Greetings and salutations. Thank you for joining us. You are at another episode of Embrace your Storm, and thank you for joining us. We have an awesome episode for you. Before we get to that, though, don’t forget to visit embracestormcom. Create an account there. Also, check out the other podcast on there called Soundbite. It’s a daily podcast that comes out that gives a reaction to a new metal song and that’s fun to listen to. And then, uh, is there anything else? No, oh yeah, email me at hello at embracestormcom comments, criticisms, all that fun stuff, and uh. So here we go. Today, I have on julie. She is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, vocal trainer, and she’s also a professor at Berkeley. Yeah, so, julie, thanks for coming on.
0:00:50 – Speaker 2
Ah well, it’s my pleasure. Thanks for inviting me, Jonathan, my pleasure.
0:00:54 – Speaker 1
Yeah, my pleasure. Sorry about last week. You know I don’t know what happened, but here we are and actually the podcast before you we actually had on. I don’t know if you know him or not, but he’s a teacher at Berkeley Also, bruce Bruce.
0:01:07 – Speaker 2
Gertz was on. Yeah, they keep me pretty busy in the voice department.
0:01:11 – Speaker 1
I, I, I don’t know everybody, but yeah, so he, he was on last episode, so that was a good time. So we’ll get to hear more about Berkeley at some point. So so, julie, what, what got you into singing, playing guitar, Like I think you said before the podcast. You said basically you were singing as soon as you could talk.
0:01:30 – Speaker 2
So yeah, I like to make the joke that you know. I came out of my mother and the doctors you know whacked my rear end and I went exactly I mean, that’s kind of the way it’s been.
0:02:00 – Speaker 1
I’ve been singing forever and I you know, even as a little preschooler I was always making up songs. It wasn’t until I was nine and started playing guitar that I had a way to sort of codify them intoera. When she’s eight or something and you hear her singing, you’re like, oh my God. When you hear kids like that, it’s like yeah, you were just born to sing.
0:02:17 – Speaker 2
You know they used to have remember Star Search right Absolutely yeah. I remember watching Star Search when I was I don’t know eight or something like that, and some girl was on there and she was singing. I was like I can do that.
0:02:31 – Speaker 1
Right, you must have you must have been mad when you you, you miss, like the American Idol, like you know you’re too, because they have like an age limit or whatever.
0:02:39 – Speaker 2
Oh, I know you got to be 30. I’m over that, you know.
0:02:42 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, no, I hear you, but like seeing things like that you know, yeah, yeah, no, I hear you, but like seeing things like that, that must have like excited you as a vocalist, being like I wish I would have had that opportunity, you know, 20 years ago or whatever.
0:02:52 – Speaker 2
Yeah, but you know a lot of those things. I hate to say they’re a little bit rigged, no, I hear you Like. I actually auditioned for the Voice once with a friend of mine and she’s just a kick butt gospel singer, really talented singer. If you ever get to check out Morgan Joyce, she’s really awesome.
0:03:08 – Speaker 1
But um, she and I both auditioned and neither of us got in and I was like even kind of like the first past, the first kind of you know qualification part, really.
0:03:20 – Speaker 2
No. So you know, I think, you know, I think you know they’re looking for what they’re looking for for good TV. You know what I’m saying?
0:03:25 – Speaker 1
It’s like Right, Like yeah, yeah, yeah, Even though they’re like, even though they’re like no, no, we don’t judge on how you look or whatever Like they. How did you get on the show? Because they’re judging how you look.
0:03:39 – Speaker 2
You know I’m on the flip side of it. A friend of mine got onto American Idol and you know he’s a talented guy, but his big thing is that he can. He can ride a unicycle and play, play a string bass at the same time. So is that what he did and he did? He went on and he played, you know, and he didn’t make it past the first round, but it made good TV, so they got him on. You know what I’m?
0:04:02 – Speaker 1
saying, oh yeah, yeah, they put him on like the reels where they show different people trying out or whatever. Like the quick, like the quick yeah.
0:04:08 – Speaker 2
Well, he got to get in front of the judges.
0:04:11 – Speaker 1
Oh, no kidding.
0:04:12 – Speaker 2
That was American Idol. It wasn’t the voice, yeah yeah. But anyway, you know, it’s like they’re looking for what they’re looking for. You know no.
