Julie: Yes, music has always been a big part of my life. My dad's extended family are all musical, so music was just an every day part of life in our home.

Julie: I took piano for several years. I think when you say you grew up in a musical family, people tend to think that everyone played an instrument and there was a family band, but it was not like that at all. Most of us have taken an instrument, but it is more a part of who we are than a lot of formal training. We didn't have a family band.

Julie: I started making up songs from the time I was able to talk. I was always singing. I started writing poetry in elementary school. I started writing songs that became produced and published in High School. So I've been doing it for a little while.

Julie: Well thank you.

Julie: Thank you. I compose the music. I don't do the arranging which involves writing out all the parts for all the different instruments. I work with producers who do that. I come up with the melody and the chords and together we kind of build the song as far as the production.

Julie: Generally I've written songs on the piano. Then a few years ago, some of the songs that I was working on, I couldn't find the music on the piano. So I borrowed my sister's guitar and played around with that. Most of the songs on my last project, Dive Deep, were written on guitar. Also at the time I was listening to a lot of acoustic guitar-based music and I've always loved it. So it inspired me to pick up the guitar. Now I'm writing using the guitar a bit more than the piano.

Julie: No, that was the first time. I kind of do things backward in a lot of ways. I learned how to play it by writing on it. My style of writing is very intuitive so it doesn't matter to me what chord I'm playing as long as it sounds great. On some songs, I couldn't tell you what the chords are. Some of them are made up, I think. If it fits and it feels right then I go with it.

I am not a fabulous, "musician." I am a singer/songwriter. And I will never be an excellent pianist or guitar player. I've just come to terms with that, and that's ok. I mean I can play enough to write and to perform my own songs, but I'm not a skilled "musician." I think my strengths are words and melody and basic chords and then I hire really great players to play on the album.

I primarily perform in the west: Utah, Nevada, California, Idaho. But I have done a few shows in the East over the past few years – Virginia, Washington DC, but mostly in the West.

Julie: Yes, especially Dive Deep. There are some universal themes. The older I get, or the more experience I have in songwriting, the less comfortable I feel with taking a preaching stance with my music. What feels comfortable to me is to be really honest about my experiences and what's important to me. So if you're coming from that point of view, songs that are born out of that are appropriate for anyone. They are just about life.

Julie: That gets mentioned a lot

Julie: Yes, there's always a story. Some of them aren't that great or compelling, just things that happen in my life. I wrote that song actually several years before it ended up on an album. Sometimes songs take a little while to find their place. I think it was my dad who said, "If it is a good song, it will rise above. Great songs always get recorded." Maybe that's part of it with that song.

I wrote it at a time when I was really out of touch with the spiritual parts of myself and really overwhelmed and burdened by some things that were going on in my family. I felt weighed down. That song was kind of my longing for a realization that, "Wait a second, life is so much more than feeling burdened. I know there's so much more to life than this." So that is what sparked the idea, and kind of the image of that realization that there is a part of me that has always existed and always will exist and this time right now is just one point on that journey. So I like the idea of looking behind and realizing, "I have wings! I don't have to stay on the ground. I can fly and rise above whatever it is that's thrown at me."

To listen to Wings, click here.

Julie: I have two, ages nine and six.

Julie: No, I don't. It's pretty boring. I think people think, "Oh you travel around, it's so glamorous." Especially the out of town trips, in general I fly out that day. Say I'm doing a show in the East. I leave that morning. Get there at night. Set up. Do the show. Take down, and fly out the next morning. Really, I mean I enjoy it, but it's not that fun for kids. When they were really little, I would take them with me, but sometimes they prefer to stay home. They come to a lot of the local shows, and they are really cute about it.

Julie: They are. It's pretty funny. After a show, they'll come up and ask for my autograph on a photo. I'm laughing at them thinking, "You didn't want my autograph when I told you to finish your job this morning or grounded you from the TV." It is kind of interesting for them to see that part of me and still be just they're mom and making their lunches and driving the carpool.

Julie: Not very well. {chuckle} There is such a fine line for me. I like to have a lot of things going on, but there's a line where it's too much. I'm always re-evaluating with my husband and family – "how are we doing here?" I trust my gut. I know when I'm overwhelmed and doing too much and when I don't feel connected to my family. Then I pull back and take some time and get refocused. I'm learning to do a good job of taking care of myself – the basic needs – exercise, getting sleep, having leisure time and just really making sure that I'm reading the scriptures and praying and taking care of my spiritual side. All those different facets of us – I really try to attend to those. If I'm not doing well – and I'm sure other moms can relate – everything just kind of falls apart. So I'm learning how to do that a little bit better. You know, take care of myself and make sure that I'm doing ok inside. Sometimes the music business is focused on a lot of external things, and external accomplishments, and I try to balance that by making sure I'm working on the inside to.

Julie: Yeah, but I have to say, "Letting what get to my head?" {chuckle} I just feel so blessed to be able to do all the things that I've ever wanted to do. I've had so many opportunities and I've worked really hard. I just think as long as I remember where all of my blessings come from, then it's not going to go to my head. And I don't have any illusions that I'm this big star. I just feel like I get to write my songs and some people care to listen to them. And that is so great. The more experience I get performing, the more I appreciate every single person who comes to a concert or buys a CD or listens to what I have to say. I just think it's amazing that anybody cares. I just feel really lucky. I don't think there's anything that can go to my head. I just feel really blessed – really thankful.

Julie: I was just thinking about this just this morning. So it's interesting that you ask this question. I was thinking about how my view of that has changed over time as I have written more songs. I think the Spirit inspires all of us in different ways. It inspires many parts of our lives if we'll let it.

I don't think every song I write is inspired. And I don't think every inspired song is a good song. Sometimes I need to hear the message of a song, and sometimes I get it through music. There have been moments when I have felt more of an instrument than a creator. And there are times when I think, "these are kind of my thoughts, what I think about." I hope that as I get better at living and patterning my life more after Christ that the hope is that everything that we do will be His will. So I don't think that every song is inspired, but there are times when I have felt inspired while working on a song. Most of the time I feel that because I need to learn what the song has to teach. I think that's a mistake that a lot of beginning songwriters make. They think that every time you feel the Spirit when you're writing that means that the song has to go out there and it's going to influence a lot of people and it's going to change lives, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good song. Does that make sense?

Julie: Yes, your comment reminded me of something… A clue for me when something has been inspired is when I finish the song and I play it again, and I learn something that I didn't learn the first time. Then you know Somebody else is at work here. That has happened a few times where I get something that I didn't get the first time. So that's a good clue whether something is inspired.

Julie: I want to convey a message of hope. The more life experience I get, I learn that the only thing I'm an expert on is my own experience. So I hope through my music to give people the permission to have their own life experience. We're here to learn things and to feel things, and it's ok. The downs are ok, the ups are ok, everything in between is ok, if we have hope and we have faith.

Visit Julie's Web site at www.JuliedeAzevedo.com. You can order her CD Dive Deep online by clicking here.

Listen to a few sample tracks: