Pop Artist 'Julie Ragbeer' On Her Viral Album 'Perplex,' Mary Whiton Calkins And Her Upcoming EP 'New Beginnings'

Independent New Jersey pop artist Julie Ragbeer found herself skyrocketed into meme culture this past week after several pop music Twitter / X pages promoted her debut album Perplex.

The promotions quickly led to an influx of memes and discourse surrounding Ragbeer and her unique DIY music, with many praising her as the next pop icon, even if some of the sentiments are ironic. Behind all the memes, though, is a young woman who is in love with pop music and dedicated to her craft.

We recently connected with Ragbeer to discuss how she got started singing and recording music, how she feels about becoming a meme, her album Perplex and hit songs like "Mary Whiton Calkins" and where she finds her inspiration.

Q: It's great to talk to you, Julie. So when did you get into making music?

A: I feel I always was interested in creating music, but I've always been more of a lyric vocal type of person, so it was very difficult for me to do the production part. Thankfully, I found someone and we were able to make "Rejected" and it seems like a lot of people like it.

Q: What's the story behind "Rejected?"

A: "Rejected" is the first official song that I've released and it's just about this guy who was a neighbor and I really had a huge, massive crush on him. I put [the song] in his mail and then nothing happened. We would see each other in the hallway and he would just completely ignore me. That's why there's a lyric in "Rejected" that says, "he didn't say nothing 'cause I already knew it." I do feel over that situation. I feel I've grown from the things I did when I was 19.

Q: Who are your musical inspirations?

A: I would definitely say Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, and maybe like a dash of Avril Lavigne.

Q: What is your ultimate goal with your music? What do you hope to achieve through it?

A: I always wanted to be a mainstream star, so I'm hoping if I get the opportunity, I'd love to be signed to a label to help my music get even more recognition and actually have resources to go to a studio and use a high-quality mic and stuff like that, get mixers and engineers.

Q: So you recently went viral after some popular X accounts like ThePopTingz and PopCrave made posts about Perplex. Were those paid promotions?

A: Yes, they were paid. I'm not afraid to admit that. It's like, how are you supposed to get your work noticed if you don't promote it? Everyone has to promote something. Even the big stars today.

I feel like I'll really stand out with who I am. I have never seen someone that looks like me make it in the industry. I have never seen a Guyanese girl make it in mainstream music. So I feel like if I can do that, I feel like maybe I could help open doors a little bit.

Q: Perplex came out in 2023. What is that album about?

A: Perplex is about my experiences being a 19-year-old. My first EP is You Were Never Mine. [Perplex] is the continuation story. It's about dealing with mean people. It's about growing up and the struggles that come with it, especially at 19, 'cause 19 is a very confusing age. I believe Sabrina Carpenter said something along the lines of, "When you're 19, you're not really an adult, but you're not really a kid either." I really felt that.

Q: People really seem to love the song "Mary Whiton Calkins," about the philosopher of the same name. Why write a song about Calkins and what is it you appreciate so much about her?

A: When I was in community college I got this textbook and I was reading about her and she just seemed so amazing. Honestly, I kind of talk about her like she's still alive because I feel like she's made such a huge impact in my life. Thankfully, people are seeing that and recognizing her.

I think someone sent me a tweet saying something along the lines of, "Make another song about a famous Psychologist so I can pass my AP exam." I was just thinking to myself, "Oh my gosh, that's so funny." I did a paper about her as well.

She was an American psychologist. She was the first woman president for the American Psychological Association, but she was also the first woman president for the American Philosophy Association too, I believe. She made laboratories […] I think there's a change.org [petition] somewhere because she was supposed to get her Harvard degree and they didn't wanna give it to her. So Harvard, what are you doing?

Q: What about the song "Fight Against Your Fleshy Lusts?" What's the story behind that one?

A: Oh my gosh, when I was 19, I was so big on purity culture, struggling, 'cause in Christianity it's expected to wait for marriage and stuff like that. So that's basically what the song is about.

I'm definitely religious. I'm a Christian, but I'd like to show that not all Christians are evil or homophobic or transphobic and that there's actually some good ones out there that are open and accepting.

Q: Going off that, some of your listeners have been calling you an LGBTQ+ icon. What's your reaction to that?

A: That's very sweet. Honestly, if I can just help them in any way, I definitely will. They've done so much for me. I'm a big supporter of them, a huge ally, I just want to bring awareness and acceptance and maybe if someone sees that like, "Oh, this girl is a Christian and she's not homophobic or anything maybe not all Christians are bad." They might thing, "Oh, maybe this isn't really this evil thing my parents were teaching me about."

Q: Is religion something you want to keep focusing on primarily with your music?

A: I definitely wanna focus on religion. I also wanna critique society a bit because I feel like there are some norms that are being preached upon people or social constructs that are just not okay. I think it's about time for it to get exposed,

Q: Did you expect such a huge reaction to your music from that paid promo?

