Spotlight: Julie

“We try to mesh these things that are sweet and soft with an unsettling feeling,” Julie bassist and vocalist Alexandria Elizabeth (formerly Alex Brady) told Teen Vogue last year, in an interview that described the band’s music as evoking a sense of “foreboding nostalgia.”

The nostalgia comes from the LA trio’s unapologetic borrowing of 90s shoegaze, art rock, and grunge, channeling bands such as Smashing Pumpkins, Henry’s Dress, and My Bloody Valentine. The foreboding emanates from lyrics threaded with sinister imagery about self-destruction and tricky relationships. With huge, fuzzy guitars, lo-fi vocals, and hissing amps, their songs are bursts of raw, refreshing energy.

Drummer Dillon Lee and guitarist Keyan Pourzand, both 22, met in high school in Orange County, California, before enlisting fellow student Elizabeth, now 23, on bass and vocals. Their first single, “Flutter,” about yearning for an estranged lover, was a viral hit in 2020. Through a blast of distorted bass and guitar feedback, Pourzand sings: “I’m draped in lead, I’m heavy as a slug/ Drag the body under the rug.”

Their new single, “Clairbourne Practice,” taken from their forthcoming, much-anticipated debut album, “My Anti-Aircraft Friend,” delivers more melancholy. Brady sweetly intones over a wall of sound: “The things you do/ And all you say/ I’ll cut my hair another way.”

With an appealing art-school vibe—Elizabeth and Pourzand were at the same LA architecture institute before dropping out—the band designs all their merchandise and cover art, making collages from old notes and diaries. They are only minimally online (“It just feels like you’re being berated by everything, so we actively try to do the opposite,” Lee has said).

In a world of glossy pop and hyper-polished production, Julie is mysterious and brooding. This is what guitar music should sound like in 2024.

My Anti-Aircraft Friend is out on Atlantic in September.