Julia, Julia — the creation of Los Angeles artist Julia Kugel — has shared a new single “No Hard Feelings” from her hotly-anticipated solo debut Derealization. She will also be playing in Long Beach at Happy Sundays, a free music festival she created alongside Scott Montoya taking place on Aug. 28. Her latest release offers a closer look at her upcoming album and follows the release of lead-single “Fever In My Heart.”
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Hauntingly beautiful with its resounding soundscape, “No Hard Feelings” drifts in on lilting acoustic plucks and Kugel’s ethereal vocals. The song deals with a motif consistent in her songwriting: this idea of “missing” and “waiting” for something to happen. Yet as saturated the song is in the melancholy of remembering all those moments spent stagnantly delayed in life, “No Hard Feelings” warmly relishes the bittersweetness of it all.
“I feel like I have spent my life waiting,” Kugel said. “Waiting to go, waiting to get there, waiting to play, then waiting to leave. Living in memory and hope and missing everything in between. ‘No Hard Feelings’ is a bittersweet recollection. It’s about smiling at disappointment.”
The music video for “No Hard Feelings,” directed by Robin Laananen, perfectly captures the track’s tender gloom with its gauzy and vintage visuals. Soundtracked by her own forlorn murmurs, the video sees Kugel moving from solitary spot to solitary spot, retracing her steps to each place that holds some sad significance to her heart.
It’s all quite solemn and transfixing, almost meditative, in its sincerity to try and deal with even life’s pain through a lens of love rather than cynicism. Love reserved for the person you were when you were waiting on other people, and love enough for yourself to move on.
Watch the video for Julia, Julia’s new single “No Hard Feelings” below!
Julia, Julia’s debut solo album Derealization is out on September 30 via Suicide Squeeze, pre-order it here. They will also be playing Happy Sundays in Long Beach on August 28. Visit Julia, Julia’s website, Twitter, and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Words by Steven Ward