0:04:20 – Speaker 1
I hear you.
0:04:21 – Speaker 2
Nothing against anybody who’s gotten on. A lot of talented people have gotten on. In fact, on my current album that I’m putting out right now, I have somebody who was just on American Idol. Max Dasher was on this season of American Idol. He’s one of my background singers on my album.
0:04:37 – Speaker 1
That’s cool. How did you get in touch with him? Well, this is kind of fun.
0:04:41 – Speaker 2
So I guess we’re going to jump right in right now.
0:04:43 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly yeah going from age nine to now.
0:04:47 – Speaker 2
all right, so now, and uh, you know, for those of you who are out there just to encourage you, now means you know over 50. Let’s just say that, okay, and uh, so anyway. Uh, I had done basics for an album, but incidentally, I have four albums out right now and I sang on a bunch of other people’s albums as well, but the albums I already have out. I did an album in 2006 with an acapella group I used to be the music director for, called Faith in Action. It’s acapella, gospel jazz, and it’s out there you can listen to it.
0:05:24 – Speaker 1
That’s cool.
0:05:27 – Speaker 2
I have an album that was christian rock for kids. My husband and I used to lead the music for a pre-teen camp every summer and we would write a theme song like some kind of contemporary rock pop kind of theme song for the camp. And then we put an album together for all of all those songs and that was called the force. That came out 2007. And then I came out with an album of my original stuff that I’ve been longing to put out. You know spent years and years trying to get discovered back in the day when you know the only way to get a record out there was to get a record contract by somebody important, and you know I had a lot of almosts on that on that track. You know warner brothers almost picked me up uh, richard gillinson, who was the producer for abba in london. He invited me to his office in london and I was in, but that ended up not happening, but anyway, um. So finally I put out an album of my own, incidentally after I had twins at 40.
0:06:27 – Speaker 1
All right, oh, my goodness.
0:06:29 – Speaker 2
So you think, okay, maybe that bus is you know.
0:06:32 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
0:06:33 – Speaker 2
Right, but no, I had twins. And then I put out my first solo album, that’s funny.
And so that was called Grace, with Jazz on Top, and that’s got some great tunes. Listen to it on Spotify, including my biggest hit, the Coffee Song, which actually was on the charts in Austria. That’s cool Country charts in Austria, I don’t know, but anyway, I don’t know, but anyway. And then my previous, my last complete album that I released was 2013, with my husband and my brothers Now my brothers. One of my brothers is a bass player, chris Gibbons. Shout out, nice.
And my other brother is a drummer, session drummer out in Los Angeles, gary Gibbons. Shout out to you too bro, that’s awesome. And so they.
0:07:27 – Speaker 1
I’m surprised you didn’t say your brother’s name was Billy.
0:07:32 – Speaker 2
No, no, no. And my husband, ralph Kinshek, is a keyboard player, synth guy. If you look up Ralphie Keys I’m just giving lots of shouts here. Ralphie Keys anywhere you look for him on Instagram or Spotify or whatever, he’s got a bunch of things out.
0:07:50 – Speaker 1
Is all your stuff under Julie Kinchek on Spotify and stuff, Okay yeah.
0:07:54 – Speaker 2
Julie Kinchek and it’s Kinchek If you’re trying to find it. K-i-n-s-c-h-e-c-k.
0:08:01 – Speaker 1
Kinchek. Yeah, so I mean you pronounce it Kinscheck, but just so you spell it right when you’re looking.
0:08:08 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, but anyway. So Ralph was on that album playing keys and engineering in our home studio here in Bill Rickamass and my brothers on bass and drums, some good friends of mine, johnny V on lead guitar, jim Peterson on lead guitar, different people, joe Galeota on percussion but we put that album out and then, uh-oh, time went by and now it’s 2019, and I haven’t put out anything new, right?
0:08:37 – Speaker 1
Oh man yeah.
0:08:40 – Speaker 2
And we got some excitement. We got some press and stuff from Grace With Jazz on Top and Let my Light Shine, but it didn’t break through. You know what I’m saying.
0:08:51 – Speaker 1
Yeah.
