Q&A: Exploring Vulnerability and Lyricism with juhwad in “text me whenever” and Debut EP ‘Savior’
WRITTEN BY GINGER
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Palestinian-American indie pop singer-songwriter and producer juhwad found his initial calling to music through The Vamps. While initially using songwriting in therapy as an expressive outlet, he found that passion that turned into more.
“What if I could be someone else’s Vamps?” juhwad questions.
His full circle moment came in 2023 when he got to play guitar on stage with The Vamps. He calls it his “fixed point” in his life. Music stuck to him more after that, with the motivation of wanting to be the artist that people can turn to in moments of vulnerability. juhwad’s lyricism speaks to all the complexities in life and a personable touch that allows listeners to feel like he is speaking directly to them.
Life on Jupiter had the pleasure to chat with him about his single “text me whenever” off his debut EP Savior, which is out everywhere now. Read our full conversation below.
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LIFE ON JUPITER: How did “text me whenever” come to be?
JUHWAD: It first started as an apology song I wrote to my best friend three years ago. I was constantly projecting on her and pushing her away. After we had a fight, I wrote my heart out for six hours straight until I had the bulk of this song. Afterwards, I showed it to another friend of mine (shoutout Julian) who told me it deserved to be longer, so that’s exactly what I did. I wrote a lovely solo on my guitar which, to this day, is one of my favorites I’ve ever written.
The voicemail in the beginning of the song and right before the chorus is such a unique touch; what was the motivation behind this added touch?
JUHWAD: I get into these really crazy flow states when I’m producing, so when I hear something in my head, I’m able to just turn it into sound right in front of me. I knew I wanted something a little more grounding within the song so I decided to take a horribly depressing voice message rant and space it out. It worked out great.
The original lyrics end with me singing ‘I’ll be better, text me whenever,’ but I chose not to sing it and let it hang in the original. I wanted that to be implied in some way, so by placing the voice message getting cut off at the start of the song and including the full version at the end of the extended version, that was pretty neat.
I noticed the ocean waves in the song as well as that being featured predominantly in your Instagram as well. Do you find yourself drawn to the ocean, and what emotions does it stir inside of you?
JUHWAD: I love the ocean and have always lived on the seaside, whether in California or Palestine, so I’ve always been connected to it. I started layering ocean waves with track five of the EP, and I ended up placing it around the whole project. “text me whenever” just has a really great spot to put it in as the refrain of the pre-chorus came in.
Congratulations on the recent EP as well! What were your biggest takeaways from the whole experience of making it?
JUHWAD: My biggest takeaway from Savior is that there is always going to be a learning curve when you’re doing something new. You can’t avoid it. This EP helped me learn a lot as an artist and as a producer because I saw the whole thing through from start to finish. I couldn’t have asked for a better debut.
What is coming up next for you?
JUHWAD: I have so much to show and too much excitement to go with it. I wanna see a new side of the world, and everything is already in the works for the next few projects, so you’ll just have to follow along!
What was the last text you received and sent?
JUHWAD: The last person I texted was one of my best friends, Chiara, about how excited I was for this interview! And the last person I got a text from was another best friend, Daniel, who worked so much behind-the-scenes work for Savior.