“I was in school for four years writing music to please my teachers. That was not music I liked. And when I make music that isn't for something I want to make, and it's to please other people, it's - the outcome is really bad.”

American singer-songwriter and composer, based in Los Angeles

Julia Shammas Holter is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, composer, artist, and academic based in Los Angeles. Her work has drawn critical praise, and it blends art pop, chamber pop, baroque pop, and ambient textures. After three independent album productions, she released Tragedy as her first official studio album in 2011, followed by Ekstasis in 2012. She signed with Domino Records in 2013 and went on to release Loud City Song, Have You in My Wilderness, In the Same Room, a live-in-the-studio album, and the double album Aviary.