In an exclusive interview with Modaculture, 33-year-old Nigerian-American singer-songwriter Juliet “Juliera” Simon Opeyemi converses with Gertrude Oby about her journey as an indie artiste, from her early start in songwriting at age 16 to the personal experiences that inspire her songs and finally receiving validation for her music career.
Juliera is a polyglot who originally hails from Ibadan, Nigeria, and had a rich early childhood. She picked up rich cultural influences from her Nigerian parents—her father from Oyo state and her mother from Edo state—and was further shaped by her lived experiences in Anambra, Makurdi, Kogi, and Lagos. To some, she is an entrepreneur known for her creative hair styling business; to others, she’s famed for her talent as a singer-songwriter with a solid community of fans constantly yearning for release dates of her songs.
Her musical influences are quite an eclectic mix of songs by timeless singers like Rihanna, Sia, Tiwa Savage, and new school alte artistes like Vict0ny, with a particular obsession with “Soweto,” much like this writer. She wants her listeners to relate to her songs on a personal level, draw hope, and feel empowered after each listen. Her biggest dream is to surprise herself with her song’s reach and impact.
Juliera has evolved from having to work up the nerve to fulfill her first songwriting request on Fiverr to becoming a pro songwriter and singer. The artiste’s latest single, “Lonely Without You,” released on Friday, draws on a personal experience from two years ago, although it first started as a freestyle in 2016.
Read the interview below.
Gertrude Oby: How old are you, and how long have you been making music?
Juliera: Right now, I’m 33. I used to write songs when I was 16, but I just used to write and hide it away. I never let anybody actually listen to it because I just used to do it for the fun of it, not because I thought I was good at it. And then, maybe way before 16, but what I can remember, at least when I wrote my full, complete song, was when I was 16. Then my aunt, my mom’s youngest sister, one time she was cleaning my room, she saw something that I had written down on paper. She was like, ‘Did you write this?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ She was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is amazing!’ And, of course, she’s my aunt. I didn’t believe her, and I just thought, okay, well, thank you. You know, she’s not gonna crush my ego. You know how aunties are, especially when they are your favourites. And then when I got into college, I was looking to see what I could do on the side to make extra money, and I went online. I saw people posting different services on Fiverr. So I was like, let me just put up a service. Let me put up something about songwriting because I always used to do it, and my aunt said I could do it. So let me see if someone is gonna pay for it. And then someone ordered.
I was so nervous, but at the same time, I was like, you know what? What’s the worst that’ll happen? I’m about to find out if I really can do this or not. And then the guy sent me a beat. He was like, ‘Can you do a song to this?’ So I wrote down the lyrics, and of course, I had no tools or anything to do like a professional recording; it was my first attempt. I played the beats on a speaker in the background and used my phone to record myself singing the lyrics to the beats. And then I sent it to him, and when I delivered it, he just approved the first delivery and left me a five-star review and a tip. I was like, oh, wow! Okay!
I guess this is somebody actually paying for it. So I guess my aunt was not lying. So then, more people started ordering my services, and people did the same thing: five-star reviews, tips, etc. I was like, oh, wait, I really can do this. And they used to always comment about my singing too, but I was like, well, at least now I have my confirmation that I am a good songwriter. Because now, it got to a point where I became higher [ranked]. Do you know how they have ranks? I was pretty much up there in the ranks for the songwriting services on Fiverr. Then I joined Upwork, and I joined all these other websites too.
