Clare GillenJulia Michaels has co-written some major hits in the past few years, including Justin Bieber‘s “Sorry,” Selena Gomez‘s “Lose You to Love Me,” and her own “Issues” and “If the World Was Ending.” But amid the COVID-19 pandemic, don’t ask Julia to jump on a Zoom call to come up with her next smash.
Speaking to Idolator, Julia says, “I refuse to do Zoom. I will not make an album on Zoom, I swear to God.” Instead, she and the people she’s collaborating with on her upcoming album actually work in the same room.
“For the most part, I always work with the same people…we all quarantine and we trust each other and we feel comfortable being around each other in sessions,” she explains. “We still socially distance, we still wear our masks. At least we get to be together we get to write and we get to have that connection in the room because there’s literally nothing worse than writing a song on Zoom. It’s the most sterile f**ing thing you will ever try.”
In addition to her own album, the “Lie Like This” singer has been writing songs for other artists — she co-wrote Demi Lovato‘s “Commander in Chief,” for example. But again, she’s doing it in person.
“You show up, you get tested first, you wait, and you hope to God that you’re okay. Then you’re like, ‘All right, let’s do it,’” she says, describing her songwriting sessions these days.
There’s no release date yet for Julia’s album, but she says unlike her previous work, it’ll have a bunch of positive love songs, thanks to her romance with her “If the World Was Ending” duet partner JP Saxe.
Julia laughs, “I hope people still love me now that I’m not angry.”
By Andrea Dresdale
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