Petals of Passion: A Deep Dive into The Tulips’ Story, Sounds, and Upcoming EP
By. Alicia Zamora
A Conversation with The Tulips
Emerging as a vibrant new force in the music landscape, The Tulips, whose infectious melodies and genuine passion for their craft are quickly earning them a devoted following. Recently, they sat down for an exclusive interview with Alicia’s Studio, where they shared insights into their journey as musicians and the challenges they face along the way.
The Tulips, comprising a diverse blend of influences, illustrate the importance of balancing dreams with everyday responsibilities. As they navigate the demands of work and school while cultivating their musical identity, their commitment to their art is both inspiring and relatable. The group’s determination to excel in both their personal and professional lives highlights the dedication required in the pursuit of success in the competitive music industry.
With an upcoming EP on the horizon, The Tulips are excited to reveal their evolving sound and connect with fans on a deeper level. They acknowledge the crucial role their supporters play in fueling their creative drive, providing the confidence to push boundaries and explore new musical territories. As they continue to grow, The Tulips are poised to make a lasting impact, and their story is one of resilience, passion, and the power of community.
Diving In
Alicia: Welcome back to Alicia’s Studio we have our seventeenth special guest—The Tulips!!
Alicia: If you guys can go ahead and introduce yourselves, please
Julia: My name is Julia!
Andrea: My name is Andrea! And we are The Tulips
Alicia: How did you both meet, and what led to the formation of The Tulips? Were you both involved in music prior to becoming a duo?
Julia: Okay. So, long story short, Andrea and I have always known each other, but we never really talked until after college. And then through social media, we realized we were both going through the same things at the same time. We were saying the other day that we kind of, like, trauma bonded. And we ended up going to a Lizzie McAlpine concert together. That was the first time we hung out. Since then, we've been besties ever since.
Julia: Yeah, prior to us being a band, we were both making solo music. One day, we kind of realized, like, why don't we put out music together as a band? Because it was just so fun making music together. And yeah. That’s how The Tulips were formed.
Alicia: How long has it been since you guys formed The Tulips?
Andrea: We started last September.
Julia: It’s been about a year and a few months
Andrea: Yeah. We're still new.
Alicia: What were your early influences and inspirations when you first started making music together?
Andrea: Like Julia said, we kind of trauma bonded. So it was a lot about love and loss. We were both going through weird situations with relationships and stuff. So that was a really big inspiration. And once we came out with our first song, people really liked the kind of message we were putting out. We like relatable music too. That’s why we were like, 'Oh, we need to write stuff that's relatable.' And it just came easy because we were both going through it. So that's kind of what our inspiration was: love and loss, relationships. Stuff like that.
Alicia: Were there any challenges you faced when you first started collaborating, and how did you overcome them?
Julia: Our main challenge at the moment is time management and scheduling. Because at the end of the day, we still have our personal lives and regular jobs. Like, we're just two girls with two jobs.
Andrea: Yeah. Like this is a side thing for us. You know, we both, like, work.
Julia: As much as we would want it to be, a main thing, it's not possible right now.
Andrea: Financially too. It costs a lot of money to make music and do all of this stuff. Like, we make back what we spend and then we use it to spend on each other. There was a thing that Kenny Beats said. He was like, ‘If you're going to make music, don't expect to ever make money.’ Not until you're ten years into this thing. But yeah collaborating, mainly scheduling, I think, time.
Julia: Like, she's in school, I'm working, and sometimes it's hard to meet up on certain days, because with everything going on. Yeah. But we still make time.
Andrea: Yeah, it still works.
Julia: It’s not like a big problem. It's just here and there we have, like, weeks where we can't really Tulip. We call it Tuliping.
Andrea: Yeah, Tulip Tuesday.
Alicia: That’s so cute
Andrea: Yeah, we Tulip together.
Julia: We're like, ‘Can we Tulip tomorrow?’
Andrea: Or our friends will be like, ‘Oh are you guys Tuliping? And we're like, ‘Yeah.’
Julia: We’re like, ‘Sorry, I can't hang out. We're Tuliping.’
Andrea: It's funny.
Alicia: No yeah time management is definitely a struggle especially with all of this.
Andrea: Yeah. It's like a job. It is, yeah. A job that you don't get paid for, you know?