0:08:53 – Speaker 2
I sold it. I, I made the money back that I put into the albums. That’s good, but I didn’t. But it didn’t break through to the extent of, like you know, major exposure, right. So so in 2019, I’m like we’ve got to put another album out, and I think part of the problem is that all my albums were a little bit schizophrenic because I am, on the one hand, I’m a Christian artist, just to put that out there because my faith is very, because my faith is very central to what I sing and what I write.
But honestly, some of it was rock, some of it was jazz, some of it was folk, some of it was. You know, my husband comes from more of an electronic kind of really synth-focused kind of thing Okay.
And I come from more of a folky jazz guitar kind of thing, and somehow we kept creating these albums that were really hard to market because they had so many different styles on them. And if you’re one of those people out there that doesn’t care what the label is on something, you just want to listen to good music, please look me up.
0:10:04 – Speaker 1
Okay.
0:10:07 – Speaker 2
It’s really hard to tell um it’s. It’s hard to tell pandora who I sound like, because I hear you yeah, you know, there’s a little bit of joni mitchell, and yet there’s some ella fitzgerald. And don’t forget, you know, there’s some joan jedd in there too.
0:10:19 – Speaker 1
You know, I mean, it’s all in there, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I, I hear you.
0:10:23 – Speaker 2
But I keep, I’m just rambling, okay, so no, I like it.
0:10:27 – Speaker 1
I like it.
0:10:28 – Speaker 2
So 2019 and I’m like okay, I got to put something new out. My brothers fly in. We do the basics for a new album which is going to be more focused on the jazzy side of Julie here. I’m also known as the queen of scat because I love to scat sing. That I’m also known as the queen of scat, because I love to scat sing. That’s cool. So anyway, we were kind of focusing on that and we put down the basics for 10 tunes and then the pandemic hit.
0:10:54 – Speaker 1
Oh man.
0:10:56 – Speaker 2
And, as you know, the music industry ground to a halt. Yeah yeah, and we weren’t exactly sure what to do with that project.
0:11:12 – Speaker 1
And my husband at the time.
0:11:13 – Speaker 2
Uh got laid off from his uh job working in the synth department at Berkeley uh cause colleges were closed and um, he started really focusing on his own music as opposed to the stuff we were co-writing.
0:11:21 – Speaker 1
Okay.
0:11:23 – Speaker 2
And, uh, you know nothing against him. He deserved to do that. You know he shouldn’t always be my side man, you know he’s a talented songwriter in his own right, yeah, so he started going after that and then there just didn’t seem to be time to finish this other project, and it was all so hard because we couldn’t all get together with the musicians because of the pandemic yeah.
And you know, we didn’t have all the technology down to do really good remote sessions and everything, and so I started to focus on some other things during that time. Now I was writing music, yeah, but I was also a voice teacher. I’ve been a voice teacher and a guitar teacher, actually, but mostly a voice teacher for decades, and I had a private studio here in my house and I was teaching voice lessons so that I could stay home with my kids. So I would do gigs and I teach voice and guitar lessons at home and I didn’t have to go back into teaching in the schools or doing any other kind of outside job.
And that was working for us, right. But over that time I was also a worship leader Occasionally. I did workshops for churches and stuff and I said you know, I really should put together a book that pulled together the curriculum that I’ve been teaching in these workshops. And so, over the pandemic, I wrote a book. That’s cool and my book is called Vocal Training for Praise Singers and it’s kind of like an all-in-one. It’s available on Amazon and anywhere else you like to get books, but it’s basically an all-in-one for people who sing in churches especially, or are Christian artists, um, because it winds in both, um, the challenges of leading people to god, um, while you’re, uh, also a performer and yeah, you know and but it it also really focuses on vocal health, breath, you know ranges and registers, your resonance, all of those important factors of actually being a singer.
But then it goes into these other areas of song reading, song leading and and leading a worship team and you know scriptures with you know God putting the singers out in front and why are we our responsibility as vocalists and our example, and I mean a lot of other stuff. So, anyway, so I’m writing this book and uh uh, it came out. Um, I am right now in discussion with uh raw raw, roman and Littlefield, um to uh uh, so it won’t be self-published anymore and have it get a wider audience. That’s cool. So I was focusing on my book and doing some workshops and then I got invited, invited Don’t you love that when you’re invited? You teach at Berkeley.
0:14:23 – Speaker 1
That’s pretty. I wouldn’t mind being invited. That’s quite. That would. That’s quite. I wouldn’t mind being invited. That’s quite the compliment.
