PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE A WATERS
LIGHTING BY PESTY DEMON
STYLING BY CALLUM SMITH AND ELLIE WALKER
MAKEUP BY NIC MARILYN
HAIR BY BATISEOL GOMIS
COVER DESIGN BY ANISA CLEAVER

“I’m gonna get 20 Grammys,” July Jones confidently tells us. “That’s where I’m heading so watch me!” The British-Slovene artist is speaking with GAY TIMES over the phone two weeks after the release of Aladdin, a merciless alt-pop and rock anthem featuring brutal break-up lyrics such as, “So concerned about the princess you forgot about the queen, fuck your Jasmine and your carpet ’cause to me it’s so obscene,” and “The worst thing about betrayal is that it never comes from enemies.” (The latter, especially, hits hard.) 

Like her experimental bop Butterflies, which features Suzi Wu and Girli, the track has been lauded by fans, finding viral success on ze TikTok. Although she attained a devoted fanbase following the release of singles such as Liar Liar and I Fall Apart, the two aforementioned bangers mark the real debut of July Jones, an artist who’s not afraid to “push boundaries” on her way to achieving 20 Grammy Awards. 

“I definitely want recognition for what I do and I want to encourage younger people that it’s possible, especially queer kids,” says the 25-year-old star. “We are so limited sometimes and we don’t believe in ourselves because we are so preoccupied with being accepted by the world for who we are.” 

July, who identifies as pansexual, landed her first record deal at the age of 14, but broke out of her contract after straight male executives tried to force her into a direction she wasn’t satisfied with. Now, she’s ready to conquer the music industry as the most authentic version of herself – and she’s not afraid to ignite some “uncomfortable” conversations in the process surrounding feminism, sexuality and mental health. 

Read ahead for our full conversation with July, in which the star reveals how her Slovenian heritage has inspired her artistry and addresses the lack of female talent behind the scenes in the music industry, as well as her future as a Grammy darling. 

Congratulations on the release of your latest single Aladdin! How have these past few weeks been for you pre and post-release?It’s been a stressful few weeks but it’s what I love to do, so it’s all good. I’ve just been on a photoshoot. It’s been very stressful and exciting at the same time! 

Aladdin is such an earworm, and the lyrics are – which I love – quite brutal. What’s the story behind the song?I wrote Aladdin six months ago. I was going through a really tough time in my relationship, it’s probably the most personal song to me. I was just like, ‘Okay, I’m going to go in the studio and write everything that I feel.’ I just felt like being really direct with it. I then posted a snippet of it on TikTok and it blew up! It was all public. At least people loved it and related to it. It was a success at the end of the day! We went back into the studio and I co-produced it. I really wanted to make sure that I have this new way with production and writing, where there’s not a clear pop structure. I’m really inspired by trap music like Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West, artists that are breaking boundaries when it comes to music structure. I wanted Aladdin to be that.

TikTok is eating it up! How does it feel when something you create resonates with so many people around the world?It was really scary! Obviously, people have all sorts of opinions and everybody’s like, ‘Who is this girl?’ Then the fans were going after my personal life, becoming crazy and possessive. So, it was really scary at first because I’m quite a private person and I don’t like too much to be online. It’s such an impersonal thing when people throw hate because you can’t pin down who these people are. It’s scary to put yourself out there. Obviously, I was really grateful because everyone was so supportive. 

You experimented with new structures on Aladdin, but also on your previous single Butterflies, which sounds fresh as hell. Why was this the right song to launch your new era?I wrote Butterflies two years ago, actually. It was the first song that I’d written where I was like, ‘Whoa, this is me.’ My whole life I’ve spent writing for other people and I love writing and producing for other artists, but it was the first time where I wrote a song and thought, ‘This is my sound. I want to be an artist.’ I feel like Butterflies is a statement of who I am. I want to make pop music but also bring the musicality to it because of all of my years being in music and coming from a jazz and soul background. 

You collaborated with the incredible Suzi Wu and former GAY TIMES cover star Girli on the track. How did that come to be?The whole mixtape is a collaboration. I’m trying to bring people on my music that I admire and I take inspiration from. I take a lot of inspiration from international artists and females that are pushing boundaries. Suzi and Girli are two artists that I’ve been writing with and they happened to be around me when that song was coming out. We added two verses and they fit on the song so perfectly. We then shot the music video in our house during corona. We didn’t have anything, we just shot it in our little apartment and it was just friends hanging out. It was so cool. I’m really grateful for those girls, grateful to have those kinds of people around me that I can take inspiration from.

What can you tell me about this new mixtape? I know you’ve been waiting a long time to get a full collection out…We have a big mixtape coming out. There’s a lot! There’s over 15 tracks, and we’re going to be releasing it in three separate parts. We’re releasing the first part really soon, but we have one more single coming first. It’s a conceptual mixtape, so everything is connected together with the visuals. It’s a lot about who I am a person and where I come from. I talk about my sexuality and my heritage, and I wanted to include a lot of sounds from the Balkans, because that’s where I was born, and I want to represent the Eastern side of the world. I feel like it’s so underrepresented, especially in the music industry. If you think of any artist, there’s none that got any Grammys or Oscars or any recognition whatsoever. I want to show the world the beautiful sounds that we have, and also include them in pop music. Also, I’m in a queer relationship, so the lyrics are diverse and inclusive of different genders. On top of that, almost every song has a collaborator on it. I really wanted to bring different people from different countries that I felt like weren’t represented in the Western media. For me, it’s very important to show the beauty of European artists, Middle Eastern artists, Asian artists and African artists, all sorts of different styles. You can expect a lot of pushing of the boundaries!