Julia Church: From Durban to Brixton

South African soulstress Julia Church has had quite the journey since relocating to the United Kingdom. Initially heading to Liverpool for studies at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and masterclasses with Sir Paul McCartney and Ozzy Osbourne, a move to London saw her discovered on Soundcloud by EDM producers who would enlist her vocal talents to achieve millions of streams. But her true calling is her own brand of jazzed-up pop music, so far manifesting as three EPs. We chat with Church as she releases her third mini-song collection, Cups and Balloons.

“I was actually born in Durban, South Africa by the beach,” singer, songwriter and producer Julia Church tells me. The beach comment is notable as it’s a very rainy day in Brixton, London, her current home. Moving to the UK in 2015, her story shows that when it comes to studios and music production, boys are still the main gender getting the opportunities.

“I majored in production at uni,” Church says. “But that was something that was never offered at my high school in South Africa. It was weird because all the boy’s schools were offered music technology and production classes. But it was something that wasn't even on the curriculum and offered at my high school when I was there. I had no idea what Logic was, I’d just messed around on GarageBand a bit. I discovered production because it was mandatory at LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts).”

And as is the case with many musicians and songwriters, becoming adept at production brought Church an increased feeling of freedom and increased options, rather than being sat at the back of the room while the producer is at the helm.

“It was just such a freeing thing for me,” Church explains. “Because for so long, I'd had all these ideas in my head, but no way to create them or explain them. Production really gave me the freedom to put all of my ideas out into the world.”

And sadly, Church does still get the odd patronising comment from men in studio environments occasionally. She agrees that more and more women taking up production is gradually improving the situation, but we’re not quite there yet.

“Just the other day, I was in a session with some guys,” she says. “I told them that I was producing my own stuff and that I specialised in production at uni. And then afterwards, they were like, ‘oh, that's so nice that you can do a bit of production.’ But I don’t do ‘a little bit of production’, I'm a producer! It's just those little undertones that seep into sessions. So I think it is just down to the girls doing more and more production until it becomes the norm.”

LIPA, the Liverpool Institue for Performing Arts, is situated in the building that was once the school Paul McCartney attended. Prior to LIPA, the building was becoming more and more derelict, so the Beatle stepped in and made it what it is today, an outstanding creative hub and school that nurtures talents such as Church. And LIPA’s music students actually get to sit down with the Liverpudlian songwriter.

“It was in my third year that I actually got to sit down with Paul and have a one on one songwriting session with him for half an hour, which was mind-blowing,” Church recalls.

“And, also every week there would be masterclasses, we'd get the likes of Natasha Bedingfield, and Ozzy Osborne coming in to talk to us. I remember playing for Paul on the piano and he actually made a few changes to my one song. I said to my manager the other day, I can credit Paul McCartney in the publishing of the song. So ridiculous! I loved my time in Liverpool, it’s a real creative hub.”

Church joins the growing ranks of songwriters using their music to shine a vital light on the topic of mental health. It’s her belief that “I think everyone, no matter who you are, goes through these rough patches at some point in their life. So I think it's so important, now more than ever for music to really be speaking about this. it's just always been a natural thing that I offload into music. I mean, Marionette is another example. The lyrics are kind of sad, but I feel like all the songs that people really love most are the sad ones, which shows me how much they're connecting with it, which I love.”

I then ask Church if she wouldn’t mind talking me through her studio setup. “I've got an Arturia Minilab MIDI keyboard which I use for my bass lines and simple synths,” she says.

“That's just on my desk. And then I've got my Nord to the right of me which I'll use for the more technical piano stuff. My soundcard is a Focusrite Scarlett interface. I’ve been using them ever since I started producing at LIPA, all the studios there had Scarletts. So I just knew them really well. I've had it for a few years now and it's very trusty.

“I find it very user friendly and hassle-free. I like to work quite fast, to be able to just record and mix, especially when I'm on my own. I definitely find the Scarlett helps me get into that speedy workflow.”

So arriving in London via Durban and Liverpool, it really seems that Julia Church has landed on a very London-centric sound that’s deeply pleasing for the ears.

Be a part of her journey by checking out her new EP, Cups and Balloons for the perfect soundtrack to increasingly bizarre times.