Juliana Finch is an infectious woman. She laughs with a room, and warms it with her smile. She’s the type of person who belongs on a stage. Luckily she’s also a singer/songwriter in the Atlanta area where she brings her guitar backed songs to life as often as she can get away with. She also fights crime. Or occasionally dresses up as a character from BSG. One or the other. Maybe both. She was cool enough to waste some time and share some thoughts.

APK: So something I’ve always wanted to ask a singer/songwriter… which did you start to do first – write lyrics or play music?

Juliana: I’ve always done both writing and music, but it took a long time before I realized they could go together. As a kid I was always in choirs and musical theatre, but I was also that poetry nerd kid scribbling in a notebook. I was writing poetry before I was playing guitar… so I guess I’d have to go with “lyrics”… though maybe I didn’t know they were lyrics at the time.

APK: Interesting. You’re also one of the musicians I most associate with writing. You tend to discuss the writing, lyric end, of things a lot in your blogs to the exclusion of the music writing it seems. Is that a conscious choice?

Juliana: Yeah, it is. I guess because there’s so much out there about the music part – chord progressions, tabs, lessons, etc… and so much out there about the “music business.” I think the readers I want to attract are the people who really care about words and realize that being a songwriter is a form of storytelling.

APK: So given that, and I love it, mind you, being a story nerd myself, do you also place more emphasis on the stories in your songs over the chord progressions and music?

Juliana: Yes absolutely. I am not much of a musician. I love to sing, but I have never taken a guitar lesson in my life and have never had formal vocal training aside from being in choirs.

APK: I would never have guessed either of those things.

Juliana: I was at the museum yesterday in the Folk Art section and there was a sign defining “folk art” as “art created by self-taught artists…” etc. So if we go by that definition of visual folk art, I guess I’m a “folk musician” in a literal sense of the word.

That said, I am actually starting piano lessons this week, because the piano is something I have always wanted to sing with and have used a little bit to write, and I want to know more about how to navigate that.

APK: Makes sense. Do your albums tell a cohesive larger story through them, like a total through-line in terms of story, from song to song, or are they always self-contained smaller stories?

Juliana: I try to make them a little of both. I haven’t done a “concept album” where the whole thing is one story from start to finish, but I do like for an album to feel cohesive. Perhaps if not a novel, then at least a collection of similarly-themed short stories. The one I’m working on now is being released initially as two EPs for that reason. They each have a different “feel.”

APK: And those are? Sell it to people reading this.

Juliana: The one coming out very soon (with appropriate prayers and sacrifices to the printing gods) is called “Apples” … it’s introspective, kind of moody, and just felt like late Autumn to me. In early Summer the next part, “Blossoms” will follow… those are much brighter, have a kind of “new love” vibe and are less introspective songs.

This album will probably be the most autobiographical thing I’ve done. It’s come out of me trying to make peace with being an introverted extrovert.

APK: And given your focus on stories, aside from my fiction, which obviously everyone on Earth loves and reads (What?) what and who do you love to read?

APK: For the record there is a pause here while she stops to have a hearty laugh at the idea of people reading my fiction.

Juliana: No wait. that is not what the hearty laugh was about

Juliana: I read a mix of short story collections, non-fiction, and poetry for the most part. I read novels by friends and those recommended by friends, but lately I guess I’m a commitment-phobe. I used to really dig Charles deLint, who writes “urban fantasy” stuff. He draws a lot on traditional stories and mythologies and that was what attracted me.

Actually I think all of my favorite folks do that.

APK: And do you do it in your songs?

Juliana: Not consciously, but I think that in drawing on my own worldview and experience, that’s back there somewhere. My first favorite book was a book of illustrated Greek Myths and I never got over that. I think the archetypal stories are timeless for a reason.

APK: Illustrated Greek Myths. I’m picturing a horrible pop-up book that would scar small children.

Juliana: Ha! Yeah, they didn’t get too gory, unfortunately. I probably would’ve liked that even more. They were pretty watercolors. I did always like the picture of Athena popping out of her dad’s head though.

APK: Outside of lyrics and poetry, are there other forms and mediums you want to work in someday?

Juliana: I would love to write non-fiction. I get a little bit of that out with blogging, but I would love to do some travel writing or another type of non-fiction. I’ve also been working on some storytelling, which requires some writing, but not as much.

APK: What do you mean by storytelling?

Juliana: Live storytelling… Narrative personal stories and folktales. People tend to assume this is like “story time” for small children, but more often than not it’s geared toward adults.

For the last couple of years I’ve led a ghost tour in historic Lawrenceville, GA and it’s a walking tour where we tell a bunch of stories about the town and its paranormal activities. It’s a lot of fun.

APK: Do you come up with the stories yourself?