A: I did not. I think the last time I checked [the post], it had 8 million views, so that's mind-blowing. I can't believe it. I thought a lot of people would say "Who?" maybe some mean comments here and there, but I thought like, "Maybe I'll get a few listeners." I wasn't expecting much and then this happened and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, am I on my way to stardom?" [laughter]

Q: What were some of the earliest reactions to you and your music? Were they mostly positive or negative?

A: It was mainly people saying "Who?" or saying negative things. I can't recall. I think they were saying that I'm smelly or something, which is weird 'cause you have never been around me and I practice good hygiene, so I don't know what they're talking about.

Q: Has any of the negativity gotten to you? How are you dealing with it?

A: It did get to me at first and I showed it to my friends and they were like, "Just try to focus on the positive." I was like, "You know what? I've been kind of training for this." I've been around Stan Twitter always, I've always been reading pop culture news, so I know the terminologies they use, so I try not to take it to heart because it's just Stan culture.

Q: What kind of impact did the virality and memes have on your music?

A: I was checking my monthly listeners [on Spotify] before this, it was like 600 monthly listeners [before the virality] and now it's 21,000. Hopefully, it grows more, it'll be pretty dope if it does.

Q: What is it that you think people like about your music?

A: I feel like there's some uniqueness to it because, like you've mentioned, people haven't really heard about Mary Whiton Calkins, the fact that there's a song dedicated to her, I think it definitely made people wonder "Who was this?" The fact that my account was private at first definitely made people curious a bit.

I think and also maybe the religious elements. I know sometimes religion, when it comes to art, some people say it can be blasphemous, but I really don't think Perplex is that at all. I am a Christian and I do care what God thinks of me. So, I was just using it more as a metaphor. Like in terms of "how can somebody be so mean?" It's like, the devil's in their heart, 'cause we all know the devil's supposed to be like this mean evil person.

Q: Do your friends and family know about the virality and the memes? What do they think about it all?

A: I haven't told my family yet about what happened because I was like, "Oh my gosh, maybe it'll die down." But it looks like it's only rising, which is amazing to hear as an independent artist. I do plan on telling my mom eventually 'cause I think she knows I'm acting a little mysterious.

I think she knows something's going on, but I haven't told her. She's not really big on like […] celebrities and stuff like that. She's not really big on like being famous and stuff like that. People in my family, they're not really creative people. They're mostly nurses or teachers or, you know, or in the police. Every day hardworking jobs. The fact that I'm doing something creative is a bit, I guess, odd to my family because I have these dreams

Q: Do you have any favorite memes or posts you've seen about your music?

A: I've seen some TikToks. It looks like it went from Twitter to TikTok now. There was this tweet saying, "Julie Ragbeer is gonna outsell all your faves." That's very sweet that you're comparing me to the greats, but like, I know you're trolling so [laughter].

It just feels like a dream come true. I definitely wanna be a guest judge on Drag Race, maybe have "Mary Whiton Calkins" for the Lip Sync for Your Life. I mean, gotta manifest it, right?

Q: Who is an artist that you'd like to work with in the future?

A: My all-time dream collab would be Lana Del Rey, but I'd really love to work with Suzanna Son. She was on The Idol and her voice is very spiritual to me, so I would really love to work with her.

If I make it to that level, I would love to be an opening act for Taylor [Swift]. She is the reason why there are so many artists today, from Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Kelsea Ballerini, they all have one thing in common, that they're fans of Taylor and they got to meet her and stuff like that. I'm like thinking, am I next?

Q: So what's next for your music career? Any new projects coming down the line?

A: I do have some material that's going to be released soon. I'm thinking why not release it in March? It's an EP. It's about the life after Perplex. After Perplex, I went through a lot of dark things, I had a lot of darkness and depression and it's kind of about hitting rock bottom. It's about being in that pain and in that hurt for a while.

[The EP is called] New Beginnings. It's about new beginnings. It's like this darkness and just, you know, sometimes when you're at a high, as the saying goes, what goes up has to come down. That's basically what happened in my life.

Q: Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians trying to get their name out there?

A: I would say, I know the stans can be a lot sometimes, but they know a lot about the music industry. They know good music and it's okay if your music isn't there yet. I literally just record vocals in my room and I got someone to produce it and mix it. It isn't perfect at all, but you know what, it was what I was able to do. Sometimes you can't have fancy cameras or mics, but you know what, you use what you have until you can get to that level where you can invest more in your art.

Just use what you have and do some promo. Some people were saying, "She should have, instead of investing in promo, worked on the music." But if I'm just doing the music alone and there's no promotion, how am I going to get out there? When I recorded "Rejected" I had a $30 microphone. It's okay if you're using something that's under a hundred dollars, sometimes you have to do things that fit your budget, especially if you're independent and you don't have a manager or anything like that.

Q: Is there any message you'd like to send to your fans?

A: Thank you for your support and for making me into a meme. I find it all very, very funny and endearing and I just hope the best is yet to come. There is more material that's coming your way sooner than you think.

A big thanks to Julie Ragbeer for talking with us. You can follow and support Julie Ragbeer on Facebook, TikTok, X (Twitter), Instagram and YouTube @JulieRagbeer. You can also listen to her music on Spotify.