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We are truly happy to premiere Julius’ new single, “Ohh Baby” which is produced by the awesome and talented Benny Cassette, who works with Kanye. On “Ohh Baby”, you’ll hear Julius crooning about dark love and if you’re a NIN fan you’ll hear some familiar similarities in Julius’ voice to Trent Reznor which is actually pretty awesome. Julius decided to give this one away for FREE so make sure to head over to soundcloud and get your download!
We caught up with Julius and spoke about his classical background, influences, and CMJ favorites.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with Pancakes and Whiskey!
First off, congrats on “Ohh Baby” you collaborated w Benny Cassette, the famous producer whos has worked with Kanye, how did you met Benny?
We met in L.A. … I showed him some of my songs and it just went from there. I wrote “Ohh Baby” before I met him but he added a ton as far as drum sounds and production elements that bring out the dark sound.
It’s amazing, I actually got chills when i first heard it; it’s equal parts of bittersweet and sultry.
Thank you.
The video falling on hard times, is amazing , did you have a theme in mind or was like lets go with the flow?
Basically the video illustrates the instrumental side of the song. The water mirrors the orchestral swells at the beginning and end of, and conceptually it all kinda shows this contrast of being in a super remote place, but which happens to be in NYC, escaping the hectic New York life to deal with this heavy emotional moment. We actually filmed it super early in the morning and it was freezing.
So you studied classical musical, which you do you prefer? Songwriting or writing symphonies?
It’s kinda crazy but I’ve been writing classical symphonic music on commission since I was 14. I was just in Boston for a premiere of a classical piece of mine at Symphony Hall. I wasn’t exposed to pop music at all when I was younger and so I just recently got into song writing. It’s a good challenge because sometimes you have to turn off certain parts of your brain to focus on the lyrical meaning of a song and the song structure, where I’m usually more used to just thinking in terms of abstract sound.
What are your musical influences?
Classically, Gustav Mahler and then contemporary would hip hop artists like Kendrick Lamar, A$SAP Rocky and definitely Kanye.
Best venue to play?
I love Arlene’s Grocery, and Piano’s (upstairs). It feels good to fill a small room with a gigantic sound.
It’s CMJ season!! have you seen any good bands play yet..even though it’s still early on?
I loved Ryn Weaver, great singer and song writer, and my friends in San Fermin which is a great band that merges the classical and pop sounds in a very different way from how I’m doing it
Who would be your dream collaborations?
I think like Drake or Rihanna would be huge to merge into my sound. Also weirder people like FKA Twigs