Juliana: Each guide gets to put their own spin on the stories, based on an outline, so we don’t use a script, but the tales are actually based on local history and things we’ve heard from residents and shop owners. So they are “true” stories in as far as folks believe in ghosts.

One of the things I love about our tour is that we don’t use any “stock” stories. If you’ve gone on ghost tours in several cities you might hear the same story more than once, but we only use stuff that has some historical basis.

APK: Ahhh, nice.

Juliana: Plus I get to sing a couple of murder ballads on my tour and those are always fun.

APK: So let’s say you get one song to convert a stranger to a fan. Only one. Which song would you use and why?

Juliana: My favorite song of mine right now is called “Something Holy” from the first EP I put out. I love the story in it, and it comes absolutely from my childhood in the South. Plus, it was sparked by something I overheard in a laundromat once.

APK: Really?

Juliana: Yeah, this woman was ranting and raving to the person behind the counter … I could only understand every third word or so and then all of a sudden she said, “And that’s why I didn’t cry at his funeral.” … So I grabbed my wet laundry out of the dryer and headed home to write.

APK: See I was going to ask about your process. Little did I know it was partly “Do laundry.” You’ve just made a lot of people sad but their socks happy.

Juliana: Ha. Yes, laundry is critical. Honestly, I hate doing laundry. But then I end up with days where I have to do, like, six loads because the mountain of clothing is going to eat me in my sleep if I don’t. If you spend a whole day doing laundry, chances are you will come up with a good idea for a song or story.

I do refer to myself as a “professional eavesdropper” though, because I’m always listening to people talk. Not necessarily for what they’re saying, but to get a feel for their voices and mannerisms. I like to create characters in my songs so there are plenty of strangers who have ended up in there without knowing it.

APK: Yeah I think that’s one of those writer things people don’t realize. We’re not after your personal stories so much as we’re after your cadences and word choice.

Juliana: Absolutely — though I do love a little gossip — it’s much more about getting a sense of the individual so we can create a person out of little bits and pieces of everyone.

APK: Yeah and someone who says “Lordy” versus “Oh, Lord” and vice versa, it informs a character with so much, grounding them.

Juliana: And that’s why you don’t have to write in a dialect, as in, spelling it all out… because if you’ve got the voice right, people will know right away how that person sounds. There are a couple of songs where I’ve had audience members come up and tell me they know “exactly what that person looks like” and I love that because I don’t tend to describe appearance in my songs. Not in any concrete “Her eyes were blue and she was short” kind of way.

APK What music are you listening to these days?

Juliana: At this very moment I am listening to Madeleine Peyroux. I like to listen to lots of jazz standards… I also like groups with traditional roots but who are writing new songs like The Be Good Tanyas were, or Old Crow Medicine Show. And then, almost any songwriter with a piano. Ben Folds is one of my faves.

I do listen to country radio a little bit.

APK: Old country or new?

Juliana: Both, but new country on the radio – only because I think it’s still a genre that’s putting out real ballads … songs with stories in them. Most of it is the same junk that’s all over the radio but every once in awhile there’s a really clever one or something that just makes you smile.

That said, I mostly listen to audio books in the car, or NPR…. I do so much driving that I would hear the same song fifteen times if I just left the radio on.

APK: Your work/music blog is called “Write. Play. Repeat.” A not so subtle reminder to yourself and everyone else?

Juliana: Yes! First and foremost to myself, but if it works for others, that’s great, too. I was trying to think of the shortest possible way to describe what I want to do and imagining it as a label on a bottle or a line on a business card and that’s where it came from. Each part is equally important, too.

APK: Oh yeah. You have to travel the whole circle to bother with the journey.

Juliana: And I honestly think a lot of writers (not just musicians) forget about the middle one. It’s supposed to be a form of play, too. If it stops ever being fun, then you need to re-evaluate the approach. So yeah, it means “play” as in perform, but also just to remember to have fun with it.

APK: Yes! I was just talking to a friend the other day about her writing novels, and kept bringing home the point that part of it is playing, making yourself laugh, having a good time. Otherwise… I firmly believe that your mood when you create can always be felt in the work for the rest of its life.

Juliana: I can definitely see that. Whether we know it or not, we’re sort of infusing a creation with part of ourselves… and I don’t necessarily mean that in just a woo-woo kind of way (though I am a bit woo-woo myself). But every choice we make while creating something is informed by our experience and mood.

APK: It’s so very true. But I think we both have some drinking scheduled so we should probably give in and get down to that. Thanks for doing this!

Juliana: Yay, Drinking! I mean… yes, thanks for talking to me.

Remember, you can find Juliana’s music and tour info at JulianaFinch.com and her work/writing blog over at Write. Play. Repeat.