Julia Michaels' debut album, Not In Chronological Order, finally arrives today, nearly four years after her debut single, "Issues." She says two things led to its creation: Her relationship with her boyfriend JP Saxe...and the pandemic.
"Unfortunately, 2020 definitely impacted a lot of people negatively, but the silver lining for me was if 2020 looked differently, I would have been on tour the whole time," Julia explains to ABC Audio. "I wouldn't have been able to take a second and self-reflect, and spend every moment with this new person, getting to know them and falling in love with them."
"I think that really was the starting point for this whole album, was just I was in a very new healthy love, a very communicative, easy love," she adds. "And I think I just wanted to talk about it."
But while there are happy love songs on the album, there are others where Julia sings about being sad or angry about past breakups. And since the songs aren't presented in the order in which they happened, Julia chose the album's title so fans wouldn't be confused.
"My fans have always known me as someone that does something like top-to-bottom story, story, story," she explains. "And I didn't want them to listen down [the track list] and be like, "Ohh, she's in love, she's in love! Wait, she's heartbroken. What's happened? Is she O.K.?' I just wanted to make it very clear that it wasn't in chronological order."
Julia praises her fans for being "so patient" and "so supportive" while waiting for the album. She gushes, "I'm just glad I get to do what I love and have people all over the world feel close enough to me and my music to wanna listen to it and resonate with it."
(Video contains uncensored profanity.)