Hey everyone it’s Julie Young from Korean American Story and Not Your Average
I’m so excited today because first of all, we’re in sunny LA
And second of all I’m sitting here with my girl Ameriie
It’s been way too long
It’s so good to see you
I mean the last time I saw you, you were literally about to get married
And now it’s been what, six years? Five years?
Um it’s five years
So you’re technically still a newly wed
Technically still a newly wed! We’re seeing how long you can still keep that
You’re gonna make a new record for that
Tell me how you were first discovered as a singer
In a nutshell, I was trying to work into the industry
I was trying to get into the industry while I was in college - for all of college basically
At Georgetown
In DC, and every weekend we would go to New York
And worked with chill producers
Nothing was really happening
And then my last year I met someone who knew a producer
Who knew Rich Harrison at the time
So he said, “Hey there’s a producer I know,
he’s looking to work with an artist”
And it ended up working out really well
Pretty much in a nutshell, we worked on a lot of what became the first album
We actually recorded it sitting on the back of a sofa like this
and he was right there working everything
There was like a laundry machine over there
and like, you know, piles of laundry
And a lot of that ended up being on the album
I know people always wanna know, you know?
Cause it kinda seemed like, to me, all of a sudden you were just everywhere
Like especially when One Thing was out, oh my goodness
You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing that song
I loved it - I was like, ‘She’s Blasian and now she’s made it!’
Do you still get the same thrill when you’re up on stage?
I do - there’s nothing like it
It’s a great connection
You do feel this great connection with people when you’re there
cause you’re sharing like the same moment, you’re sharing the same mood,
and the vibe, and they’re giving you the energy, and you’re giving-
although things changed a lot now that everyone’s always filming all the time
Sometimes they’re like looking at you through their phone…
When you’re right there - it’s like, be in the moment
What about any new music?
I’m working on a new project
that I’m really excited about
I would say it’s about halfway finished
Your fans are like clawing, waiting for more music right?
It’s a full length! Cause last year I dropped Dry, the EP
but this is like a full length project
But I like layer different stories in, and I’ve been having fun retelling stories within the songs
You’ve got your YouTube channel, your website, your blog
I mean, your YouTube channel I think has like 40,000 subscribers
Books, beauty, you’ve got music coming out,
tell me something about you that people don’t know
Well if they don’t know by now, it’s for a reason
I would say that
I think people didn’t know that I was OCD until I really talked about it… like bad
But do you separate that from being a perfectionist? Or do you think they go hand in hand?
I definitely am like, I like things organized and everything
My dad’s like that too, but there’s other parts of it too
Like you know, you don’t need to close the freezer
I’ve been at the freezer like closing the floor over and over again because
you know, you can’t walk away from the freezer
Were you actually diagnosed OCD, or is this self-diagnosed?
Yeah, it’s self
because we didn’t know what it was for a long time when I was a kid
And then it wasn’t until like I started researching it…
but I never wanted to go to a doctor cause I was like
I don’t- I’m not gonna take medicine for it
I’m not at the point where like it actually keeps me from going outside
But I just feel like I would rather deal with it while I’m able to deal with it
just using will power, cause I know that that’s something that I can
personally, through my experience, I can control
I just have to like, be firm with myself
So what would be the thing about you that everybody just knows?
I think that I have a pretty positive outlook
I think maybe that’s something
You know my mom was like, ‘You have a very positive outlook’
She was telling me that, and I was like,
Well I think it’s because when things happen, they happen
So you either can look at it as,
‘I’m gonna grow from this, this is something that can strengthen me’
This is something that, hey, there’s gonna be a positive aspect to this somehow
somewhere in there
You might have to dig deep, but somehow it’s there
So what’s your five to ten year plan?
I wanna be happy and I wanna find a great balance
And I want to constantly create, and feel creatively free
That’s what I plan for five to ten years
Well that is amazing, and I can’t wait to continue to watch your journey
Thank you so much - thanks for having me!
So good to catch up with you