Artist Profile: Julia.
Julia, the rock band from North Carolina, is in a sense only nominally a funk-oriented group– their P-Funk and RHCP foundations are certainly embedded deep in their creative roots– but with their new album, “Fish in the Percolator”, they have taken their sound much further into the expanded territories that each of their members provides, producing an energetic and delectable mix that at least fleetingly incorporates virtually every flavor of rock. “Fish in the Percolator” is, in short, a cunningly unique project– an honest representation of what makes Julia.’s creative presence so captivating.
Julia.’s current lineup spans back only about a year, but their origins as a band extend back several beyond that. The group was originally formed by bassist Sean Meehan and the band’s original guitarist. Relatively quickly after they formed, they had amassed a set of instrumental demos, but they still needed to find a vocalist to help turn them into full songs.
They found Torin Alston on Instagram through a vocal cover he recorded and posted, and they decided to reach out to him and see if he would be willing to demo some lyrics over a couple of their tracks. Within 24 hours, Torin had sent back two completely tracked and layered songs using the instrumentals they had provided. They knew immediately he was the right addition for the band.
That first album, “When Dirt Was Clean And Dinosaurs Roamed The Earth”, was heavily funk-influenced. Although it showed signs of the experimentation the band would later take on, it stayed primarily in the lane they had envisioned upon beginning the project.
“It was just very riff-oriented,” said Meehan, “... Moving into the next album, pulling in all these new people, opened the doors of– this is where we can actually go with all this stuff.”
After adding Alston and releasing their first project, the band then brought in Elijah Melanson and Chuck Rhew, who had both become familiar with Julia. through their performances and notoriety in the local scene. Melanson, with a background in harder rock with metal and psychedelic inclinations, immediately brought a bit of a grittier, more hard-edged style to the band’s rhythm. Rhew, who plays the keyboard and synths, added a layer to the band’s sound that allowed them to expand even further in their experimentation. Keys were completely absent on the first record (apart from one song), and Rhew therefore had a blank canvas upon which he could work.
Within the past year, they’ve added a new drummer in Alex Jolly, whose experience in a wide variety of genres and bands has made him well-equipped to handle the whiplash that a Julia. set can, at times, subject listeners through.
“I had played some pretty cookie-cutter [stuff],” said Jolly, “[I’ve gone] from that to completely flopping to one of the most unique things I've ever done musically. It sounds different, it looks different, it feels different. When people watch us, like, they get a different feeling than when they just watch a regular rock band or a regular funk band.”
With their new lineup cemented, the band set about creating their second album with an increasingly open mindset. Between the five of them, they had experience playing virtually every genre, and they made it their mantra to be open to any idea in their creative process, no matter where it came from.
“We're in this iteration where no idea is off the table. People come up with a punk rock thing or a jazz thing or really just straightforward,” said Alston, “And we're open to all of it… So now we've just created this insane, strange and inspiring, interesting music just from being open to any idea and letting it go and progress.”
“Fish in the Percolator”, released on March 13, is indeed a wild ride. Because it was self-produced and self-distributed, the band had ample time to craft each track intentionally, determining the exact balance they wanted to carve out between their trademark brand of groove-driven energy and their ongoing genre-transient interests. Both its title and its creative wanderings, according to Melanson, are homages to this same quality in David Lynch, the recently-deceased director of “Twin Peaks”.
“We have a deep debt to [Lynch’s] unlimited creativity– his view of the world. And I think that's what the reference is all about, is that it's something unexpected and beautiful that kind of throws you off your normal life path, which is odd and needs to be appreciated,” said Melanson.
From the first shattering strums of “All Tomorrows”, to the acoustic guitar wailings of “Give Me Your Time”, to the psychedelic (and even hyper-pop) leanings of “Whippets out the Sodastream”, the project incorporates such a wide variety of sonic concepts and distinct influences that it’s almost impossible to nail down a central sound. But the common thread is clear– it’s the same unique energy that has helped Julia. to build a devoted fanbase in their local scene in North Carolina.
Now, as they begin to tour and promote their new album, Julia. is bringing this same energy to on a consistent basis. What comes next from the band, as they continue to grow and sonically expand, is certain to be special.
“It's just been this cool, beautiful thing,” said Rhew, “The experience of all of us getting our own ideas and visions and actually coming together to make just awesome, fun songs that we all really like to play and all have our own little bit of input in everything they do. It's been one of the most beautiful experiences. I'm very grateful for it.”
