Julia Shammas Holter (born December 18, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist and academic, based in Los Angeles. Following three independent album productions, Holter released ''

Tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

'' as her first official studio album in 2011. '' Ekstasis'' followed in 2012. After signing with

Domino Records Domino Records may refer to: * Domino Records (1916), American producer of early phonograph, from 1916 to 1917 *Domino Records (1924), American record label, from 1924 to 1933 * Domino Records (Canada), produced by the Compo Company in the 1920s a ...

in 2013, she released the albums '' Loud City Song'' (2013), '' Have You in My Wilderness'' (2015) and the live-in-the-studio album '' In the Same Room'' (2017). Most recently, her double album ''

Aviary An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flight cages. A ...

'' was released in 2018. Holter has also collaborated with other musicians, including

Nite Jewel Ramona Gonzalez (known professionally as Nite Jewel) is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. Biography Ramona Gonzalez began as Nite Jewel in 2008 as the result of her juggling music with undergraduate studies.

Laurel Halo Laurel Anne Chartow (born June 3, 1985), known professionally as Laurel Halo, is an American electronic musician currently based in Berlin, Germany. She released her debut album ''Quarantine'' on Hyperdub in 2012 to critical acclaim; it was named ...

Ariel Pink Ariel Marcus Rosenberg ( ; born June 24, 1978), professionally known as Ariel Pink, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter whose work draws heavily from the popular music of the 1960s–1980s. His lo-fi aesthetic and home-recorded alb ...

, Ducktails, Linda Perhacs, Michael Pisaro, and

Jean-Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompani ...

Biography

Holter was born in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. At age six her family moved to Los Angeles, where she later attended the Alexander Hamilton High School. She studied music at

The University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

for four years, graduating with a degree in composition. After seeing Michael Pisaro perform an

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

composition in Michigan, she was inspired to study with him at

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of bot ...

, where she graduated from another composition program. Holter contributed songs to multiple compilation albums in 2008. In 2010, she began playing with Linda Perhacs' band and released a

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the int ...

titled ''Celebration'' and a collection of live recordings. Following three independently produced albums – ''Phaedra Runs to Russia'' (2007), ''Cookbook'' (2008) and ''Celebration'' (2010), Holter's official debut album, ''

'', was released in August 2011 on Leaving Records. Inspired by

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...

' Greek play '' Hippolytus'', the album received generally favorable reviews and was named one of NPR's "Best Outer Sound Albums of 2011". Holter released her second album, '' Ekstasis'', in March 2012 on the RVNG Intl. label. The album drew comparisons to works by such artists as

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

Julianna Barwick Julianna Barwick is an American musician who composes using electronic loops. Her first album, '' The Magic Place'', was released in 2011. Music career Barwick has said that her music is influenced by her participation in church choir while gro ...

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...

Joanna Newsom Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Northern California, Newsom was classically trained on the harp in her youth and began her musical career as a keyboardist in the San Francis ...

Grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is ...

, and

Stereolab Stereolab are an Anglo-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's music combines influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music, often incorporating a re ...

, and received many positive reviews. Holter spent three years making the album, whose title comes from the

Greek word Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: * Greeks, an ethnic group. * Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. ** Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ances ...

meaning "outside of oneself." The music video for album track "Moni Mon Amie", directed by Yelena Zhelezov, was also released in March. In addition to collaborating with other California-based musicians like

(Ramona Gonzalez), Holter released her third album, '' Loud City Song'', in August 2013 on

. Unlike her preceding albums, which were recorded mostly alone in her bedroom, Holter recorded ''Loud City Song '' with an ensemble of musicians. In 2015, Holter released the album '' Have You in My Wilderness'', which became her most successful charting release to date. She also contributed to Ducktails' fifth studio album, '' St. Catherine'', with her bandmates Chris Votek and Andrew Tholl. Holter collaborated with

on a song for the second part of the

Electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

double album, released on July 18, 2016. In November 2016, she curated her own program during the tenth anniversary edition of

Le Guess Who? Le Guess Who? is a Dutch music festival featuring different music genres: from avant-garde, jazz, hip hop, electronic, experimental, noise rock, indie rock, world music and others. The festival, founded by Bob van Heur and Johan Gijsen, has ...