0:14:29 – Speaker 2
Yeah, that was pretty cool. Oh, also during the pandemic I did a master’s degree. I forgot that.
0:14:34 – Speaker 1
Oh geez.
0:14:36 – Speaker 2
I did, I got a master’s.
0:14:38 – Speaker 1
Oh yeah, by the way, I got my master’s.
0:14:40 – Speaker 2
Yeah, I got it. I wasn’t even done with my master’s when Berkeley called me. It was so crazy, so that was a God thing. That was totally a God thing. So I’ve been working at Berkeley for three years.
0:14:51 – Speaker 1
That’s cool, that’s cool.
0:14:53 – Speaker 2
Finished, my master’s got my book. Meanwhile I was on, you know everybody was on Facebook and on Zoom and you know, just kind of on the internet during the pandemic and I connected through a friend of mine, rebecca Harold, who’s a wonderful pianist, singer, songwriter herself. There was a post with this producer, Neil Merrick Blackwood, out of Black Mountain, north Carolina, and so I got in touch with him through her post and we started chatting and uh, I, you know, I really wanted to do some kind of project with him, didn’t know if I could, could swing it. Uh he, he was the um head engineer for Arista.
Arista records for a bunch of like a couple of decades in in nashville and he’s like worked with everybody from dolly parton to stevie wonder to the pentaton goodness that’s insane.
I mean he just he knows that everybody and he’s worked with them all and now he’s got his own studio up in black mountain decided to leave the the nashville scene and, uh, we decided, okay, we’re going to do something. And he made it reasonable enough that I could at least attempt it, excuse me, and I flew down to Black Mountain last October and we recorded a few songs and I said this is, and we even co-wrote a song called you Listen to my Prayers and I said you know what? This is great. I feel like we had a really great connection musically.
0:16:32 – Speaker 1
Personally, it’s awesome when you connect with someone musically, like when you’re creating. It is one of the best things. I play guitar and I’ve been in tons of bands. That’s probably my most. One of my most favorite things about being like in a band or a musician is getting that connection that, like you know, musical slash, spiritual connection with like a group of people and just creating something that didn’t exist before with that group.
I know that that’s the most exciting thing about me and like and you can feel it too like, if you’re not getting along with someone in the band or if, like, they don’t, like I don’t know, it’s it’s really interesting, like how all that stuff can play out in the music. Yeah, it’s very, it’s very interesting. So sorry to cut you off, but I wanted I just wanted to interject that, because I totally get what you mean when you’re hanging out with someone, just where someone’s just like this was awesome, like music just kind of flows out of you or whatever. So I totally get that.
0:17:28 – Speaker 2
I totally felt like that about the song we co-wrote down there. But you listen to my prayers and I loved what was starting to happen with the songs that I brought down that were already sort of in progress. I brought some of the stuff from my previous sessions with my brothers that we redid and yeah, so now at this point I’ve gone back twice. I went back in March and then I came back just recently, in July, and we’ve now put down put down 11 tunes and in one of them is a Christmas single. That’s all, you know, our sweetest gift. But I I’m really excited. It’s definitely very much more clear.
As far as the marketing thing, it is a contemporary Christian, you know, album. You know, uh, with with songs that, some songs that are better for just listening and many songs on there that I hope will get picked up by worship teams across the country. Uh, you know, and um, it’s super exciting, like the people I have on this album. Uh, you know, like I said, max just got off of american idol. Somebody else just got off a tour with Stevie Wonder, one of my violinists, jenny Luke. You know really excellent people on there. You know it breaks my heart a little bit that my brothers aren’t on this one, and my husband, you know. So this is not a family project. Yeah, yeah, um, but, uh, but I think it’s going to be really, really fantastic, both musically and spiritually and um, so I’m really excited and I feel like the doors are about to bust open, which, um, you know, we’ve been talking about major labels. We’ve been talking about, uh, major tours.
0:19:40 – Speaker 1
I’m discussing performing at Soul Fest and hopefully, other conferences and you know there’s a lot of really cool stuff right on the possibility right there.
