With “Flying Above” out now, we took some time to hear from Julie Paschke. Read below to learn more about Julie Paschke, the story behind “Flying Above,” and what’s to come.
Hi Julie Paschke! Let’s start with how did you choose your artist name?
Well, it’s my name so no choice there, haha, but it is the first time that I’ve released music just under my name. I’ve generally been in bands or called myself something else for previous solo projects. People probably have a hard time knowing how to pronounce Paschke, but it’s
Pash-Key.
What city are you from, and where are you based now?
I’m from Melbourne, Australia and this is where I still live.
At what point in your life did you decide to pursue a career in music? How did you get started?
Music was always my number one interest as a kid. And, I’ve always sung, just very secretly at first. Then at 17, I learnt guitar, and by my early 20s, I was in various bands. There was this cool music school/hang out called Rock n Roll High School and it was so grunge. Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill and others would come hang out. As for
pursuing a career in music, I’ve never done that nor had any interest.
How would you describe your sound?
I have always found this kinda impossible. I don’t know really and since I started releasing music again a year ago it’s been weird to find myself put in the folk category. Because of my music history I just keep considering myself a pop punk indie musician, haha. I just love really melodic, dreamy, left of centre songs with heaps of harmonies. Be nice if that’s what was coming-out.
Do you have any hobbies outside of music? What do you do to stay creative?
Oh, I am the hobby queen. I’m lucky enough to have a lot of free time, and it’s still not enough to pursue all the stuff that interests me. My main things these days are artistic roller skating and gardening. But, I also make sure to leave a lot of space in my life to be idle and just ponder. That’s where creativity lives for me.
Who are some of your main musical influences?
Artists that I love range from Juliana Hatfield to Land of Talk to The Primitives to Hazel to Bette Serveert to dEUS to Jenny Lewis to Slint to Mark Koselek to ’60s girl groups and ’80s Top 40 hits.
What’s one of the proudest moments of your music career so far?
I’m pretty happy that I’ve been so consistent in releasing music this past year. I don’t commit to too much in my life and have no great future plans, so it’ll be interesting to see what the future holds music wise.
What would you say are the greatest lessons that you’ve learned so far?
Not to pursue things, especially music, for a particular outcome. I create music (and music videos) because it feels like a worthwhile way to spend my moments. What happens beyond that is of no real concern to me. It’s just in the doing.
Now onto your release, “Flying Above.” What inspired this song? What is “Flying Above” about?
It’s about all the nonsense junk in our heads that leads to all kinds of unnecessary troubles, especially in romantic relationships. A past lover had taken me up in a hot air balloon and it was just so strikingly peaceful and serene up there floating through the air. It was nice to rise above the nightmare we’d become back down on Earth.
What was the inspiration behind the cover artwork for “Flying Above?”
Any visuals for my music generally come to me if I spend a lot of time just staring into space. I wouldn’t say the cover was thought out in any way. It’s just a still from the video that suddenly seemed right.
What was the creative process like when making “Flying Above?”
This might be the only song that I’ve written that I thought about intentionally first. Usually, my lyrics are just stream of consciousness stuff, but “Flying Above” was planned. For the first time, I locked into
something very particular I was describing and feeling.
How long did it take to complete “Flying Above?”
This was one of those glorious and rare took-15-minutes-to-write songs. And then recording wise, I never take too long getting everything down. Nor am I a perfectionist so this song was an extra quick one.
What is your favorite lyric in “Flying Above” and why?
“Now this love has nowhere to flow, send it back where all the delusions go.” It’s basically about how romantic love isn’t generally the same as real love so you need to put it in the bin, haha.
What do you hope fans take away from “Flying Above” and your music in general?
Music is my favourite thing and if it weren’t for artists creating it and putting it out there I wouldn’t have gotten to enjoy such a life-long love affair with it. So, I’m just throwing what I have out there and maybe it can contribute to someone else’s love affair.
What’s next for you? Are you working on any upcoming projects, or do you have any upcoming shows that we should be on the lookout for?
I have a couple more songs to release, and then around September, I’ll put out an album on vinyl. I’m also always tinkering away on the next songs for whatever the next project will be. And, I’ve been working on an ’80s covers album for a few years now.
Where can we follow you on social media?
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1xZx4fcKJYzJmKsuvRkNij
https://www.instagram.com/julie_paschke
https://juliepaschke.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/@juliepaschkemusic
https://substack.com/@juliepaschke
Thank you for the great interview; wish you much continued success!
