Julia Holter

Julia Holter is an experimental singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Los Angeles, California. She works in ambient, ambient pop, art pop, avant-garde, avant-garde pop and electronic music, and is based in Los Angeles. She studies and composes music, and her work also connects with lo-fi and experimental approaches.

Background and training

Holter is a Los Angeles native and grows up in a musical family. Her father plays guitar and performs with Pete Seeger, and her mother, Carole Shammas, is an academic who holds the John R. Hubbard Chair in History at the University of Southern California. She graduates from CalArts, where she studies composition.

Early releases

After leaving CalArts, Holter contributes songs to several compilation albums in 2008. She performs in the LA Road Concert with the Open Academy Youth Orchestra on Washington Boulevard in 2009. In 2010, she releases a CD-R called Celebration and a collection of live recordings. Her debut studio album, Tragedy, appears in 2011 on Leaving Records. Inspired by Euripides’ Hippolytus, it receives generally favourable reviews and is named by NPR as one of its best outer sound albums of the year.

Albums and critical reception

Holter’s second album, Ekstasis, is issued in 2012 on RVNG. She spends three years making the record, and its title comes from a Greek word meaning “outside of oneself”. The album receives many positive reviews and draws comparisons with artists including Laurie Anderson, Julianna Barwick, Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom, Grouper and Stereolab. A video for the track “Moni Mon Amie”, directed by Yelena Zhelezov, also appears in 2012. Her third album, Loud City Song, follows in 2013 and is recorded with an ensemble rather than mostly alone in her bedroom.

Collaborations and other work

Holter collaborates with other musicians including Nite Jewel, Linda Perhacs and Michael Pisaro. She also begins playing with Linda Perhacs’ band in 2010. Outside recording, she tutors students and works with a nonprofit organisation for teenagers in South Central Los Angeles.