0:19:44 – Speaker 2
You know what I mean. No, totally, totally. So we’ll see what God does. But you know, as we were talking before the podcast started, it’s like I get hesitant to tell people that I’m an older artist because I know the music industry is so focused on the young and you know, being young and beautiful and sexy and all of these things, and obviously being sexy is not where you’re trying to go with christian music, but but, but you still need to attract people who are going to consume this music, or you can’t exactly, yeah, no, no, absolutely and honestly I it’s.
0:20:24 – Speaker 1
I like I was saying before too it’s. I think it’s better to mention you’re like an older artist, whatever, because then it gives other people hope, like it’s. You know it’s not over till it’s over, kind of thing. Right like you. Just you never know when your time is going to be. So you can’t, you can’t quit no, I mean you can’t.
0:20:42 – Speaker 2
I couldn’t quit if I wanted to, because it’s my soul. It’s my life’s breath, you know.
0:20:50 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
0:20:52 – Speaker 2
You know I can’t when I my relationship with God is so twisted around my desire to worship through music. My passion is to sing it, to teach it, to share it, to move hearts with it. And I’ve definitely paid my dues. I don’t have a million followers on my social media, so y’all who are out here hearing this, please go follow, like, subscribe, know, exactly, subscribe all those good things.
0:21:29 – Speaker 1
Like subscribe, whatever it’s called. Share.
0:21:33 – Speaker 2
Like, subscribe, share, love, download, purchase stream. Exactly View All of these important words in our marketing world. Important words in our marketing world but really listen, absorb, find hope, find truth, find peace, find joy, find direction. I mean, I am so much more. It is so much more important to me that you are, your heart is moved, that you feel connected, that it touches you. My music now we’re talking about yeah, absolutely. Then whether you think I’m attractive or you know no, I totally hear you.
0:22:31 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. I totally get that Because music really is like that universal language. Like you know, you could write some kind of melody or sing some kind of melody that, even if someone in Bangladesh doesn’t understand what you’re saying, they’re going to be moved by like the melody, or moved by like how you’re playing either that instrument or singing that song. You know what I mean. Like that’s why I love music. Like people can connect to it, like regardless of like where they’re at.
0:23:06 – Speaker 2
You know, the crazy thing about that is that I totally agree with you. I totally agree with you, but then at um flip side of it, you know I’m also I’m very message oriented, you know I like. One of the songs on my new album, for instance, is called someone to dry your eyes, and um, it’s a song I wrote, inspired by these kids I used to teach from a school where they have all these. Many of them were in the foster system. Many of them had experienced a lot of abuse, they had behavioral challenges and many of them were just so broken. And yet in that school environment I was not allowed to share Jesus. I was not allowed to share what could really heal them. You know they had so many counselors and psychologists, and heaven forbid psych drugs and everything else. But you know.
So if I could reach them with just the message that there is someone to dry your eyes and his name is Jesus, you know, and I hope that the songs you know the beauty of the song would touch them even without the words, but the words are very important to me as well.
0:24:24 – Speaker 1
Yeah, no, I get that important to me as well. Yeah, yeah, no, I, no, I, I, I, I get that. I was just kind of saying, though, just how the music in, in general terms speaking, like, yeah, people can just like connect with it on this spiritual level, like, even if they don’t, can’t really understand what you’re saying or whatever, and they can still be like moved to, uh, you know, honestly, they could be moved to cry, to dance or whatever mean, even without, like I said, even without understanding words. That’s just how powerful music it really is. We’re like could, because, honestly, here, here’s, here’s something that people, a lot of people, uh, almost like I don’t want to say, they want to stop being my friend when I tell them this, but I’m like I honestly never pay attention to the actual lyrics, ever. I don’t even I, I, I’m dead, I’m, I’m so serious Like it like in my head when I hear singing, like when I’m listening to a song whatever, when I hear the singing, I don’t, I can’t explain it, even if I want to know what’s being sung or said, for whatever reason, I have such a hard time hearing what people are saying, but all I can hear is how they’re doing it, how they’re saying it and the melody behind it.
