{"id":1779775,"date":"2026-02-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1779775"},"modified":"2026-02-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:00:00","slug":"wonderland-43","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1779775","title":{"rendered":"Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\tWonderland<\/span>
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\n\t\t\tJUST JULIA (CUMMING)<\/span>
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On her self-titled solo debut, Julia Cumming steps out from the collective and into her own voice \u2013 reflecting on identity, misfit energy, and the New York upbringing that shaped her.<\/h3>\n
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\"Just
Dress & necklace VINTAGE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

If home is where the heart is, then New York City native Julia Cumming has finally synced to its beat. Just a few years ago, inside the apartment she grew up in, she found herself at the piano, confronted with the lyrics that would awaken her self-titled debut solo album. \u2018I sing these words for me,\u2019 she declares on the opening track, \u201cMy Life\u201d: a swan song for liberation, an act of self-actualisation, and a tune that lingers long after it\u2019s taken up residence in your head. She had finally found the rhythm she\u2019d been longing for \u2013 \u201cbut wasn\u2019t particularly looking for,\u201d the singer-songwriter tells me over Zoom, dialled in from the Chelsea Hotel\u2019s outdoor terrace, a daring choice for a brisk January afternoon. In that moment, Julia realised what she\u2019d been searching for had been there all along.<\/p>\n

After that breakthrough \u2013 which she likens to \u201cthe Matrix\u201d (\u201cit was like I busted through a wall that I didn\u2019t know I had put up,\u201d she elaborates) \u2013 life did what it does best and kept moving. It wasn\u2019t until Sunflower Bean, the band she forms one third of alongside guitarist Nick Kivlen and drummer Olive Faber, wrapped their 2022 album Headful of Sugar <\/em>that Julia could no longer ignore the calling she\u2019d stirred within herself. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis voice,\u201d she says, \u201cwas a combination of all these parts of me that had never spoken to me in that way.\u201d Going solo, at that point, felt inevitable \u2013 perhaps even necessary. And while band drift might unnerve some, Nick and Olive met the shift with encouragement instead. \u201cFor them to see me bring this work to life, and to know how personally fulfilling it is \u2013 it\u2019s all been part of a joyous musical world we share.\u201d With a mission and a support system firmly in place, it was time to start assembling her team.\u201c<\/p>\n

Everything was very serendipitous,\u201d she recalls of making Julia. Brian Robert Jones\u2013 the musician and producer whose CV includes Paramore, Gwen Stefani, and MUNA, and who would become her creative home base \u2013 entered the picture as an unlikely gift, met at a friend\u2019s birthday party. \u201cIt was a very rewarding relationship for both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Just
Dress & belt PIPENCO; bra VINTAGE;
shoes MANOLO BLAHNIK; tights CALZEDONIA; earrings
stylist\u2019s own<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Just
Jacket SANDRO; skirt 3.1 PHILLIP
LIM; shoes MIISTA; earrings stylist\u2019s own<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

Intimidated at first, Julia\u2019s solo live sessions quickly became sacred ground for candid confession. \u2018A prisoner in my own mind,\u2019 she clamours on the anxiety-ridden, honky guitar\u2013laced \u201cRuled By Fear\u201d, articulating a struggle familiar to countless young women. \u201cThis feeling of never being enough, of having to perform for everyone,\u201d she explains, can land as a direct hit to one\u2019s sense of identity. And yet, just a few tracks later, \u201cDo It All Again\u201d arrives as a moment of hard-won acquiescence \u2013unapologetic, unflinching. <\/p>\n

True to rock-star form, Julia was adamant that the album be recorded without judgment: nothing off the table, nothing overthought. A renewed surge of confidence \u2013 one she partly credits to Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who contributed to the record \u2013 helped her let go of inhibition altogether. That freedom courses through \u201cI Dream of a Fire That Stays Burning When Nobody Tends It\u201d, a feature track whose deliberately unwieldy title feels like bait for any hawk-eyed executive itching to slash it down to something more marketable. Julia doesn\u2019t budge. \u201cI don\u2019t care if this chord change sounds like it\u2019s from 19-fucking-70,\u201d she shrugs. \u201cI like it, and that\u2019s what\u2019s important. I never fit in anywhere anyway, so who gives a fuck?\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia partly blames her birth year for that sense of misalignment. A self-described Zillennial, born in 1996, she says she \u201cspent the first decade of [her] career trying to get Millennials to like [her],\u201d often treated less as a peer than a kid sister within the DIY scene. Then, \u201cthe pandemic happens, Gen Z takes over\u201d \u2013 another generation she tries, unsuccessfully, to slot into. She still has \u201cthe Millennial pause when [she makes] a TikTok,\u201d she adds, half-joking. <\/p>\n

