Julian Velard: Catchy Piano Pop

This ironic and well-put quote is exactly how piano pop up-and-comer Julian Velard describes the attention he’s been receiving lately. His recent victories include a ton of media attention, especially on Youtube, and his first headlining gig in over 6 months this past week in the town he’s housed in, London, England.

This Quentin Tarentino-meets-Elton John performer has been keeping quite busy lately what with a pending record release, as well as a tour through Europe, although he still manages to find time to post both video and text blogs to keep his constantly growing fan base well informed.
Like many true musical artists, Julian admits that he prefers live shows and events to album versions of his songs. He finds album tracks to be very defining and therefore need to be perfect, whereas in live sets he is free to play the same song angrily, or softly or however is best suited to the venue.

“The record is the statement, the live show is the interpretation.” This is how Julian summed up his take on the album vs. live show conundrum to Botonist interviewer Jordan Carp.
Record making was apparently an arduous process for Velard, because of how “minute” everything needed to be. Based on his strange personality, one could assume that going over every detail until it was polished and perfect would be a tedious task that would clash heavily with his character.

Julian describes the tracks on his forthcoming album, The Planeteer, as “cuddly and friendly with an almost game-show vibe, but there’s a very dark side to them as well.” This is easy to understand, since his upbeat style songs are usually centered around loneliness, and the romance of the concept.

The beauty in Julian’s songs come from the reason for their creation. He is not an artist simply capitalizing on the enjoyment people take in his music, but writes for the love of doing so. Simply put, he is an odd sort of character with a passion and talent, who makes his music his own way, and for his own reasons.

Julian admitted, “I just wanna make music and be great. That’s enough of a challenge” when asked about becoming famous by ShowMeHowToPlay.com. There is no argument that Julian Velard truly is a great singer/songwriter/performer, and because of that, fame will follow.

“And it feels like love again for the first time”

Is a lyric that certainly rings true when listeners hear New York artist Julian Velard’s upbeat, piano pop music. There are certain elements of his style that simply captivate listeners and absorb them into his art.

Velard uses his strong voice and piano skills to keep his songs peppy and lighthearted, which are reminiscent of American artist Billy Joel, but Velard’s songs are so catchy, so down to earth, so REAL they’d make Jack Johnson shake.

Born and raised in New York, NY on October 6th 1979, Julian has been shaping his craft since he was young, attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and later attending Hampshire College. It was there he studied under world-renowned saxophonist and jazz musician Yusef Lateef.

Getting his name out there was hard for Julian in the United States. He seemed to simply be a footnote to the musical movement in New York City, that is until one day record company EMI told him they wanted to sign him in the summer of 2007. As it had turned out he was more famous than even he had known. Thanks to myspace.com Julian had become and internet sensation across the pond, scoring thousands of fans that included big time music executives.

After signing to EMI he moved to London, England to further pursue his career, and gather an even bigger fan base.

As soon as he hit the scene he began touring, he has toured with several artists throughout the UK, Ireland, and North America. This includes a four-month sold out tour with Scottish singer/songwriter Amy Macdonald earlier this year.

In June of 2008, Velard released his first single: Jimmy Dean & Steve McQueen. This will be the first song on Julian’s forth-coming album The Planeteer, which features other major tracks like Joni and Love Again for the First Time. This album is a whimsical take on the ups and downs in any normal persons life.

Although Julian Velard’s music is identified as piano pop, many feel that label is inappropriate because unlike most music in the pop genre, his songs are soulful and speak true into the lives of their listeners.

Since his career is only beginning to blossom, we can expect to see a lot more from Julian Velard in the near future. One can foresee him being the type of artist to continually re-define both himself and his music to continually impress and surprise his obvious soon-to-be cult fan base.