Between those two things, I almost don’t even need to know what you’re saying, because I already do. I almost don’t even need to know what you’re saying because I already do, like, like that’s. That’s why I don’t, I most I don’t want to say I can’t hear that. But, like, again, my, my brain processes that stuff. And even if I’m focusing on like I want to hear what they’re saying, I just can’t. I can pick up words here and there, but I cannot. Just nine, nine out of 10 people could just sit down and hear all the lyrics. I just can’t. And all I can hear is how they’re singing it and the notes they’re using to do it, to convey what they’re saying. Like that’s so that. So I tell everyone, like, even though I don’t know what they’re saying, I do, like I get what they’re they’re putting across just by the notes that they’re choosing and how they’re choosing to sing those notes. So so that’s what I listen to so, but, again.
but again, that’s what I mean by, like how people can connect to it without even knowing what you’re saying, because I do it all the time, you know, yeah, I guess, oh, you know, like I mean, even if someone doesn’t know what you’re saying, like lyrically through your vocals, I’m saying I think they can still know, because I believe I do, without knowing like lyrics of you. Know any of the songs I listen to?
So, and I’m trying not to downplay lyrics and words because they are important. Like for some other people, that’s all they can hear, that’s all they listen to, and and the music is just like a, an accompaniment of, of what is trying to be said through the, the lyrics, you know. So I totally get that. There’s other people that need to hear the words, or all they listen to are the words.
0:27:22 – Speaker 2
So I I get that, you know well, I’m kind of a weird combination, because I came out of the folk tradition. That’s where I started as a singer, folk songer, uh, hello, singer songwriter, folk singer, yes a folk songer um, you know, as that’s where I started, but then, uh, I kind of moved from there into jazz, which is totally not about lyrics, right, right I was jazzing, and so I mean I get both sides of that coin for sure.
But I was thinking about the song I just brought up from the album Someone to dry your eyes, fill your soul with faith.
0:28:06 – Speaker 1
You know, if I went, you know you’d still feel the absolutely uh, you know and and if, like, if you know the title of the song, if you know the title of the song and the music, I always believe you know, I, I again here’s me as a musician. Here’s why I put the way I approach songs, I listen to them. Like you have a title of a song and that title of song came most likely from you know, the creation of that song. So the music already is going to kind of fit the the idea behind the title of the song. So you already kind of know the direction this song’s gonna go in. Right, so like, so, like back to your song.
So even if you just kind of sang the melody without the words, 100 I believe people would know what’s going on in that song, like without even hearing a word. They like they would, they would be brought to it just from the melodic choices that you chose to sing and the way you chose to express those notes when you were singing. Like there’s a lot going on with all of that again to me, and like you know, you have the title of the song, you have the music that’s accompanying the mood of the title of the song, accompanying the mood of the title of the song. So that’s why I feel like like the messages can get across almost without even saying anything.
0:29:32 – Speaker 2
You know yeah, I guess that’s true yeah it’s like a do do, do, a da da. Da had about that much going on in it too right exactly, exactly oh my gosh, some of the hits and you go. How in the world?
0:29:51 – Speaker 1
yeah, all right yeah, no, I, I hear you, I hear that, yeah. So so, like with with your guitar playing, what uh, like? What kind of guitar do you play and do you know what do you like to play? If you, did you ever just kind of pick up a guitar and fill it around, like at home or whatever, like, um, and yes, I do pick up a guitar and fill it around, like at home or whatever Like.
0:30:08 – Speaker 2
and yes, I do pick up my guitar and fool around and that’s part of where a lot of songs have come from. Although more songs have come from me, just having some kind of being moved by something, and to start with the lyrics. For me, that’s part of why lyrics are so important.
0:30:26 – Speaker 1
I get that yeah.
0:30:27 – Speaker 2
But sometimes they I mean a lot of times the lyric and the melody come at the same time and then I add the guitar. Occasionally I start with something on the guitar and then I create to that. So I mean it’s both ways, but more often the other way. But about your previous answer there, my favorite guitar that I have right now is my Taylor nine 14.
0:30:50 – Speaker 1
Nice Um it’s.
0:30:52 – Speaker 2
It’s a wonderful guitar. It sounds just as beautiful when you plug it in as it does when you’re playing it acoustically, which is something I really appreciate.
Um, but uh, just fun little story. When I was in sixth grade, um, uh, I actually graduated from elementary school in sixth grade. They didn’t have, like the, the, the, they were broken up differently than they are now, but as far as the grades, but anyway. So sixth grade, uh, for our graduation, they, we had a campfire. It was a very small group and we we had, um, and we had a campfire and they handed out certificates and along with our certificates were these sort of gag prizes and they gave to me. I wish I could find the certificate. They said I would be receiving a Mother of Pearl guitar for the Julie Hour at eight, and then, years later, when I bought this, I named her Lily Rose, my Taylor guitar.
