Julius Black
19-year-old indie pop artist Julius Black has all of the tools and talent needed to become the next one up. The teen first began writing music for the girls that he had crushes on at school. And after gaining interest in a variety of different musical styles, the singer would begin to learn music production. It was these building blocks that led to Black’s international streaming debut, today, with “Mirrors”. The artist has made a powerful statement with the release; the song, featuring beautiful harmonic complexities and high quality production, showcases the talent and progress made by the artist. For the artist, this appears to be only the start of an exciting journey. We recently talked to the artist about his musical influences, plans for the future, and more!
How did you start making music?
I discovered hip-hop and punk rock randomly through my teens, and found this excitement for music which pushed me to learn instruments. I later on got into R&B and Gospel and ended up getting into production. In school, I had really weird attention span and would often drift in class and think about music, or girls haha. So I started writing songs for girls that I had crushes on and that’s how my songwriting journey started haha.
What are your favorite things to do outside of the studio?
I started badminton recently with my mum and her group of Chinese mum friends. They’re the sweetest people I’ve ever met; but when we get on the court, I proceed to destroy and dominate everyone and not hold back because I’m 30 years younger and over the top competitive. I also hang out with my producer and bff Struan Finlay almost everyday, we just get coffee and talk about girls we have crushes on and sometimes we make music.
Most artists have a dream venue. Where's yours?
Im not sure if I have a dream venue personally because I haven’t really been to that many venues haha. I’m really one dimensional and can only visualize what’s right in front of me. I recently watched the 1975 play at Glastonbury on YouTube and that looked insanely cool. I’d love to play at one of those super cool festivals one day and hang out with Matt Healy and be like "Hi man, ily how’s life?”.
Describe your music in 3 words.
Existential art pop. I think artists all go through super existential rabbit holes of doubt and are like why doesn’t my music sound like xxx. Definitely how I felt while making music for a long time, also I just love alty sounding shit that feels new without being too “I’m not like other girls” about it.
If you had the opportunity to collab with any artist, who would you choose?
Ok, I don’t wanna be cliche with this answer, but currently I’m really into the 1975 and that’s all I listen too. Their music just feels bold and I want to know how they make everything sound so cool and what their process is like. Also, Matt Healy seems hilarious and I feel we would get along.
Take us through the process of writing your newest song “Mirrors”.
Last year, I moved out of home to a different city and was doing a music program. I was trying really hard to make music and went down vicious rabbit holes of why doesn’t my music sound like this artist, etc. I had a day job but got fired, and the girl I was seeing left back home to Germany. I was living in this apartment that felt really haunted and isolated and I wrote a collection of songs about how I felt at the time. I wrote “Mirrors” and that song felt more raw and honest than the other songs I was working on. I teamed up with my producer and friend Struan Finlay and now the song is out today!
Anything planned for the future?
I’m like kinda scared of talking about my future in terms of new music because I don’t want to be like one of those artists that say “Music soon!” and release one song a year haha. To be fully honest though, I do have songs done, mixed, mastered, and ready for release. Not gonna promise more than that in case the universe turns around and hates me and botches all of my future releases because the universe is ruthless; I’ve seen it happen.
