Just before I got home to call Julia (they/she), a man approached me on my walk home from the L train and as a “random act of kindness” gave me two chocolates he made himself. Julia was the first person I asked if I should take my chances eating the chocolates and after a hesitant series of “Woah.. hmm…” they told me to “take a little nibble and if you don’t go crazy it’s probably fine. But I bet most people would say no, don’t eat them.” Julia lives in Brooklyn, but their band, Similar Kind, went on a 10 show tour this past April so she’s calling in from the band’s place of origin, where they practice twice a week, and where her parents currently live: Norwalk, Connecticut.
In a world where Adam Levine thinks there are no bands anymore, I had to ask, “Are bands still cool?” Without any hesitation they said yes, but acknowledged that it’s not like the 60’s when every top ten charting pop song was made by a band. In fact, it’s quite the opposite–in 2023, none of them are. But for Julia, being in a band is the only way that making music makes sense. “It makes it easier because you have people going through the same thing as you but also more complicated because your career is intrinsically tied to other people.” Luckily, they’ve found a group that works for them, who can collectively work toward a common goal, and in the true spirit of collaboration, delegate tasks.
Similar Kind currently has 42,000 monthly listeners and, at the time of this interview, were about to release a new song, “Face to Face,” before they headed out on tour again. Though Julia isn’t fond of writing love songs for the world to hear despite being in a long term relationship with their high school sweetheart, their newest track is a sweet reflection on how their partner served as a light through dark times. They describe the way that joy is often paired with the desperation to keep it, “I start to remember we won’t be together/and all of sudden I’m in the worst state.” As their career slowly moves forward, Julia’s main goal is just for them to be able to make enough money as musicians to sustain themselves. With a glimpse of everything their life could be as they’ve watched crowds sing their songs and seeing the impact the bands they love have had on them as fans, all they really know is that they need to see this through. When I asked her what success might mean for them, she said “I want it to be my career. I want it to be my life. I want it to be as successful as it can be. My main goal that I wanna work towards is, if I could live off of this without having to work at a fucking smoothie shop or selling on Depop.”
With such an oversaturation of music due to the streaming market, 42,000 monthly listeners is no small feat. Similar Kind formed in May of 2018 but they’ve only really been serious about making it for the past two or three years. Julia credits a TikTok of theirs that blew up over COVID, saying, “that got us most of what we have now. It was really cool because we got a lot bigger of a following without even playing shows.” The Tiktok in question has each member of the band stating one type of person their band is for: kids who play Pokemon Go, people who eat wood chips at the park, raging narcissists, people who own a ball gag, and virgins. Though the Tiktok did not actually gesture listeners to what the band might sound like, due to the importance of social media marketing for artists, sometimes an alluring personality is all you need to get people to pay attention to not just you, but your art.
Similar Kind is a self classified indie pop band (for u and ur mom to listen to), but their heavy layers of traditional five piece band instrumentals and electronic danceable synths place them perfectly in our increasingly genreless pop music landscape. Their music has an energetic funk to it with the complexity that five different musical perspectives bring to the table. Their eclectic sound comes from the diversity of each band member’s musical tastes. Julia has her high school years doing musical theater to thank for their vocal tone and technique because it was through musicals that they learned how to sing. They acknowledged that “so many indie bands are just a different type of singing and I love that style of course- not that our songs are musical theatery- but it has elements of [musical theater] which bleed through, which I think is cool. It got me into singing and made me a better singer.” It’s a style that differentiates the band from their contemporaries and it’s vital to who she is.
Outside of musical theater, her biggest musical influences lie with the biggest bands of the 2010’s: The 1975 and Paramore. But, inspiration first struck when she watched One Direction’s, This is Us, documentary. “Seeing them touring,” she described, “I wanted to do that so badly. That was a moment where I was like I would love to do this with my life.” Another moment that built urgency for her was when they played their first headline show at Space Ballroom in Connecticut, a 150 person capacity venue, and people sang the words to their opening song. The band thought, “Okay we’re building a following, we need to start working towards this now. Less of a, I’m gonna keep this on the side and hope maybe one day it works out.”
Similar Kind’s songs possess enough energy and texture to make you feel good if you play them on your car speakers or while getting ready with your friends to go out but they can lack the emotional sharpness that might make me want to pay close attention and immerse myself. Instead, because they haven’t revealed enough of themselves to me, I’m left unintrigued by who’s behind it all. That feeling changed when I witnessed them play live. In an upscale, gray, and as a result, lifeless, room at Public Records in Brooklyn, Julia not only had the audience’s attention, but their awe. In a cropped striped polo, revealing the playful tattoos scattered across their arms, they danced around the stage, shag swaying with every movement, as their energy consumed every inch of their body and overflowed out of their mouth as they sang. It became clear that music isn’t just something they love–it lives and breathes inside of them, one not fully existing without the other. Even bringing attention to the musical prowess of their fellow bandmates only made them seem more comfortable in their skin. It was a reminder that performance, when done well, is an act of giving.
I first met Julia on my roof after a show my roommates and I hosted and afterwards, they invited me to a basement party they were throwing the next weekend. I spent most of that party in the back of their basement in a separated area of walls covered in y2k celebrity pop culture paraphernalia resembling a teenage girls bedroom in the year 2010, deep in obsession with Twilight and One Direction. I only really got the chance to talk to Julia again just as I was leaving. I had shown up alone and when I called an Uber to go home before it got too late, I walked out of the basement to find them standing outside. In well mannered party host fashion, they indulged me in conversation as I waited for my car to show up. We talked about our mutual friend and my roommate, Christian, who goes to school with their longtime partner, Nathan, expressing her love and admiration for their blossoming friendship. I expressed love for their dog, Bug, who I witnessed throughout the entirety of the night following them around the basement. Though she loves the little guy, his need for constant companionship and attention isn’t ideal. But, knowing Julia for just a week, it was obvious why anyone, human or dog, would crave their attention. Their presence demands it– if demands can be made in a cool, friendly, down to earth way.