Alicia: Yeah but props to you guys! You guys are really doing it!!
The Tulips: Thank you!
Alicia: Your music has a distinct indie pop feel, but it also has some unique twists. How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard of The Tulips before?
Julia: We have a lot of different influences.
Andrea: We like a lot of music. We're not very, [particular]. Some people, they only like pop, or they only like rap, or they only like R&B. I think we like everything; we want to make music that combines all of the genres that we like. But I know at the root of it, it's indie pop.
Julia: We just have different influences with every song that we make. Sometimes it just depends on what we're feeling. We have some dancey songs. We have a little bit of R&B influences in some songs. It just depends. Like, hyper-pop is kind of in there sometimes too, which is really cool. Yeah. We like everything.*
Alicia: How has your sound and songwriting evolved since you first started making music together?
Andrea: We're still very new, so it's been the same. Songwriting comes easy to us because we both feel the same things, or when we like the same rhyme schemes. I feel like we don't get too deep. We're like, ‘This is what we're feeling. This is what we're going to write about.’ But I think we've evolved in terms of like, we're not as sad as we were in the beginning of our music, our band. Right now we're more happy, but who knows what life will bring.
Julia: Things can change tomorrow. Things can change in an hour. Things can change in five minutes.
Andrea: That’s pretty much how it is; how we're growing as people is how our music evolves too. I think now we're happier, so our music is happier. And if we're sad again, our music will be sadder.
Alicia: Are there any specific artists, genres, or moments in music history that you feel have shaped your style over the years?
Julia: Definitely! Definitely The Marias have been having a really big influence for sure. I guess people compare us a lot to Clairo and I can see that in terms of Clairo, kind of being the pioneer of bedroom pop, and really paved the way for people like us making bedroom pop in our bedrooms.
Andrea: True
Julia: There's a lot of influences. Like, I would say we really admire Ariana [Grande] and how she arranges vocals, you know? I feel like we take a lot from that. Also, the pop girlies back in the day, like, we love Spice Girls. There’s so many different influences that we have in our music for sure. Those are just a few.
Alicia: Can you walk us through your creative process when writing and recording a song? Do you each bring something different to the table?
Andrea: I always say it starts with a feeling or it starts with a beat. It's one of those. We’ll find a beat or something, and then we'll play with it a little bit. We'll come up with different melodies and stuff. But usually it's a feeling. If we're feeling sad or happy or upset, then we're like, 'Ugh, let's just write a song about it.' Because of scheduling and time, we haven't been able to be together and make a song together from start to finish. It'll start with either one of us doing it, and then sending it to the other person, and then we record together. But that seems to be working.
Julia: It's still fun.
Andrea: I always like what she makes, and she always likes what I make. That's why I think we work well together, because even if there's parts that I'm like, 'Oh, I don't think I would have thought of that.’ I'm always like, 'Oh, I like that she thought of that.’ Because it’s like, ‘Oh I would have never thought of that. That wasn't the way I thought the song would go.’
Andrea: It’s usually like that. Or Julia, she knows how to make beats too. And her boyfriend helps us out a lot as well. So they'll collaborate together and come up with something and be like, ‘We made this. Andrea, listen to it.’ And I usually like it. I'm very easy to please. *laughs*
Alicia: How do you divide responsibilities when working on new music? Is it always a collaborative process or do you each take lead on certain tracks?
Andrea: Julia is more like, well, we write the same amount, but [she] does the mixing and mastering and all of that stuff. We record at Julia's house, because she knows all of that. So, usually once my part's recorded, it's like, 'Julia.'
Julia: She's like, 'I'm done.'
Andrea: Yeah, I say, like, 'That's it.' I did my part. Now it's Julia's turn. She has to mix and master it. But yeah. I think it's pretty even.
Julia: It is pretty even, yeah.
Andrea: Julia, she has more creative time to make songs.
Julia: Yeah. That’s the thing too with time and stuff like that. I'm kind of just working, but she's also in school and working. So I kind of have more time to sit down and write a song. Sometimes it feels like you write more than me because you'd be like, ‘Oh, I wrote this song today' or 'I wrote this song today.'
