In Conversation with Julia Minkin

By Bethany Mikrut

Julia Minkin is a Chicago-based indie pop artist who recently released her debut solo album titled Not Ready in April 2026. Her early career started across the pond in France when she was part of the band Kid Francescoli. 

During her time with Kid Francescoli, she collaborated on hit albums such as With Julia and Play Me Again, which include the viral hit song "Moon (And It Went Like)," which gathered over 150 million streams across multiple platforms. Today, Julia has over a million monthly listeners of her own and is ready to share her music with the world. Not Ready is an album that combines warm vocals with dance-floor energy about gaining back creative control. This week we had the opportunity to catch up with Julia ahead of her November headline tour to disscus Not Ready. 

Who or what inspired you to start pursuing music as a career?

I was always singing since I was little, and I'm mostly in choirs. My mom put me in a choir when I was really little, and then I was at a school where there was always choir, so I was just in choir forever, singing. Then performing in musical theater, which it was never really a goal to be a musical theater performer, but I really enjoyed doing that and performing. I thought it was cathartic. I actually wanted to be and still want to be a published author, and I went to school for comparative literature, not for music. But music was a hobby on the side and something that I really wanted to continue no matter what. Then I ended up sort of getting a gig in a successful band, and that is how I became a musician.

What is one overarching theme or message you want your viewers to take away from Not Ready?

I think it is an album that talks about some misguided attraction. Some of the lyrics are a little bit cheeky and not super positive, but I think by the end, it's an album about growing up and about sort of accepting, growing mature in the sense of being a little more open and honest. I wanted it to be empowering. Some of the lyrics, I mean, the lyrics of "Marilyn Monroe," are empowering specifically for younger women. I wrote it for a younger sister, not a real younger sister. I also wanted the album to be sort of unapologetically girly in a way.

I wanted to sort of make that, as we went through so many phases of production, it had a lot of different sounds. As we got closer and closer to the sound we wanted, I realized that I wanted it to have this sort of really fun, shimmering, sort of girly quality. When I was little, I don't know if this is really true anymore for young people, but when I was little, it was sort of not cool to like female pop stars. It was like cooler to like the grungy alternative male songwriters. I think that has changed. But for myself anyway, I just wanted to allow myself to kind of make it really feminine in a way.

Do you have any career goals in the next few years?

I want to keep touring and promoting this album on tour in new places.

We're going back to the East Coast. I'd like to go southeast, like to Nashville. I'd also like to go abroad, like back to France, and play these songs. In the meantime, I am also finishing my graduate degree in fiction writing. So I don't have a lot of time for putting out new music, but I hope that in 2027 we'll put out a couple of singles or an EP and just continue doing what we're doing and also continue writing.

If you faced any like major or minor problems as a smaller singer-songwriter, how have you overcome them?

I did learn when I was in the band Kid Francescoli, which was an amazing experience, but also, I didn't have a lot of creative control. So maybe you could say that putting out an album is my own, you know, problem-solving.

It's not that I don't expect that it'll be hard to become hugely successful in the music industry, but, you know, locally successful, that we managed to continue to gain traction and just do it on my own. I think it's also really important to continue to try to work with people that you like working with. That's something that can take time and maturity to learn that it's okay to keep switching up who you play with until you feel like you have a good fit, because it's a lot to play with someone in the band. It's almost just like being a roommate. There's so much; you have to be compatible creatively and also in a personality way.

What would be the song from the album that you would say most represents you as a person, if you have any?

I cannot choose a favorite on the album. But I think that "Sunburn" probably lyrically represents me as a person today. Whereas some of the other songs might have represented me more at another time in my life. Musically, it's hard to say, as there are different styles. There's a reason that the album is a little eclectic because I like different styles.

Because you're going on so many shows in November, what would you say is like the fan dress code for the upcoming tour?

Well, I tell my band to just wear what they want, but we like pastels and bright colors and no solid black, if that can be avoided. So, it's pretty casual, but solid black is not a favorite. But you know what, if you want to wear solid black, you should just know that you're coming to a show where we really like colorful outfits.

Make sure to check out Not Ready on streaming platforms and catch Julia at one of her November shows here.