I knew that someday I was going to do it full time. But I just wasn’t sure when, because I used to be so nervous. I used to be nervous like I had stage frights and all that stuff. And with me, when it comes to songwriting, it’s not something that I actually ever learned anything around music. Sometimes, when people reach out to me and tell me to write a song for them, they use some keywords and I’m like, oh, this person, they want me to write a song for them but they obviously know more about music than me; because this word right here, I don’t know what it means, so then, I go on Google. And then, I went on Google and typed in and was like, oh, this is what it means? I do it all the time. I didn’t know that was what I was doing. You know what I mean? So over time, my writing for other people made me start understanding other things, too. A lot of the things that I’ve naturally been doing, I started knowing what they’re called. And even till today, there’s still a lot of things that I don’t know like when I go to the studio and I go to record, they say something and expect me to know what it means because they’d be like, you’ve been doing music for so long, just because of the way I sing and my songwriting. I’m like, well, I don’t want you thinking. I need you to think about me and think about a beginner. Don’t look at me and think, oh, she has so many years of experience because my experience, the way I have it, is different from what most people’s experiences are. You know, people who do music, who actually do it and have studied it, they know some technical terms.
For me, sometimes you have to describe it. You know, when you’re like, oh, can you do this? I’m like, can you describe it? What does it mean? Or like, show me. I’m like, oh, okay, I see. I know what it means. I just didn’t know what it’s called. So I like to let them know ahead of time. Don’t think of me as a professional at this. You need to talk to me like someone who’s a beginner. Even though I have a lot of experience doing it, sometimes I still need someone to explain it to me in layman’s terms.
So, are you signed onto any record label, or would you call yourself an indie artiste?
Right now, I’m an independent artiste.
Juliera’s Musical Influences
What are your current favourite songs to listen to?
So, over time, it changes. I’ve always listened to a lot of Rihanna. I think that her songs that I like the most are “Love on the Brain” and “We Found Love.” Yeah. I also listen to a lot of Sia. I used to listen to a lot of Tiwa Savage. When her song “Love Me, Love Me, Love Me” came out, I was obsessed. I was like, whoa, what is this? And “Toh Bad” by Niyola. Sometimes now, I just put it on [and] I’m just like, oh, my God. It gives me the feeling of the first day I heard it. I still feel like I just heard the song for the first time.
Yeahhh
And I do really like the song “Soweto.” You know Soweto?
By who? Vict0ny?
I don’t know his name. Let me look it up. What’s his name? Yes. Yes, he is good.
He’s good. I love him.
Every time I listen to the song, I’m like, why is it done already? Like, it’s so short. And so he makes me loop because it’s so short, I didn’t get enough of it, and the song is done. Now I’m gonna replay it.
I guess that’s the point: for you to replay the song.
Yeah. I love that song so much. I think one of the recent songs I play a lot is “Mona Lisa” by Lojay. I always play it. I mean, not all day long, but there’s not one day that it doesn’t play at my salon. There’s some gospel music that I like. There’s this one song, right? It’s actually like a Christmas song, but I love it so much. I play it all season. It’s “Here With Us” by Joy Williams. But I play it in my room, you know, because it’s weird playing a Christmas song during the summer, but I play in my room, and sometimes, I play it to go to bed.
I just love the song so much, and I know it’s not the season for it, but I want to hear it every time.
That’s so lovely.
Thank you.
Out of all these songs you’ve just shared, do you have one that tops the list for you?
Maybe Soweto.
Okay?
Just that, the number of times I replay it is, kind of, unbelievable. Because, I’m like, I can’t believe it’s done already, so let’s put it back! Yeah, maybe that one.
The Music Journey
Let’s jump into your music journey. I would like for you to tell me when you started doing music professionally and how the journey has been so far for you as an artiste.
Professionally, I started doing it two years ago, in 2023. When I started, I already had a lot of songs that I had written. Like, I have a lot of songs. Sometimes, I’m just like, let me see what song I’m feeling today, like the songs that I’ve written so many years ago, and I just can’t forget the words. I can’t forget the melody. I can’t ever forget them. To me, that’s a song like, this is it. If this song, if I don’t have it written down anywhere, or at least I don’t have it written down on a computer that I have access to, and I can’t forget the words, I can’t forget the melody, then to me it’s like, okay, this song, I have to do it.
