In Conversation x Julia Wolf
Words by: Anya Duncan
Julia Wolf Shows Us There’s Power in Vulnerability
The word pressure conjures up a multitude of emotions. It’s universal; everyone has felt its hand at their neck, gently tightening. A presence lingering just beneath the surface of our dominant feelings. For Julia Wolf, this pulsing sensation quite literally defines her newest album. Pressure is a confessional, an act of emotional exorcism that doubles as genre-defying songwriting.
This isn’t the first time Wolf has had to fight through powerful internalised emotions. Long before her internet-viral track In My Room, she was contending with the pressure to filter her experiences through someone else’s lens, often at the instruction of advisors keen to reframe her narrative. It’s taken time, and courage, for Wolf to unlearn the idea that sadness must be sugar-coated or disguised as empowerment.
Speaking with Original Magazine, it’s hard to believe that Julia (as luminous as moonlight) was once persuaded to mute her voice. “Back when I was making my old music, I was just unbelievably shy. I was scared to speak up if I wasn’t vibing with something,” she explains. “I was opening for someone and playing those songs every night... and I just got to the point where I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ None of it resonated with me.”
“That’s part of why it’s called Pressure, because of all the different ways I feel it,” Julia admits. “When the success of In My Room started happening, we had so many people wanting In My Room ten times over. I really struggled with that, because at the end of the day, I need to follow what inspires me.”
The result is Pressure: a kaleidoscopic, heart-on-sleeve album that trades polish for pulse and hesitation for heat. There are no masks or diluted metaphors. Just Wolf, laid bare and daring listeners to meet her there. “Vulnerability is way more powerful. I don’t know what I was so afraid of,” she says now, slightly in awe of her own evolution. She once feared that honesty would drive people away. That rawness would be too intense, too messy, too much. But through collaboration with a new team of producers, she’s found the lightness that comes from leaning into the weight pressing down on her.
Even the album’s cover — a haunting image inspired by body suspension — speaks to that paradox.
“At first, it looked quite gory. But I realised these people are doing it as a form of release... to actually feel weightless, which is so cool,” she shares, recalling her research into the practice. “The album represents the juxtaposition of those two things: the pain, the blood, and the tears versus what you get after all that. The cover also reflects the pressure I’m applying now both to the industry and those trying to copy what we’re doing. So yes, there’s a little blood, but a lot of good comes out of that too.”
Behind the artistry is a woman who is, as she says herself, deeply sensitive. Though she’s withdrawn from comment sections, Julia continues to nurture her fanbase through intimate live performances and honest lyricism. This intimacy isn’t a marketing strategy for Wolf. It’s the core of who she is. But even in her earliest days writing alone at the piano, Julia never quite imagined that she’d end up genre-less, grounded, and pouring her soul into every lyric.
Her favourite track on the album, you’ve lost a lot of blood, exemplifies this journey. Though it was written years ago, Wolf only now feels ready to release it.
“I knew I needed to say these things, because people really resonated with them. It’s tough. You feel embarrassed and think you’re going to be judged, but you have to do it anyway.”
Wolf isn’t chasing easy catharsis. She writes from the marrow beneath her own wounds to carve out a space for complicated truths. The kind that sting that make you flinch, cry, and ultimately feel less alone. In doing so, she’s become something rare: not just a pop artist or poet in disguise, but a mirror held up to every listener who’s ever feared saying what they really feel.
She’s built a community from what once felt like a weakness, expressing the euphoria that can rise from pressure. Her album represents everything she’s learnt — the clarity, the creativity, and the courage such a feeling can produce.
Fresh from supporting Artemas on tour, Julia kicks off her world tour which includes multiple headline dates, plus support slots for Halsey and PVRIS. She will complete a sold-out headline show at Oslo Hackney in London on 10th July plus a performance at 2000Trees Festival the next day. To get your first listen to Julia’s new album and to get tickets to her huge UK+EU tour kicking off in November head over to ‘PRESSURE’