Julia Michaels is This Month’s ‘One to Watch’ Artist!

“She’s real, raw, honest, and she does not hold back.”

That’s what ‘Starving’ singer Hailee Steinfeld said about singer-songwriter Julia Michaels. Michaels worked with Hailee on her Haiz EP and clearly made quite in the impression.

Michaels is a 23 year old from Santa Clarita, California and began singing and writing songs at the young age of 12.

Her first taste of song-writing came nearly by accident after hanging out with her older sister, who was a demo singer in Los Angeles.

She said, “When I was a kid, I wrote about anything and everything…Then when I was 12, my mom got me a piano, and I started putting my poetry to the piano.”

Here’s what is impressive: she never took piano lessons or classes, “No. I think I just loved music so much that I always listened, and just picked up on how it was structured out.”

In her late teens, she co-wrote ‘Fire Starter’ for Demi Lovato and ‘Miss Movin On’ for Fifth Harmony with fellow songwriters Joleen Belle and Lindy Robbins.

While Belle and Robbins have been huge influences for Michaels, it is her partnership with fellow songwriter Justin Tranter that has really put her on the map; the two wrote Justin Bieber’s ‘Sorry’ and Selena Gomez’ ‘Good For You’.

Julia talked to Refinery29.com about her song-writing process, “Sometimes I’ll be in a studio and something will just prompt. Like a little light bulb. Sometimes I’ll have a sentence or a concept, and then I’ll form a melody around that. Sometimes I’ll have a melody and then realize I need to build something around that.”

How does someone at such a tender age go ahead and write smash hit songs?

Julia says it all comes down to writing from personal, first-hand experience, “I write from personal experience. If I’m working with an artist, they tell me their side of the story, but I always try to put it in my own perspective. Because otherwise I can’t relate to it. It just doesn’t feel authentic, and people can always tell if something is inauthentic.”

Check out Julia Michaels’ hit song, ‘Issues’ below and learn more about April’s ‘One to Watch’ artist HERE.