I started going over some of those songs that’s still registered fresh in my head from so many years ago. And I was like, okay, now I need to find the beat for it. So I was like, let me go and find somebody on Fiverr that can do me a beat. And most times, I find that it’s easy to just find something similar and be like, okay, can you do something similar to this one? And then sometimes, when they send it to me, I restructure the song to fit the beat. So that’s what I’ve been doing lately.
I would like to get to a point where I have someone that we’re working with directly, where I don’t have to be changing my songs all the time to match the new beat. But for now, at least that’s working for me.
For this new song that I have, this was a song that I wrote probably in 2016. I started it but didn’t finish it. There was this song by Christina Perri called “Human.” So, that song, one time I downloaded the beats, just instruments. And then I was like, okay, let me forget about every other song. Let me try and freestyle to this and see what comes out of it.
And, of course, I had a particular storyline in mind, but I wanted to see how the delivery came out. So, I started recording on my phone. I played the beats again in the background and I was singing to it, just freestyling. And then when I played it back, it stuck out to me. It is the pre-chorus right now of the song that’s out. I was like, whoa, this sounds amazing. And then, I would replay it and sometimes I would just take my phone just to hear it again. I sent it to somebody who was like, oh my God, this is amazing. And this is just like a freestyle that I recorded over the phone, nothing professional. And even the words were just all over the place. It wasn’t composed or anything.
So then, two years ago, I was like, you know what? It’s time to record this. Something else happened that triggered me to want to write it. So I was like, let me complete that song that I started. I went to the studio, I recorded it. And when I was in the studio, the guy in the studio loved the song. And then, I told him that I have two choruses that I have written for the song, but I don’t know which one I want to do. So he was like, okay, do the first one. So, I went in there and recorded the first chorus. He was like, you know what, I don’t need to hear the second one. I was like, really? Don’t you want to know if that one is better? He was like, no, I don’t think anything can top this one. I don’t want to hear it. So I was like, okay, then no problem! So we just worked on the finishing, what I went there to do, and that was it.
Pretty interesting. Where do you draw inspiration for your music?
Most times, it’s from real life experiences. When inspiration, for me, is based on real life, it’s fast; I write about it quickly. It’s easy because it’s happened, you know. If it’s something that didn’t really happen, then I’m just trying to just write a song for the sake of writing a song. It takes longer, but if something just happened and I’m still feeling it in the moment and I write a song about it, it would take me like 30 minutes to an hour, and I’m done. So, this one definitely didn’t take me too long. Even though I had started it a long time ago and stopped, it didn’t take long to finish. Yeah, but most times, I would say that my inspiration comes from real-life experiences.
How would you describe your relationship with music?
You know how sometimes there are certain things that you try to do in life, and it’s just some things feel natural, like a calling, and some of the things feel like, it’s like I’m forcing this thing. Like, you go to school, you do a bunch of other things, and sometimes you’re like, oh, this thing is calling my name like every time that I sing or something. Sometimes, people who don’t even like me like my songs. When I used to do hair—I have a beauty salon—I had some clients who’ve been coming to me, they never tipped; the moment I played them my song, they tipped me for the first time. So I was like, whoa, okay. Growing up, my mom wasn’t really the kind of person who used to give me a lot of compliments about things like, you know, Nigerian moms typically.
But I remember one day when I was in church, there was this girl in the choir that was singing. I was like, oh, my God! I was sitting right next to my mom, and I told my mom, ‘Oh, my God, this girl’s voice is so beautiful. I have chills.’ And my mom was like, ‘Oh, really? You sound just like her.’ I think that was the first compliment that I remember my mom ever giving me.
I was like, whoa, did she just say that? Like, I’m out here, I’m sitting here, I’m having chills, listening to somebody singing. And my mom, who doesn’t compliment me on anything, says, ‘You sound just like her.’ So, there are some things I just feel like: it’s calling my name. And when I go to karaoke here and get on stage, oh, my God, the reaction from the crowd? It makes me feel like I need to do it.
