Julia Michaels

Among Julia Michaels’ many tattoos is a woman’s face without the features filled in. That, she’s said, is how the industry views behind-the-scenes songwriters, even ones like her with their name on blockbusters by the likes of Demi Lovato (2013’s “Fire Starter”), Justin Beiber (2015’s “Sorry”) and Selena Gomez (2015’s “Hands to Myself”). Born Julia Carin Cavazos in Iowa, in 1993, she grew up in Southern California and started writing music for TV shows around age 16. By 21, pop fans knew her touch on other’s songs: confessional, full of details and images, fearlessly open to feeling. Then she started filling in the blank spaces. In 2017, Michaels launched a solo career. Stepping into the spotlight meant overcoming social anxiety, but she had help from friend and songwriting partner Justin Tranter on Nervous System, a spare, EDM-influenced EP highlighting her equally aching voice and lyrical sensibility. The crawling, throbbing, unstable “Issues” was Michaels’ breakthrough, and she’s fought those titular insecurities to take her place on stage in front of big audiences since. Two albums from 2019, the aptly titled Inner Monologue parts one and two, are artistically and emotionally more complex than the material she’s written for others, but still as catchy as they are full of truth. In other words, Michaels—writer, artist, performer—has come into full view.