Andrea: I do a lot in my car. If she writes a chorus or a verse, she’ll send it to me, and I’ll play it over and over in my car. I’ll think of something and then I’ll voice memo it and send it to her. That’s a lot for an artist. Voice memo is our bestie because it helps so much.
Alicia: Are there any particular themes or emotions you tend to explore in your music?
Julia: I feel like we just talk a lot about our relationships because I feel like we love hard in certain ways.
Andrea: We love Mexicanly *laughs*
Julia: We just feel very deeply about a lot of things, and it leads us to wanting to write. It makes it easy to write about.
Andrea: I think we were talking about this in the car because we were like, ‘Oh we do really only write about love and stuff because it's so easy to do it.’ But we've tried to write songs about a lot of things, and it's just, like, us, body insecurity, being a woman, stuff like that.
Julia: It's hard to not sound cheesy.
Andrea: We always sound so cheesy. I look in the mirror, and I'm so sad, and we're like, ‘Ugh, no.’ It just doesn't sound as good as, like, being heartbroken, you know?
Julia: Not saying that it will never happen. Like, we won't ever write songs about that lately. It’s just kind of harder to.
Alicia: Looking back, what have been some of the most rewarding moments of your journey as a duo?
Julia: Yeah. Playing shows has been really cool, knowing that people will drive longer than an hour to come see us.
Andrea: Literally! We did a show in our hometown and people from the IE came on a school night, and we were so surprised!
Julia: There are people from San Diego that came!
Andrea: Yeah. That was crazy.
Andrea: We've grown a lot of our audience from TikTok, so they're kind of been the people on the internet who comment. They don't seem real to us, and then we met them in person. We're like, ‘Oh my gosh! You paid, and you drove, and you're supporting us online and in person.’ It's so cool!
Julia: Also, we just put out our single, 'Still Love You', and that is probably the biggest single rollout turnout we've had.
Andrea: Also, I think we've learned a lot from past single rollouts. That we knew what to do this time.
Julia: It's only been two weeks, and we hit 100,000 streams!!!
Alicia: Yes I saw that!! Congrats!!
Andrea: Thank you!
Andrea: TikTok, honestly, is really cool. That's why we're scared it's going to get banned because that's where a lot of our audience comes from and our streams. We found so much music through TikTok too. It's, like, such a hub for independent artists too.
Alicia: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received as independent artists in the music industry?
Julia: I guess, like, what, like, lately, what we've been really, like, figuring out is, like, wanting to stay independent or, like, you know, signing to, like, a big label, but I feel like the best, what people, some people have told us is to just, like, stay independent, grow your audience, like, try to own everything yourself for as long as you can before giving it all the way to a label, you know? So, I feel like that's the best piece of advice we've gotten so far. *
Andrea: We're trying to still grow our audience.
Julia: It’s only been a year. We still have so much that we want to do. So much we're still figuring out, and it'd be nice to be able to fully have control over everything for as long as we can.
Andrea: Yeah, I was saying, when we were prepping our questions, our answers in the car, and I was like, ‘This is literally our baby.’ Like, The Tulips, we've grown it from, like a little newborn baby and we don't want to just give it away or give it to someone else. We don’t want to give up everything that we've done together. I feel like a label would just hinder us a lot, and we're busy too.
Julia: Signing is a full-time commitment, and unfortunately, right now, we just can't do that. But that's okay.
Andrea: I want us to at least have a million streams on a song, or have over 100,000 monthly listeners before we do anything crazy.
Alicia: Your new single “Still Love You (Todavía)” feels really heartfelt. What inspired the song?
Julia: So I started this song right after I went to The Maria's concert, because I was very inspired. That show changed my life.
Andrea: It was so good! It was at the Hollywood Cemetery too.
Julia: It was just such a cute vibe. Like it was really fun. Maria literally walked right in front of us
Andrea: She knows us too! That's prima right there!
Julia: Hi Maria!
Andrea: She just reposted her TikTok. She's reposted our TikTok. We're waiting for the DM.
Julia: We're like, ‘Hit us up!’ *laughs* No, but after that, I was very inspired, and I started looking for music on YouTube. I found this beat that was really cute. I started writing on it and at the time, I was reflecting on my past relationships, and you know, it's just very relatable. Like you know everyone's gone through a toxic relationship or a past bad friendship. It could be about any bad relationship but still having love for that person at the end of the day after everything you guys have gone through. Mm-hmm. It's okay. Yeah. I'm here. I understand.