Sometimes people walk up to me, like, what are you doing here? You don’t belong on the stage. You belong on a bigger stage.
When I go to the same karaoke, people who’ve known me before, like when I’d go with my friends and they call Juliera and it’s time for me to go on stage, I start hearing them scream already in the crowd. People who had seen me there. And then, in some of the recordings that my friends did in the background, there were some people saying, ‘Oh, my God, that’s the girl. That’s the girl I was telling you about.’ So it’s like, I came back. They were like, oh, my God, you have a lot of fans here.
And I think karaoke is also one of the things that made me start getting out there. Because I used to have a lot of stage fright, and even when I first started going to karaoke, I had stage fright. But then, I kind of found a way to karaoke. It helped me get out of that. I’m not 100% there yet, but I’m way better now when it comes to the stage, singing in front of people and stuff like that.
Beautiful. So, I like how you mentioned the feedback: ‘What are you doing here?’ Now, the question is, you have this other creative side, hairstyling; what is your plan regarding that? Do you intend to balance that with music, or do you intend to focus on music now?
Oh, I want to have that going on regardless because that is also something that called my name. It was something that I never thought I would ever do, but it was something that just created a breakthrough for me in life in ways that I didn’t expect. You know, I went to school and did different things. I studied software engineering. I went to business school. I did a lot of things academically that I would think that that’s where everyone gets to, that point where you’re done with schooling, and ask, so what’s the next step? What’s the next thing to do? And then, I also do real estate. I have a real estate license here, and then I started doing hair on the side.
And, the way the business just boomed because I’m a naturally creative person, when I do something that I like doing, I do it very well. So when I do hair for people, they tell their friends, family, and everybody starts coming. It used to be a side job. And then it got to a point now, I’m having so many customers every day, and people are like, even if my price is more expensive than somebody else’s, they want me to do their hair. A lot of people come to me from different states. I have people who drive three and a half hours to come and get their hair braided. You know what I mean? So I might not necessarily be the one braiding people’s hair now, but I have a lot of braiders that I’ve trained, and they now know how to kind of match what I do. You know, there are different styles that I came up with, so they know how to do things the way I do it now. And my old clients, a lot of them are comfortable when I say, okay, work with this person; they’re comfortable doing that. So I think I wanted to find a way to get to that point so that I’m not chasing music and also spending hours and hours of my day braiding hair.
And I think I’m at that point now….I don’t see myself closing the salon or anything like that anytime soon. I felt like that was something that called my name and, for whatever reason, created a lot of opportunities for me, and I don’t want to close it. You know what I mean? I feel kind of attached to it. I would not close it. If I ever do not do it again, it would be maybe I gave it to one of the people who works at the salon to own it. You know what I mean? To run it. It wouldn’t be something that is completely shut down.
New Single, ‘Lonely Without You’
Yeah. So, back to the music side. Tell me about this new single and what the process was.
So, like I was saying, I started freestyling to a song. That was in 2016. So the part that I actually used for the pre-chorus was just a repetition of “why.” And because I was freestyling at the time, I was trying to figure out what I would say next. So I kept repeating “why” because I’m freestyling, right? So, I’m trying to think about what should come next. And then by the time I ended the recording, I played it over again, oh, my God, that part of the song, the “why” part of the song? I was like, no, this is amazing. I can’t change it. It doesn’t sound like someone trying to figure out what to say, but it also sounded so different. It didn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before. I don’t know. There was just something about it that when I decided later on that, okay, it’s time to complete the song, I realised that this part of the song, I can’t change it. Nothing else sounded the way that word “why” [did.] And it’s so funny that I didn’t even intend to. It was just something that just came out of me trying to figure out what was next. I wrote a new part to the song and joined them together.
I got to the studio. The guy that was my recording engineer, you know when someone that’s recording your song loves the song and is feeling like exploring different things like, oh, let’s try this, okay what about this? And then let’s try this. And then, I was gonna make the chorus into three parts. See, I don’t know the word for it because, again, like I said, I don’t know too much about the technical terms.
