Julep Maisey

Growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, Carly McKown was obsessed with the DIY, heart-on-your-sleeve attitude of the local bands found in hot and grimey Philly basements. She graduated from art school in the California Bay Area with a degree in painting but more informatively, a history of hosting female, queer and non-binary bands for a venue called The Sugar Bowl. While booking acts like Lisa Prank, Childbirth, Jay Som, Pumpkin and The Total Bettys, Carly was inspired to create music of her own and eventually move to New York in the fall of 2016. 

She began making music with minimal equipment and no formal musical training, encouraged by the fearlessness of the women she hosted at The Sugar Bowl shows. Inspired by the early Liz Phair tapes, Hole, PJ Harvey, the K-records mentality, and hometown musicians like Girlpool, Alex G, Radiator Hospital and Hop Along, Julep Maisey was created as a type of diary, a retelling of the things you keep close to your heart. These songs are the sounds of a tiny bedroom, drinking cheap wine in the cemetery down the street, and the bubble gum you chew as someone breaks your heart.