Golden Globe Winner Is Proud to be a Vermonter

January 17, 2012

Julie Frost at the Golden Globes. Courtesy photo

LOS ANGELES - With a Golden Globe award in hand, Vermonter Julie Frost is still glowing from the experience of being on the same stage that has seen the best and brightest in film and television.
Frost, originally from Tulsa, OK, moved to New Haven, VT, when she was a baby and considers herself a Vermonter.
Frost won the award for Best Original Song, “Masterpiece,” which she co-wrote with Madonna and Jimmy Harry for Madonna’s film “W.E.” and which will be on Madonna's upcoming album.
“It was the thrill of a lifetime,” Frost said of winning a Golden Globe. “It was an absolutely unbelievable moment, standing up there with Jimmy Harry, Madonna, Jimmy Fallon and Adam Levine from Maroon Five and winning a Golden Globe. Just getting to the Golden Globes and walking the red carpet. It was surreal and amazing.”
The environment at the awards was very relaxed and Frost saw many people whom she admired.
“I was sitting there for the same reason,” she said. “They were nominated for a Golden Globe and I was nominated for a Golden Globe. They were maybe going to win and I was maybe going to win. I was having a blast.”
Frost found out she was nominated by reading an e-mail at her home one morning in December.
“I couldn’t even speak,” recalled Frost. The person who was with her at the time thought somebody had died. “I try to say it, but I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. It sounded so ridiculous. I couldn’t have been more shocked.”
Frost continues to get interview requests, relive and share the excitement.
Even though she has won a much-desired award, Frost hasn’t forgotten her Vermont roots and doesn’t plan to.
“I’m proud to be a Vermonter,” said Frost.
Frost grew up with music in her home. “Everybody loved music and listened to records all the time,” she said during a telephone interview Tuesday morning. “That nurtured my love of music.” Growing up, Frost's parents enjoyed listening to entertainers like Bonnie Raitt, Carole King, Jackson Brown and James Taylor. “I had a very eclectic musical education,” said Frost.”Almost every genre was appreciated.”
As a child, Frost used to stand in the living room, where she could see her reflection in the picture window that overlooked a field, and lip sync and dance to the music through her headphones. In high school, Frost played the clarinet and was a member of a choir.
After school, Frost loaded everything she had in her car, including her two cats, and blindly moved from New England to Rogers Park in Chicago, which seemed to call to her.
In an effort to overcome stage fright, Frost went to open mike nights and got to the point where she could perform, enjoy and feel the music through her. She developed a big following and had the opportunity to perform music that she had written.
“It’s just amazing when you write something and you sing something that someone wants to listen to,” Frost said. “Otherwise, what’s the point? What’s a song without a listener?”
Frost didn’t know she wanted to be in the entertainment business until she sang one of her songs in front of an audience.
“It was kind of from there that I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I just figured it out. I’m a song writer.’ I thought it was good news,” Frost said with a laugh. “It was just the beginning of a really hard time, but I stuck with it. It was so much work to really learn my craft, In general, it’s hard to be an independent artist, live indoors, eat food and own a car all at the same time.”
Frost was an independent artist and “surviving on her music” in Chicago when Jon Platt of EMI Music signed her and she moved to Los Angeles.
“He walked me through the door of every kind of A-Level situation,” she said of Platt. “He really believed in me.”
Frost has around 400 songs she hopes someday will find a home.