“What’s the story? by Julius”. An experimental project and a new musical dimension

“What’s the story? by Julius”. An experimental project and a new musical dimension, featuring guitar at its best. Eclecticism and Avant-garde at once. The new adventure of this Spanish musician. Just poetry in motion”

Julio Fernández “Julius”, is a Spanish musician based in Dublin (Ireland), who just launched his first solo album made of eleven instrumental compositions. After playing in different bands and involved in several projects, he has decided to develop his solo career. “What’s the story?” is an incredible mixture of musical genres and styles, such as Jazz, Blues, Rock, Blue Grass, Latin, Ambient or Progressive as well as sound effects, spoken poetry or improvisation. The guitar at its maximum expression. A new musical concept not to be missed.

Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?

Well. Exposed vocals came up to me by Twitter, giving the chance to be interviewed. As I just recorded my first solo-album. I though it would be a good idea to open up my promotional opportunities, so here I go. I would like to thank Exposed Vocals for this chance given. 

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

I am originally from Spain, but I moved on to Dublin 9 years ago, where I started off recording my own compositions on my home studio, and trying to materialize any musical idea. Initially, it was like a musical experiment to see what was coming out of all this, learning and improving  my skills about recording, mixing, audio mastering and musical production. I got six or seven tunes fully composed, therefore I decided to create my first solo album. That´s the reason why ¨What´s the story?¨went live.

Before that, I used to play in different bands in Spain years ago. Indeed, I recorded two CD´s over there.

Then, when I settled down in Dublin, I realized of the musical scene over, it was simply incredible. Gigs, jam sessions, open mics every where, anytime, meeting up great musicians wherever I went, and all of them willing to jam..

Under this influence,  it is very easy to get musically inspired, although I am not a pro-musician.    

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

Well. There is no too much inspiration behind my artistic name. That´s the way as some friends of mine use to call me and for some reason I have always identified myself with this nickname ¨Julius¨. Honestly, I did not spend so much time to find out the right name.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

Online music sharing has been a revolution itself. Everyone has shared music at some stage, even when vinyls or cassettes were on fashion decades ago. The essence on music distribution is pretty much the same as before, but currently all this is being channeled online, by musical distribution platforms, what allows you to reach out to all type of music styles, musicians, bands, musical projects worldwide. There is a really good talent out there, doubtless.

Giving music away freely, is my real promotion. It is not about money, but distributing my compositions and get it ¨more reachable¨ to everyone. I do not dedicate to music in a professional manner, but anyway I’m willing to promote my stuff widely.¨What´s the story?¨ have been uploaded on the main digital music platforms around the world, such as Spotify, itunes, Amazon, Google Music, Deezer, etc…even on free music streaming distributors. As said, it is not about making profit, but if I do, it is always good to raise funds to keep working on new projects.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Probably, I ain’t the right person to give these sort of tips to anyone, but I could assert the musical scene is normally very connected, specially on a local dimension. Just dive into it, and start meeting up other bands, musicians, promoters, club owners, local journalists, and progressively your scope should be thriving. Also, social networking and new technologies on musical industry could be very helpful.  

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

Yes sure, all the time…hehehehe… ¨A mistake¨ is a relative concept. Some of the best ideas have come from mistakes, not just on music, but on other different disciplines. It is well known some of the best guitar riffs, guitar solos, or techniques came along by mistake ¨Trial and error¨ is an empirical methodology which may be applied to music as well. It is always great to experiment with different resources (also mistakes, hehehe..) and attempting to draw new sound dimensions and an original musical approach.

If you make any mistake performing in live, do not make a big deal of it, just make it up somehow, concentrate yourself on the next bar and keep on playing all along….what else you might do…

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

I am not currently touring from a musical point of view, but as said, I love travelling by leisure. On my last trip over South East Asia, I had the chance to jamming with musicians over Vietnam, Cambodia Laos or Thailand. It was a great experience as I could check out other ways of treating music by Easter influences. Now I am going back to Asia, and i will try to discover traditional music from new locations, specially in India. It is well known, Indian musicians practice meditation to tuning up their instruments by micro-tunes. Therefore, scales, soloing, melodies or harmonic structures are not comparable to the western commercial music…I hope to wrap up resources from Indian music and getting into my own musical language somehow. It could be really interesting. 