The Tulips: We understand *laughs*
Andrea: The Spanish part, I think it was because it was after The Maria's concert. We’ve been advertising ourselves as Latina Filipina. Like, I thought maybe we can do Spanish. People were, like, ‘No. No, because it sounds too Maria's-y.’ But even so, I've always wanted to do a song in Spanish.
Julia: We have been talking about wanting to do Spanish songs.
Andrea: With my friend Google Translate, and what I know, we came up with the verse and people loved that. They were like, “Oh wow!”
Alicia: Yes! It sounded so good!
Andrea: Thank you!
Julia: We did our big one *laughs*
Alicia: How did you approach the production to capture that feeling?
Andrea: You see, girl, we use YouTube.com to find the beat *laughs*
Julia: Quite literally look up indie pop type beats or alternative beats.
Andrea: We don't have the resources yet to work with a band or do stuff. And also, we were not expecting to put this out like this way.
Julia: Yeah. It was kind of a writing exercise type of thing. We were working; we've been working on this EP for a while, pretty much all year. And I made this song. I thought maybe it can go on our EP. We didn't really want to put it out as a single, but then we kind of started teasing it on TikTok, and it did very well. So we decided why not just put a song out before the end of the year?
Andrea: Also, we're still so small. I feel like if we come out with a big body of work, we would be waiting too long. I think singles have been helping us a lot, but after this one, I think we have enough listeners where they want more music from us. We’re just kind of waiting.
Alicia: How does “Still Love You (Todavía)” compare to previous songs you’ve released? Is this a step in a new direction for your sound?
Julia: I feel like it definitely made us see that this is something that actually works, you know? But I feel like it's also similar to “Favorite Apple.” It’s very much like that indie pop genre with a very chill vibe. But like what we said earlier, we like everything. Our next EP every song is kind of different but similar, very us. It's like our first real introduction to the world, you know. Our first project. You get to hear a little bit of everything and all the things we like, so.
Alicia: Is there a specific message or emotion you hope listeners will take away from this song?
Andrea: Yeah, I think I really like songs that are relatable. I feel like if I'm sad, all I want to listen to are sad songs. If I'm happy, all I want to listen to are happy songs. I think we just want them to go with how we're feeling. And you know, everyone's either always sad or happy, so we want to have music that they can listen to at every stage of their life depending on what they feel.
Andrea: I just want to seem relatable but do it in the sound that we like as well. I'm hoping that from what they take away is that they understand that we’re also people too. That’s why I think there's a problem with our society in terms of musicians or celebs. Not that we're celebrities, but celebrities, you forget that they're also people, and they're in relationships and that they have these feelings. I just want them to understand that we're just like them. We just happen to make music and put it out.
Julia: At the end of the day, we're just girls. She's a teacher. I work at a restaurant. We're just regular people.
Andrea: I think we're trying to be more personal. Like please listen to our music because we want to get out of this, you know, stuff like that.
Alicia: With “Still Love You (Todavía)” out now, what’s next for The Tulips?
Andrea: Our EP. That's our next goal. We were talking about wanting to make more merch stuff and how we're going to have more photoshoots. She was talking about wanting to make photo cards.
Alicia: I definitely think you guys should!!
Julia: See! I'm telling you, they would be so cute. They'd be so cute. We want to do that. More merch stuff and playing more shows. Yeah so you guys should all email your colleges so they can put us on a college tour.
Andrea: We were thinking of how we can show up to a venue and be like, ‘Hey! We’re The Tulips! We have this many monthly listeners. Have us play.’ They’re going to be like, ‘Money. Where's the money? Where's your management? Where's your tour bus? Where's your equipment?’ We don't have any of that. That's hard. It's very indie. It’s just us plus her mom who helps us out too.
Julia: Yeah. Our next show literally might be at a restaurant again. So yeah. It's very local.
Andrea: That's why we tell everyone who joins our lives or when we're talking to them. We're like, ‘Tell your colleges to have us there because we'll get people to come.’ And also, a lot of our audience are younger. So 21 and 21+ shows are hard to do because we want people to come and people who like us.
Julia: Yeah all ages!!!
