.

The watershed moment in question was “In My Room”. First shared in Spring of 2024, the cut is emotive and existential, depicting the nostalgic pain of heartbreak, the type of song that pierces your imagination and makes you ponder on your worst moments — but in the best way. 

Since, Wolf’s trajectory has been propelled, sharing further singles “Loser” and “Jennifer’s Body” to acclaim. Her rise will cultivate in a sophomore album, Pressure, set to be unveiled this coming Friday, 23rd May. With sharp sentimentality, magical realism and grunge-y indie pop backdrops, the record will undoubtedly see the singer-songwriter reach new artistic heights. Wonderland catch up with Wolf ahead of its release, talking the new work, her journey to date, and the lessons she has learnt along the way. 

Listen to the latest single…

Read the interview…

How do you reflect on your musical career to date? 

I see it as like many, many years of working towards connecting with people and just making music that resonates. I’m finally now, with the past like four months, kind of seeing that all come together. I’m just super grateful for all the new fans coming in every day.

You’ve been releasing for years but find yourself now in more of the spotlight than ever. What have you learnt from your years as a musician? Do you feel ready to make that step into wider stardom? 

Over the years, what I’ve learned is that being authentic is the most important part and connecting with the fans on a personal level as much as possible, helping them feel seen and understood, is the key to growing and maintaining the fanbase. Trusting your gut and just believing in what you’re doing, even if everyone around you is saying, ‘Hey, maybe that’s not the right move’, because that is what happened when I decided to switch genres, I got so much pushback and it’s just continued to teach me that I need to trust myself more than anything.

You’ve just supported Artemas on their North American tour, how’s that been? 

That was honestly incredible. I think his fanbase just aligned so well with my music. It was all of these alternative alt baddies, and they just seemed to really resonate with what I was saying. His crowd was mostly girls, so it was like the perfect fit, honestly.

Are you a natural performer or is it something you’ve grown to flourish at?

I’ve been performing since I was in elementary school just doing the talent shows. However, I was so shy in my day-to-day life that it definitely took me a minute to get comfortable on stage. I think a huge part of that was the audience really being so supportive and singing along with me, and that just helped me get out of my own head. I used to perform in pyjamas to psych myself out and think that it was less nerve wracking than what it was.

Congratulations on the success of “In My Room”! Did it feel like a special song when you were making it? What topics does the song tackle? 

It felt special because it just felt the most myself that I had been in a very long time. I was just speaking the truth about things I was going through. I think the topics of that song are really just how I deal with falling in love with someone, and I learned that – this is about the first time I’m falling in love like, this is not just a fling – the more I love someone, the less I love myself. The more that I like someone, the more I realise why they wouldn’t like me back. I think that was just kind of the main point of that song and stalking myself on the internet and just being upfront about how obsessive I can be in certain relationships where I don’t know how the other person feels. But also, even if I do know how they feel, I still go crazy. That’s why that song feels so special because it’s just the truth about how I am in those situations.

Congratulations on Pressure! How are you feeling about the release?

I’m so excited. I think we’ve been working at this for over a year now. We’ve been driving ourselves crazy, trying to get this perfect and just the way that we wanted it to be, and I feel really proud. I’m excited to just get the music out and finally be able to tour it.

What has the process of creating the album been? Did it differ from previous projects?

It definitely differed. It was me, Tanner and Scro really for most of it just in his bedroom. I’ve worked in a ton of sessions with so many different producers, but really I can only make my best work when I’m either alone or just in a room of like 2 people that I’m comfortable with. I think a lot of it just started with me here in my bedroom writing, and then being able to bring it into someone like Scro just made the process so easy and effortless because he just understands me.

What has inspired the body of work, sonically and thematically?

Thematically, we’ve just been under so much pressure the past year, especially when I chose to switch genres. Receiving all the pushback from everyone saying it was a mistake really kickstarted this want inside me to, like, prove everyone wrong and just show that I don’t have to be this one thing. I can be a multitude of things if I feel like it. And so, the album just reflects all the different sides of myself that I want to share.

Then sonically, I mean, my inspirations have kind of been all over the place. At my core I’m such a Phoebe Bridgers, The Story So Far kind of girl. But lately I’ve been really getting into Bladee and Yung Lean, and it’s just inspired me to get outside of my little box.

What does the album mean to you? What do you hope fans to take away from it? 

To me the album reflects all the pressure I’ve been under, but also the pressure of myself getting older, the pressure of the industry not helping us out, and the pressure that I also feel I’m applying to other people around me. The album kind of goes through that journey where it does start off heavy and more in your face, I guess, and then it kind of goes through the ebbs and flows and ends off in a more intimate, more soft side. I just can’t be the one thing, you know, pressure comes in so many different forms, so I’m just trying to show it all.

Apart from the album and a tour with PVRIS this summer, what else have you got on this year? 

I have my headline show in London coming up in July! I’ll also be announcing another headline tour in UK and Europe, and we’re playing Warped Tour. I’m already thinking about my next project and what that will sound like. I don’t want to give too much away, but it probably again won’t be what everyone is expecting of me. I guess my goal is to just have sounds that you can’t replicate easily that are super unique to me and Scro! That’s what excites me the most. So I guess when I come home from tour, I’ll start working on all that.

What are your long-term goals?

My long-term goals are to definitely keep touring for, hopefully, the majority of my life. I would love to get into, like, film music and writing for film, and just getting to collaborate with artists that I never would have dreamed I could be able to. It seems to be more possible than I thought. So collaborations is a huge one for me and connecting more with the fans and setting up like more opportunities to meet everyone. I’m trying to do a show in Forks, Washington, which is where Twilight is based. They don’t have venues there, it doesn’t exist. So we’re trying to create something where we can kind of start helping – not like take people under our wing, because I’m not that successful yet, but kind of just creating events and things like that would be really sick in the future.