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process? 

Inspiration may arise from any source, from any guitar riff, any rhythmic structure, melodies, harmonic pattern, any idea from any song I ‘ve listened previously, jamming with other musicians or just improvisation, etc…

When something good comes up to me, such as a riff or melody, the first thing I do, is to record it on, then I keep listening, playing, composing and recording tracks all over (bass, drums, etc…) up to get the right musical back-up. Finally, I draw up all melodies, guitar solos, musical arrangements or harmonization needed. Sometimes, it is incredible how all pieces are linked each other during the composition process.  

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

Actually, I have my Facebook profile so far:
www.facebook.com/pages/Julius/315650051960851

On the other hand, CD Baby is managing my on-line music distribution, therefore my album should be on those following platforms very soon: itunes, Amazon, Google play, Spotify, Shazam, Rdio, Beats music, eMusic, Rhapsody, Simfy, Nokia, Xbox music, Medianet, Tradebit, 24-7, 7 digital, Myxer, i Heartradio, Deezer, Omnifone, Guvera, Sony Music Unlimited, Mondia, Reverbnation or Soundcloud, among others…   

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?

None of tunes on my mp3 player are embarrassing, even the most embarrassing ones, hehehehehe…

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

Nothing special, just squandering…(austerity times)..hehehe. How would I spend it?  A load of money and too many options. Well. I do not know, maybe gathering further musical equipment, or travelling worldwide, or partying, or placing money in Wall Street, or at the pub nearby hehehehe,….I don’t know…. I tell you what…, give that money to me first, I will do my best then. It wouldn’t be a problem at all, hehehe….

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

This album has been a challenge for me by all means. I composed all tunes (but covers included from Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, obviously), I recorded all tracks, acoustic and electric guitars (back-ups and leads), bass guitars, drums patterns, sound programming, sounds effects, mixing and audio mastering, etc… the only collaboration I got, is on the cover “Whispering” where Stephen Wright is playing banjo from Ireland. (It is an extract from a jam session based in Dublin years ago), and the album cover which is designed by Fran Ortiz from Spain. 

No further studio upgrades on this album. It is what it is. It could be better or worse as everything. As said, the main objective about all this, has been improving and up-skilling my expertise on musical composition and production, and I got it. 

Also, all this recording has been performed through a very tight budget, honestly. Over the next album, I will work it out even more, and investing further capital, I promise, hehehehehehe…..  

Now, I ‘ve started working on few ideas in regards with spoken poetry backed up by musical compositions. It is quite similar to the last song on this album. I will see what the hell is coming out of it…..

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

As said, it is a musical experiment. I am quite newbie on all this stuff, therefore I am not completely sure which distribution channels are the right ones on this affair. So far, my idea is setting up the promotion and on-line distribution through those distribution platforms previously mentioned, and social networking. As I go, I will try to find out the proper on-line distribution channels and promotion techniques to make the most of it.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

My musical influences are very diverse, from Jazz, Blues, Rock, Rhythm and Blues, Progressive, Latin, Ambient, Flamenco etc….and my favorite artists are so many. If I would have to pick one from all my heroes, I would have probably chosen Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, or The Beatles…Not sure…it is a tough question anyway….

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

As mentioned. I am working on spoken poetry backed-up with instrumental compositions. It is on a very early stage so far. Therefore, it is a quite complex to reckoning.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

Apart from music, I ‘m economist, I love writing down poetry, or a restless traveler among others things. So, I would be doing any of those things, I guess.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?

Yes sure. “Powerage from AC/DC”, Bon Scott at his best.It was simply blowing me away…. I was about 10 or 11 years old…. 

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

It depends. Nowadays, I have plenty of time to work on music, so it is not a problem at all. On busy times, it is a matter of scheduling yourself properly, as music is normally taking time.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to?

Fans?, hehehehe…Well. if everything goes well, I will set up a band to perform those songs in live, but I prefer to go step by step… and see what’s going on, you know what I mean?.