Yeah, you did.
Yeah, I was gonna do a “three-part something.” And then he was like, I don’t know, let’s make it four. So it was like, okay, repeat this again here, but just add something to make it different. And then I was like, okay, let’s try that. And I did it. And I was like, oh, yeah, that’s perfect. He was so into the song because he loved the song as much as I loved it. He saw it the moment we started recording it. He saw the vision of the song, so he got so into it. The first time I went to his studio to record, there was a different song of mine that’s not out yet; it’s called “Fairy Tale,” and he loved the song. He was like, wow—because he’s been doing this, he went to the Berklee College of Music and he’s been recording artistes for so many years—this is the first song that anyone has recorded that he was a part of that he’s actually proud to show his presence and show everyone, like, look at something I’m working on. And so, he believes in me as an artiste. He loves my music, so he decided to put in that much. You know, when you’re working with somebody and they’re putting in as much into the work as you are.
What was his name? Your producer.
So, the person who produced the beat is actually different from the person who recorded it. The person who produced the beat was on Fiverr—Hansen Karta. Then, the recording engineer was Austin Leshock.
Okay, so who’s the muse for this song?
I wouldn’t say a particular person because it started off a long time ago with a whole different experience. And then it ended off with a whole different experience. So I can’t really say it’s one person because it’s not. And then I decided that, you know what? When situations happen and it has to do with friends and your friends become [a certain way], it’s always going to be the same story. So that’s kind of like, I’m just going to write it. I’m just gonna ultimately complete it with that kind of [direction] because it’s not one person.
I think it still has a singular theme. Would I call it a loss? Or maybe a bit of heartbreak? You know, something along those lines.
Yeah.
Which one is it?
I mean, I don’t know because I can’t really say loss, too. So at first, the person—the reason I completed it—it was like we became friends, and then I saw him start dating somebody. I didn’t really trust him when he was with me because I’ve had some experiences that should make me not trust people easily anymore; I used to trust a lot, and I stopped. I didn’t really trust some things that I was seeing and he was talking about, and I was like, yeah, I don’t know if I trust you. And then, when we ended it and I’m seeing him as a friend now, you know when you’re seeing somebody as a friend? It’s just now I’m actually seeing and believing the things that I didn’t believe that he was telling me. And I see him dating somebody and being exactly who he actually was. You know what I mean? So I was like, Huh, I was wrong. But at the same time, there were certain things that also made me feel like, well, it’s not really a loss for me. He was a great and perfect guy, but for somebody else, not for me. So that’s how I can see it, because you know somebody can be great, but they’re just not for you. So it’s more like, I don’t know, I guess, sitting down and accepting.
Sometimes, you just accept…I don’t know.
This is a hard one.
It’s a hard one. Sorry.
It’s okay. You made a good attempt at sharing. That’s good.
Thank you.
You know, I’m gonna ask you something slightly off on a tangent, but just related to what you just shared. Do you believe in reconnections with people, or do you think that once that door is closed, it is closed forever?
For me, I believe when the door is closed, it’s closed. I don’t know because for me, I feel like I take my time, not too much time, but I take my time to see certain things. And once I see that reason that makes me walk away, if we go back and if they open up the door again, the reason is still gonna come back up. It’s still gonna be the same thing. So once the door is closed, it’s just better to keep it closed.
It’s either I don’t close the door, and I’m watching like, okay, let me see what’s going on here. And I keep watching and observing, but if something happens and for that reason, I shut that door? I shut the door.
Okay. Interesting.
Why did you ask that question? Did something about me make you?
Yeah.
Okay.
It was related to what you shared. What is your star sign?
I’m a Libra. October 9
Did you write this song? And do you write all of your songs?