Festival in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...

. This program included performances by

Josephine Foster Josephine Foster is an American singer, songwriter, and musician from Colorado. She is known for her anachronistic voice and work that weaves older styles with the modern, escaping simple classification. As a teenager Foster worked as a churc ...

, Maya Dunietz,

Jessica Moss Jessica Moss is a Canadian musician best known for playing violin and singing backing vocals in the post-rock band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band since 2001, and is a founding member of Black Ox Orkestar. In addition, ...

and other artists. In September 2017, she performed a world premier of her scoring of the 1928 silent French film ''

The Passion of Joan of Arc ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (french: link=no, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc) is a 1928 French silent historical film based on the actual record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeann ...

'' on September 29 at the

FIGat7th FIGat7th is an open-air shopping mall located in the Financial District of Downtown Los Angeles. It is nestled between two office skyscrapers, 777 Tower and Ernst & Young Plaza. Some of its current retailers include Target, Starbucks Coffee, M ...

in downtown Los Angeles. In September 2018, Holter announced her fifth commercially released album, ''

'', and released the lead single "I Shall Love 2". She followed it with another single, "Words I Heard", before the album's release on October 26. In 2021, Holter was appointed the Johnston-Fix Professor of the Practice in Songwriting; Visiting Assistant Professor at

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

in Los Angeles.

Style

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' wrote that "Holter's vocal register ..faintly recalls

Siouxsie Sioux Susan Janet Ballion (born 27 May 1957), known professionally as Siouxsie Sioux, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. She was the lead singer of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees (1976–1996). They released 11 ...

Nico Naftiran Intertrade Company limited (NICO) is a Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). NICO is a general contractor for the oil and gas industry. NIOC buys the vast majority of Iran's gasoline imports. NICO is a key pla ...

". '' Under the Radar'' similarly compared her to other female artists saying; "Holter is Siouxsie Sioux meets Kate Bush, with a matchstick intensity, relighting her own wick by the conversation in her voice, her diaphragm shifting between instruments".

Personal life

Holter was previously in a relationship with former

Real Estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...

guitarist and Ducktails frontman Matt Mondanile. In 2015, she contributed to his Ducktails album, '' St. Catherine''. In the wake of sexual misconduct allegations made against Mondanile, Holter divulged that Mondanile was "emotionally abusive to the point where I had to have a lawyer intervene and was afraid for my life."

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Singles

* "Maria" (2011) * "Marienbad" (2012) * "In the Same Room" (2012) * "Goddess Eyes" (2012) * "World" (2013) * "In The Green Wild" (2013) * "Maxims I" (2013) * "Don't Make Me Over" (2014) * "Feel You" (2015) * "Sea Calls Me Home" (2015) * "Condemnation", with Romona Gonzalez and Nedelle Torissi (2017) * "I Shall Love 2" (2018) * "Words I Heard" (2018) * "Les Jeux to You - Edit" (2019) * "Gold Dust Woman" (2020) * "So Humble the Afternoon" (2020) * "Heloise", with Harper Simon and Meditations On Crime, feat. Geologist (2022)

Remixes by Julia Holter

* "Strange Town" by Buzzy Lee (2021)

References

External links

*
Live from NYC's Le Poisson Rouge
on NPR
Julia Holter
Julia Holter
Julia Holter by Ben Vida
''

Bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Holter, Julia American electronic musicians American indie pop musicians Avant-garde keyboardists California Institute of the Arts alumni Living people Singers from Los Angeles Songwriters from California 1984 births American women in electronic music Domino Recording Company artists University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni 21st-century American women singers Musicians from Milwaukee 21st-century American singers