Alicia: How do you see the future of The Tulips evolving? Are there any new sounds or directions you’re excited to explore in your upcoming music?
Andrea: Yeah. Like she said, we have, like, dance music, really pop-y music, sad music, R&B music.
Julia: Kind of, like, retro inspired, too. Which is cool.
Andrea: I think we're still figuring it out. That's our main thing. Luckily, we have people who want to listen to us figuring it out. And hopefully, they like it as we evolve and stuff. But I think the sound that we've been putting out is essentially the root of all of our music. So hopefully, they like it. But also, at the end of the day, we like everything that we make. And sometimes people will tell us, “You should change this. You should change that.’ And we'll look at each other and we'll be like, 'No.' Don't try. Don't tell us what to do.
Julia: Yeah don’t try it.
Andrea: We’re also really bad with constructive criticism because we think everything we make is amazing and beautiful. When people tell us ‘No,’ we're like, ‘Clearly, they're deaf.’ Like, something's clearly wrong with them *laughs*
Alicia: What’s one thing you’re looking forward to the most in the coming year, both personally and musically?
Julia: Personally, my New Year's resolution is to be healthier and take better care of my body. For Tulips, I really want to play more shows and put out more music. Be able to do a mini tour if we could, like in the summer. That would be so fun. And I mean, kind of just growing our music, growing our sound, our style, our audience. I feel like this year, we did a lot, surprisingly. And it all did, surprisingly, very well. So, hopefully, this next year will be even better.
Andrea: For me, I want to get a car because I don't have my own car. I'm trying to save money with that. Hoping that the EP will be fun. We want to do a show with the EP. So, we're trying to figure that out too. But also, I think just growing our audience, growing ourselves. I kind of want to collaborate with another singer. That'd be cool if we did that together. But I think just continuing what we're doing and seeing what happens. I'm just hoping that this next year is better than last year because people are always, like, 'Wow, you guys just started and you already have, like, shows and you're already doing this, blah, blah, blah.' I don't want to lose the momentum that we have going. I want it to just get better
Alicia: If you could collaborate with any artist or band, living or dead, who would it be and why?
Andrea: Well, you see, once you say 'dead', that opens up a whole new realm for us. And I told Julia because I always say I love Michael Jackson. I just don't know how Tulips and him would collab, like, how the sound would be. But also, Amy Winehouse, we love, too.
Julia: Like, alive, I would say definitely The Marias. Like, come on. It’s obvious, like we love them. Who else is another good one? I could see us collabing with, like…
Andrea: We just like everybody, honestly. It'd be cool.
Julia: Well, there's so many. It's hard to choose someone because there's so many
Andrea: Oh! We said Spice Girls in the car!
Julia: Oh, yeah, that would be crazy. We get them back together and we collab.
Andrea: There's a lot. There's a lot. We would love to collab with.
Julia: I love Madison Beer. I feel like that would be cute. Yeah, she's cute. Sabrina Carpenter. Yeah. Just the pop girls, honestly. Anyone. Oh Troye Sivan!!
Andrea: We love Troye Sivan! Oh, a collab with Troye Sivan. Omar Apollo too. I love him. I just want to collab but just hang out with Omar Apollo. And be friends. And maybe he'll fall in love with me even though he doesn't like girls
Julia: Ooh, Raven.
Andrea: That would be really cute. Oh yeah, she’s been popping off recently too.
Julia: There are so many!
Alicia: If you could describe your music in three words, what would they be?
The Tulips: Dreamy, Spontaneous, and Bubbly
Julia: Just cutesy
Andrea: Yep, I love it. We just love cute music, and I think we're cute and our songs emulate that.
Alicia: Ending the interview off would you like to say anything to the people who listen to your music?
Andrea: Thanks for everything! Thank you! Without you guys listening to us, it would be hard to keep going. So it's really cool, and yeah, thank you!
Julia: Thank you! I feel like you guys are the reason why you're giving us a lot of motivation and confidence too.
Andrea: It's nice to be validated that what we're putting a lot of time and effort into is being perceived well by other people, and that they're liking it. So, it's really cool! And also, just the fact that people take time out of their day to listen to us or even go on our lives or watch our lives.
Julia & Andrea: Yeah so thank you guys!
