Written By: Oliver Heffron
Convict Julie expresses an empowering, revolutionary spirit through a disarming intimacy on her debut album, Exquisite Pain. One part House of Balloons-era The Weeknd, one part Killer Mike, the Atlanta=native combines a ghostly, stunning falsetto with a lyrical commitment to ideological revolution. Crafting her debut album while still in school at the University of Georgia in Athens, Convict Julie, aka Camila Sims, stuck to her vision through times of change and turbulence, incorporating her activism and life experience into a genuinely compelling audio and visual experience. Exquisite Pain and its accompanying visual album present Convict Julie’s immense talent, careful execution, and critical messaging with a stimulating and unique sound, staking her claim as one of the most exciting new artists to debut this year.
Exquisite Pain demands full attention from the first moment to the last. Convict Julie builds an epic, sweeping introduction on “Surrender,” expressing her vulnerability with a hypnotic melody as the instrumental gradually rises–eventually dropping to a pummeling 808-groove featuring a vocal snippet of Angela Davis reframing the concept of a revolution. The instrumental switch flows perfectly into “Convict,” a track that shows off her ability to carry a bass-heavy, club-ready instrumental with an infectious melody that retains her thematic focus. Her layered vocal harmonies on the guitar-heavy “X” describe the manic instability of a candy-flipping conscious with alarming accuracy, highlighting her pop-songwriting abilities and talent for producing impactful imagery. On the moody, atmospheric “Light It Up,” she delivers an empowering performance, her unfiltered voice beckoning the listener to take the spark within the song and spread its message “Until you can’t ignore me.”
Convict Julie sat down with Nuance for a virtual interview, where she talked about the process of creating Exquisite Pain, her musical upbringing in Atlanta, and where her music will go from here.
Photo Credit: Suzannah Evans
Growing up in Atlanta, music has always been central to Convict Julie’s life; as she recalls, “I’ve been writing songs since I was in 6th grade.” Through her formative years, her passion was inspired by a solid musical support system, transforming her passion into a budding profession, one in which she originally envisioned herself thriving behind the boards: “When I was like 15, I started an apprenticeship and did production. Then, I wanted to be a songwriter exclusively.”
Despite her evident love for creating music, she never thought of herself as becoming an artist herself until a musical mentor pushed her to share her talents with the world:
Photo Courtesy of Convict Julie
"I didn't even want to be an artist. My mentor was like, 'You know, you've got 2000 songs written, you have a voice–maybe you should consider artistry. So I did, and worked on that development on my own for a few more years."
Since focusing on her solo career, Convict Julie's music developed quickly, earning her first sale in 2019, followed by her debut EP Let's Swim and follow-up Wynter, before releasing her debut Exquisite Pain earlier this year.
The exceptional quality of Convict Julie's debut results from patience, planning, and artistic commitment. Measuring twice and cutting once, she spent most of the process diligently preparing the execution of her vision to a tee:
"The project took about a year to complete, and most of it was planning and development because I'm very anal about planning. I had a vision, you feel me? I had a vision I wanted to execute, and I didn't know how to execute it, but I knew it was going to happen."
Conceived, recorded, and visualized during her last semesters of college at the University of Georgia in Athens, she believed in her image for Exquisite Pain, even as the rest of her life changed:
"I spent about a year making the music. I did half those songs, took a break for almost a year, and then finished the rest of the songs. Because, in-between that, I was doing activism, trying to graduate college, and, you know, just living life."
Comprised of eight distinct yet cohesive visual chapters for each song on the tracklist, the visual album sees Convict Julie perform the project's narrative through creatively edited and beautifully shot scenes—capturing Julie freeing herself from binds in a horrific house, stalking a crawlspace with black wings and a chrome revolver, and igniting a magnificent bonfire, to name a few. She commands the camera with a wide range of emotions and perspectives, delivering a compelling performance for the entirety of the 26-minute runtime.
The impressive visual album, developed and written by Convict Julie, was the most time-consuming aspect of the project's preparation, but her diligence allowed the crew to capture everything in just one shooting day:
"Most of it was planning the visual album, and I wrote all the treatments for that, and I did all the designs for it, and that took the most time. The actual execution of the visual album was only a 10-hour day. We shot every single music video in one day, but a year of planning made for that easy transition."
Photo Credit: Garrett Cordoso
While it may have slowed the release of Exquisite Pain, Convict Julie is grateful that she followed through in school, graduating with a degree in Entertainment and Media Studies and a Music Business Certificate. While she admits her attention waned at times, especially when she had to miss class to perform, she was sure never to miss a Music Business class, now recognizing the benefits of her industry knowledge as she embarks on her solo career:
"It absolutely gave me a huge advantage because I was able to step into the game knowing the business I had to handle. Because the music business is 80% business and 20% music. So, when I was able to walk in with that knowledge I had about royalties, rights, copyright, and intellectual property, I was able to move forward, taking the right steps. I kind of skipped over the riff-raff. So, when I was talking to professionals, they were like, 'Oh, you already have all this done; you know what you're doing.' People are taking me more seriously because I have my trademark; I have my website; I have my LLC; I have all my music registered, and all these things, and like most independent artists have no idea about it until it's too late."
While Convict Julie works with trusted producers and songwriters to iron out the details of her songs, she ultimately produces and writes nearly every aspect of her music: "I think I've only done two songs ever on someone else's beats, and that's two out of two thousand." She values the importance of staking a claim in the music industry independently and finding your voice individually: "In order for me to demonstrate my strengths and my weaknesses… I have to give myself fully and vulnerably. And, you know, that means giving people my voice exclusively and not relying on someone else's voice or experiences to deepen mine or to make mine more valid."
Photo Courtesy of Convict Julie
With a vinyl release of Exquisite Pain on the way, Convict Julie is already looking forward to expanding her sound on her upcoming projects:
"I'm already working on my treatment contract for my next album. I'm working on two albums right now. One of them is a punk album. And the other one is more like a balladesque r&b album, and they're going to be two separate projects."
With a strong foundation of knowledge, talent, and self-reliance, Convict Julie is positioning herself to become whatever artist she plans to be. While her fans will have to wait to hear her next progression in her sound and career, she did give one hint of what to expect on her next project. Or, more accurately, what not to expect: "No features for me."