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Dress & necklace VINTAGE; earrings stylist\u2019s own<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Just
Dress NARDOS;
shoes VINTAGE; tights & earrings stylist\u2019s own<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

Despite that persistent feeling of being out of step, Julia has always gravitated towards people who kept her musical faith intact. Before Sunflower Bean, there was Supercute!, a psychedelic pop project fronted by a 13-year-old Julia alongside Rachel Trachtenburg. Before that, there was an even smaller Julia, dancing on her father\u2019s feet to Elliott Smith. \u201cWe share a real musical connection,\u201d she says, smiling. Along with his surname, Julia inherited her father\u2019s musical instincts \u2013 the bassist guiding her hands long before she thought of music as a future. <\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t just genetics. Growing up in NewYork City proved catalytic. Venues now shuttered but once central to the city\u2019s art-rock ecosystem \u2013 SideWalk Caf\u00e9, the Bowery Poetry Club \u2013 were regular stops on family outings. Witnessing living, working artists left a permanent imprint. \u201cThe goal was survival,\u201d she recalls. \u201cTo keep your rent-stabilised apartment, to protest, and to just do your thing. Seeing that made it possible for me to get through a lot of challenging eras.<\/p>\n

\u201dCommercial success, she insists, was never the aim\u2013 neither for her nor for the artists she idolised. Still, rent has a way of demanding compromise. Modelling became, as she puts it, \u201ca means of survival,\u201d inspired by a friend who turned to fashion to sidestep the grind of a nine-to-five.<\/p>\n

At just 18, Julia became a favourite of former Saint Laurent creative director Hedi Slimane. She travelled extensively, styled by Hedi, made up by PatMcGrath, photographed by Steven Meisel. These days, the runway has given way to front-row seats at Ann Demeulemeester under Stefano Gallici, and McQueen under Se\u00e1n McGirr. \u201cI hope that as I move into this next part of my career, I can take what fashion has given me and make the fantasy deeper,\u201d she says. \u201cUse that beauty to reinforce what I\u2019m doing with music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly two decades into performing, Julia has already transformed in ways she barely recognises. What remains intact is the New York artist\u2019s backbone \u2013 ardent, principled, unyielding. From an early age, she was taught to stand for something. \u201cIf you weren\u2019t going to a protest once a week, you weren\u2019t doing enough,\u201d she says, recalling the ethos she grew up around. <\/p>\n

In the same casual tone, she recounts conducting [the youngest woman ever elected to Congress] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s first-ever interview, and later opening for[U.S. senator] Bernie Sanders during stretches of his campaign tour. She looks straight into the camera \u2013 about as direct as Zoom allows \u2013 and assures me she\u2019s \u201cvery passionate.\u201d Which explains why Zohran Mamdani, now New York\u2019s mayor, joined Sunflower Bean onstage during a hometown show. \u201cA friend of mine was organising the campaign,\u201d she says. \u201cAs soon as the idea came up, I was like, oh my God \u2013 this would be incredible.\u201dThe band didn\u2019t know if Mamdani would make it until the final moment. \u201cWe finished, I looked to the right \u2013 and there he is,\u201d she declares. \u201cI love that we got to be a footnote in what I hope will be an amazing mayoral experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter how Julia approaches music \u2013 how, when, or why \u2013 one thing remains fixed: \u201cto have the outlet is the gift.\u201d And now, she\u2019s intent on using it.<\/p>\n

Photography<\/strong> by Brendan Wixted
Styling<\/strong> by Dylan Wayne
Words<\/strong> by Juliette Eleuterio
Hair<\/strong> by Chelsey Pickthorn
Make-up<\/strong> by David Razzano at Art Department
Producer<\/strong> Dakota Griffin of 199X New York
Production Supervisor <\/strong>Sneha Mendes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t19 February 2026\t\t\t<\/div>\n
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Magazine<\/a><\/div>\n
Music<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tBecoming Cathy<\/span> <\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonderland JUST JULIA (CUMMING) On her self-titled solo debut, Julia Cumming steps out from the collective and into her own voice \u2013 reflecting on identity, misfit energy, and the New York upbringing that shaped her. Dress & necklace VINTAGE If home is where the heart is, then New York City native Julia Cumming has finally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,257],"class_list":["post-1779775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-wonderlandmagazine-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1779775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1779775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1779775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1779775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}