1. Hello, thank you for your time, please introduce yourself in a few words!
Thank you for having me ! My name is Julius Black, I am a 21 yr old kiwi chinese singer-songwriter and I spend most of my time making music. I am currently living in Shanghai, China.
2. Please give us an update about – new single, new album, tour dates, new videos?!
I just released my sophomore EP „Together We Go Down in The Dark“, I wrote these songs with my best friend Struan and we refined it over a year. It’s my best work so far. It’s accompanied with a digital magazine as well to tell the story and give context. I’m very proud of this body of work and I will be releasing more music this year.
3. Name 5 things we all should know about you as an artist?!
1. I started music mainly because of my Dad, he introduced me to Bach and the Beatles at a young age. Started playing instruments and writing songs because of him.
2. I have two EP’s currently out, one’s called ‚Dopamine‘ and one is called ‚ Together We Go Down in The Dark‘, they kind of run into each other visually and musically while being very different bodies of work. I care deeply about making the project a cohesive world for the listener to submerge themselves into. I have little easter eggs that tie each song into the next and that really excites me and I hope it excites my listeners too.
3. My inspirations currently are Frank Ocean, Elliott Smith, David Bowie, Beatles, and Moses Sumney. I really went through a Beatles phase during the creation of this EP, I grew up with their music and kind of rediscovered them again and I think they are a big part of my musical DNA.
4. I have a really dry sense of humour haha
5. I am trying really hard to be the best person that I can be right now !
4. What fashion style or brand would best describe your music?
I think I try to make my fashion and my artistic choices as chic and minimal as possible. I want it to feel like one underlying message with ideas supporting that main statement, not a million different ideas thrown at a canvas. I like my music to breathe as much as possible and have space but also complexity. I wear black exclusively on a day to day basis,I’m not really sure why I think I’m a bit of a minimalist when it comes to style. I like oversized tops and black leather shoes. I take a lot of inspiration from Moses Sumney, who exclusively wears black and makes the most gorgeous music in the world. I really like his style.
5. Tell us more about your songs! Topics! Message!?
This EP is about relationships, ego, loneliness, heartbreak, and anxiety. While writing this EP I thought about this concept of a protagonist descending into madness a little bit . I was really inspired by Martin Scrosesee growing up and I wanted to create the soundtrack to Taxi Driver or The Departed I guess, which is one of the reasons this EP sounds the way it does. Mostly my songs are just my experiences of being a human, and sometimes in order to be honest about being human you have to be very vulnerable and I try to be as open as possible.
6. Beside music, do you have any special talents?
I’m not sure if this counts as a talent, but I do a lot of kickboxing at the moment, I’ve been doing it for like 6 months and I’ve made new friends and gained confidence and I recommend it for anyone who wants a vicious cardio workout.
7. Being on stage feels like….!
I like it a lot, I like playing and working with attention spans too. There’s something really transcendental about connecting with strangers through music. I think sometimes performing can get really tiring, especially moving all the gear around and having that anxiety of no one coming to your show. When you are on stage however it does become really magical and special.
8. How did you learn to sing/ to write/ to play??
I started learning instruments when I Was 4 years old, I studied Bach and did grade exams. I fell in love with Rock and Hip hop when I was like 11 and started playing guitar and writing my own material. I was obsessed with getting better with my instruments and eventually started with music production, and now I’m releasing my own music! My dad inspired me a lot by showing me The Beatles and The Police. I think both of those bands are a big part of my musical DNA.
9. A question you’d like to answer, but never been asked in an interview before?! + Answer pls
I guess I’ve never been asked about my visuals very much, and I care about making my cover arts as cohesive and in a world as much as possible. For this EP my friend Shayde made a heart out of clay and painted it and my friend Tyler took a photo of it. I think it’s a cool cover and I’m very proud of it, but yeah that’s the story behind the EP.
Instagram: @iamjuliusblack