Yes, I did write the song. I write all my songs. You know, I used to get paid to write songs for people; to me, it doesn’t make sense to hire someone, too. Even if I try to hire someone to write a song for me, I don’t know, it’s just this: I can tell my story myself, so I’ll tell it.
Yeah. Yeah, I think that makes sense. You would want to convey your emotions better.
Yeah.
What are your hopes for this single? You know, following its release.
There are a lot of people who I want to relate to my songs. Like, there are a lot of people who have stories. You know, sometimes you might be going through something, and you’re trying to find a song, you’re trying to play a song, and it’s just like, that’s just not the song. That’s just not the story. It’s close enough, and it’s just not the story. There are a lot of people who, when they heard that song, were like, oh, wow, it related to them in a kind of way that they feel like no song has. There was this one girl at my salon; she’s my friend now, but I met her because we were doing hair together. She also loves music and sings and she has a similar story to mine. There was a time that she heard [my song], oh, my God, she started crying in front of me. I was doing her hair. She was crying. She had chills. I was like, oh, my God. She’s begging me every day, asking when the song is gonna come out. When is the song gonna be released? Of course I’m not saying I’m releasing songs so that people can cry, no, but in different ways, to relate to something. I feel like when I speak my story and somebody else can relate to it, that makes me feel good.
I was going to ask what feelings you want to evoke in your fans when they listen to this song. The specific emotions you are going for.
Yeah. I would like them to feel hopeful. My videographer once told me, ‘Oh, you do a lot of sad songs.’ I don’t.
I don’t intend to do a lot of sad songs. It’s just a time in my life when a lot of sad things happened, and that just so happened to be what I wrote about. But I do want to inspire a lot of hope. I do want to empower a lot of people. I do want to. I don’t want the song to just make people sad, and you’re just sad, and that’s it. You know what I mean? I don’t want that. Yeah. I think hope is the thing that I would like to inspire in people.
Right. Was there something else you wanted to add to that?
I have other songs that are gonna come out soon that inspire other emotions.
Okay, fair enough.
But for now, let’s just say hope.
Dreams and Goals
What’s your biggest dream as an artiste? What would the pinnacle of success as an artiste be for you?
I want to go out sometimes, and I’m on the street and hear my song playing.
If I go out, maybe to karaoke and I try to do a song—because you know when you go to karaoke, they only have certain songs in there—I want my song to get there. I want to be able to do my song at karaoke. Or, at least have other people do my song at karaoke. I want to see people go to auditions for Got Talent and musical auditions, and someone does my music. I want to see that.
You know, I want my song to surprise me.
You know how when you watch, what’s the song? “Someone You Loved”? I don’t remember the singer.
By Lewis Capaldi. That one?
Yes. Oh, my God, I love that song so much. There was something that I watched. I think I watched something where he was talking about when someone was singing his song and the way it made him feel. Just seeing that, I want to get that feeling. You know what I mean? I want someone to even shock me by doing my song better than me.
I want to see people love my song the way that I’ve had friends, close friends, and people around me that I’ve sent my songs to love it.
They did a cover for it and sent it to me. I was like, Oh wow, you love it so much that you did a cover for it. That’s what I want. I want to see something like that on a bigger scale.
Lovely. And you sound like you’re a big fan of karaoke.
I love karaoke. When something’s going wrong, that’s what I go to. When something’s going good, that’s what I go to. And I just want to feel happy. I just love singing. However, every time I go to karaoke, I always come back with maybe a cough or something. You know, because everybody’s singing on the same mic, right? You go there, somebody else is singing, and it’s so close to their face.
And so, a lot of times when I go to karaoke, I’m like, when I come back home, I know I’m gonna get a cold. I know I’m gonna get sore. So when I get back home, I put crystals in hot water and inhale the steam because I know something is coming. But I still do it anyway. I still do it because I love doing it.
You’ve had the experience so much, you prepare for it ahead of time.
Yeah.
Listen to Juliera’s “Lonely Without You” Here.
