Juli von Lou – Announces debut EP ‘The Tales of A Honky Tonk Angel’ + Releases New Single ‘To A Girl From West Virginia’

Having introduced her deeply cinematic world through the heartbreak of ‘Desert Hills Motel’ and the celestial ‘Honky Tonk Angels’, Juli von Lou today announces her debut EP The Tales of a Honky Tonk Alien, arriving November 6th via Promised Land Records, alongside new single ‘To A Girl From West Virginia’ and its surreal, filmic music video, arriving tomorrow.
 
‘To A Girl From West Virginia’ feels incredibly intimate from its first note. The creak of the piano and the closeness of Juli’s breath leave every detail exposed, while swelling strings gradually enter, bringing pure lightness to this tender track about the woman who changed Juli’s understanding of love and ultimately herself. “To A Girl From West Virginia is probably the most important song I’ve written so far. It’s a song that changed my life. About a woman that changed my life.” Juli muses.
 
Juli wrote the song after leaving a relationship that left her at rock bottom. Years later, she met a woman from West Virginia who challenged everything she believed about love. Juli explains, “She made me realise that it was possible to fall in love again. And that love doesn’t have to feel like a heart attack. In fact it shouldn’t.”
 
Although the relationship never became romantic, the connection gave Juli a new perspective on herself and what she deserved. “She made me feel valuable and seen,” she says. “I saw so much of myself in her, but I loved her. I did not love myself.”  For Juli, that realisation became something much bigger. “I could not save myself because I didn’t feel like I was worth saving. So I clung on to the idea that I was gonna save myself, if not for me then for her.”
 
The song has remained deeply significant to Juli ever since, not only because of the woman at its centre, but because of everything that followed. “I’ve loved a handful of people after her, but she will always be the one who made me realise I was worthy of love.”

Tomorrow, Juli will also share the striking new music video for ‘To A Girl From West Virginia’, inspired by Nadia Lee Cohen’s idea of “unrealistic hyper-realism”. Taking the song beyond its surface as a love song, the video explores its darker, more personal meaning, with Juli physically disposing of and setting fire to her own body as she confronts and leaves behind a destructive former self.

“Fortunately and unfortunately for myself, I decided to make this video pretty much all myself, doing the creative direction, location scouting, logistics, editing and so on myself,” Juli explains.

Working alongside her friend and filmmaker Romain, Juli shot the entire video on film in the Swedish woods where she grew up, meaning every scene had to be meticulously planned and rehearsed down to the second. “The last scene we filmed we literally had 15 seconds of film left which meant we only had one shot to nail it.”

The video’s production ultimately became a real family and hometown affair. Juli’s dad provided the tractor and location for the fire scene, her grandparents appeared as extras, friends helped with transport and SFX, while family members lent cars and houses to bring the vision to life.

Tracklist
To a Girl From West Virginia
Fuck I Know It’s Bad (Lord Have Mercy)
Honky Tonk Angels
Desert Hills Motel
Empire State Confusion

PRE-SAVE HERE