Why Julia Jacklin Is Waltzing Away From Her Worries

The first time anyone heard Julia Jacklin's voice it was on national radio, but not in the way you would expect. "[I sang] Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps on 702 [ABC] - my mum called in because it was Doris Day's birthday and she's like 'my daughter can sing a song'. I was six. I sung on the phone - I don't think I realised what I was doing. And they used that snippet of me singing for the promo of the radio show for six months," Jacklin laughs heartily. "It would be me singing 'you won't admit you love me' in this tiny, squeaky voice, and then it would kick in to Doris Day singing the chorus, and then it'd be 'you're listening to 702, bla bla'. I really wanna find it, I don't know how to find it though. I would just love to hear that again."

Maybe it was that early taste of radio play thrills, but in the subsequent years of her childhood in the Blue Mountains, Jacklin struggled with the sense that, even as a primary school student, she hadn't accomplished enough in her life. With the release of her debut album Don't Let The Kids Win in October, she's starting to settle in. "It's definitely not as intense as it used to be. I feel like once you start to get a bit of recognition you can kind of relax a little bit. But then I guess I feel like it's one of those never-ending things really," she muses. "Because the album cycle is so long, you know; I recorded it last year and I'm releasing it this year and I'll be touring the rest of this year and next year, and then I'll record an album the end of next year or the middle of next year, you can kind of just see time slipping away. But I'm trying to not let it get to me because it's not productive."

"It's definitely not as intense as it used to be. I feel like once you start to get a bit of recognition you can kind of relax a little bit."

Jacklin manages to balance an album steeped in love and loss with a broader focus on coming-of-age, something she attributes to the journey she undertook during the writing process. "I started writing it while I was in a relationship and I finished writing it when I was coming out of that relationship... I kinda thought the record was gonna reflect that relationship and be a time capsule documenting that experience," she explains. "But I think that the experience changed me in many ways personally, which is why I ended up writing about a lot instead of writing about that relationship in particular."

Love's delicate push and pull is captured beautifully in Jacklin's debut video clip Pool Party, which stars Jacklin as a ballroom dancing enthusiast who struggles to connect with her gym-obsessed boyfriend. It's heartbreaking stuff. "I was trying to get across a living situation where two people don't understand each other and aren't willing to compromise what they want to do. She's a dancer, and he's into fitness. Initially I had visions of getting a really, really massive guy in it - a really bulky bodybuilder - but I couldn't find one. But I'm glad I didn't in the end because Tom [Stephens] my drummer ended up being in it. And I think it was good because I think it may have been comical in the first. It was my first music video, I was super nervous about it."

Obsessed with Strictly Ballroom as a child, it's no wonder some of Jacklin's music and clips feature waltz time signatures or ballroom dancing. "A lot of the songs I write seem to come out as a waltz. I honestly don't know why it happens. I'm trying to get out of it now; I find that every time I sit down at the guitar I write ' dun dun dun, dun dun dun' I'm like 'NO, change!'" she laughs at the observation.

Now on the brink of success, Jacklin feels she is able to start letting go of the anxiety that stemmed from a need to achieve. "It's definitely changing, but it is still difficult to not be affected by it. I feel okay about it, but definitely people say to you 'oh who cares, it doesn't matter, age is just a number' blah blah and you're like 'yeah, totally yeah!' then five minutes later you're going 'oh god!'" she animates. "Don't Let The Kids Win - That was the last song I wrote for the record. I felt like it kinda summed up everything that I was feeling in those two years I was writing. Acceptance of it and not getting down about certain things that were happening and just getting over yourself and not getting stressed about running out of time, just getting on with it."