Julia Violet is just a regular girl who happens to walk into a room and make the whole vibe shift. She grew up on The Cheetah Girls and Lauryn Hill, which is a combination that basically explains everything about her: the girl can belt, she can riff, and when the band drops out for eight bars, she'll pick up the horn herself and finish the thought. "I never wanted to just stand there and sing," she says. "If there's a pocket, I want to be in it — dancing, playing, all of it." We caught up with Julia between rehearsals to talk soul music, stage moves, and why joy is the whole point. 

Ask Julia what she's inspired by and you'll get a list that sounds like a mixtape: Erykah Badu, Anita Baker, a little bit of Alanis for the drama, and whatever's playing at her grandmother's Sunday dinners. "It's all soul to me," she laughs. "Doesn't matter the decade." On stage, that means horn lines doing the work of a hook, harmonies stacked three deep, and a groove you can't help but move to. Off stage, it means a trumpet case that's always in the car, "just in case."

Between sets, Julia's usually warming up her voice, running scales on the trumpet, or hyping up her bandmates like it's the last show they'll ever play. Her pre-show ritual? A playlist that goes from Aretha to Amy Winehouse to whatever's stuck in her head that week, and a few minutes of just breathing before she walks out. "I get nervous every time," she admits. "I think that's how you know you still care."

Twenty-something Boston singer Miss Julia Violet is bringing back the horn section — and she's not sorry about it.

miss julia violet

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"I want people to leave sweaty and smiling. That's the whole show for me."
— Julia, on what a good gig feels like