Earlier this year, junior Julianna Walsh, a student singer-songwriter, stepped out of her comfort zone to create her debut EP Inner Monologue, which will be released soon.
Walsh says she came into the process with potent issues and themes that she wanted to address. She added that she was inspired by the important people in her life and based her EP “off of experiences that I worked through with people that taught me more about myself.”
Walsh has previously performed music in groups. At North, she has been a part of Tiger Bepop, Jazz Ensemble, and Jubilee, among other performance groups. Walsh says that her experience with these classes has let her grow as a musician and songwriter.
“It helped help me gear up a little better in terms of being more mature and being more professional,” Walsh said.
In the early stages of her writing process, Walsh says she recorded voice memos with melody ideas. She would then harmonize and incorporate piano into the structure of the songs.
According to Walsh, when she started recording her songs, she would dedicate a day to recording each instrument. One day would go to recording the drums for her songs, one day was given to record vocals, one day to track piano, and more days for other instruments.
Walsh spoke on the challenges that come with composing solo work, something that was new to her.
“It’s definitely a lot harder building things from the ground up,” she said. “When you just have your own custom sound that you’re trying to make, it’s hard to build it and make an actual song out of it.”
Through the challenges of writing music, Walsh says she also gained experience and skill.
“My lyrics that I wrote were kind of like my own personal diary,” Walsh said. “The concept of having to tell a story with your lyrics teaches you to reflect.”
Walsh says music plays a big role in her daily life. She started playing piano at the age of 5 when her mom enrolled her for lessons. Her earliest memories of music are playing songs from Curious George movies, Walsh added.
“Music has always been a very large part of my life,” Walsh said. “My mom was a musician so me being surrounded by it all the time helped me learn that it’s a good outlet to put things in.”
Walsh’s early talents with music manifested into songwriting. She reflected on the takeaways from recording solo music.
“Perfection isn’t always constant when writing, even though people romanticize it,” Walsh said. “If I’m Julianna Walsh or if I’m John Mayer I’m never gonna hear exactly what I want because maybe that’s not the most achievable thing.”