I bought her down in Nashville and she’s got these beautiful lilies and roses inlaid with Mother of Pearl in her fretboard and then it’s got Mother of Pearl around the sound hole and it’s got rosewood and different things and I said the prophecy has been fulfilled. Because I then used that guitar on a TV show and it wasn’t the Julia, but you know Julie was being featured that hour. Whatever my Mother of Pearl guitar for the Julie hour, the prophecy is funny.
0:32:32 – Speaker 1
That’s funny. So, like, what do you? What are you currently like working on? I mean, it sounds like you’re working on albums. Basically, you got to like a lot of music going down then like currently, right now, then Right.
0:32:44 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, I’m like I said I’m really excited. Yeah, yeah, um, I I’m like I said I’m really excited about this album. I’m doing a lot of songwriting for this album. A few of the songs that are on it were things that we were going to try to produce in in 2019. Um, but, like, there’s a song masterpiece, um, another song Jesus since the day. Um, but then I’ve written a bunch of new songs for this album. We Choose Life is one of the really fun ones. Another one you Care for Me. Another one what being Christian Means, which is kind of fun and sassy and yet it’s all about how awesome it is to be in God and so, yeah, so I’ve been writing a lot of songs. I mean, there’s still a little bit of a jazzy twist to things, cause that’s who I am.
Like I said, I love to scat and I also do this crazy thing called a vocal. I call it my, my trumpet. And the same wonderful woman I mentioned who connected me to Neil Merrick Blackwood. Her name Rebecca Harold. She wrote this song called it Ain’t Right, and it was this kind of bluesy down, you know song about justice. It ain’t right, you know, it just ain’t right, you know, and we sang it. We were in that acapella group. I mentioned earlier that we put out a CD. We were in that acapella group. I mentioned earlier that we put out a CD, faith in Action, and we did that song. And one day we were doing a concert and usually I took a scat solo in the middle of it and we were messing around in rehearsal. It was kind of a reggae thing and I started pretending I was a trumpet.
0:34:31 – Speaker 1
Oh, my goodness, that is ridiculous, you know and um that’s wicked funny, that’s crazy.
0:34:36 – Speaker 2
And we were laughing and we were like, oh, you should just throw that on the gig and see what happens, right? So I did. We were, we were playing a show and, uh, I threw the trumpet in the center and people just went nuts. You know they loved it Totally. People started asking for the trumpet song on our show and I felt so bad because Rebecca’s song you know it Ain’t Right was this Right, right.
0:35:02 – Speaker 1
It’s like this hit or whatever, and they’re like give us the trumpet song.
0:35:06 – Speaker 2
And it became the trumpet song. I just felt so bad so I said I’ve got to write something of my own with this trumpet, so that you know I don’t keep stealing from Rebecca. So it was shortly after that that I wrote the coffee song which?
0:35:26 – Speaker 1
Oh okay, yeah, you mentioned that earlier.
0:35:27 – Speaker 2
Yeah, which wrote the coffee song, which, oh, okay, yeah, you mentioned that earlier. Yeah, which is a love song. Actually I had written for my husband before we started dating and it kind of blew everything out of the water because it talked about us falling in love.
But nonetheless I wrote and I threw the trumpet in there and that song it’s just a love song. It’s just a funny, fun little love song. It’s not a worship song or anything, but that’s the one that then got a lot of attention with my international promoter and got on the charts in Austria, and that’s on the Grace with Jazz on Top album.
0:36:06 – Speaker 1
That’s awesome.
0:36:07 – Speaker 2
So I still have to, you know, make sure I’ve got some trumpet. I don’t think there was any trumpet in the Let my Light Shine album. Oh, that’s not a good thing Got to have some trumpet.
0:36:19 – Speaker 1
Got to have the trumpet. That’s so cool.
0:36:23 – Speaker 2
So actually, in the same song I mentioned, I keep mentioning Someone to Dry your Eyes, but there is a muted trumpet. In the same song I mentioned, I keep mentioning, uh, someone to dry your eyes, but there is a muted trumpet. In the center there’s a bass solo and a muted trumpet solo, which is just like moaning, you know, uh you feel the agony, um, but uh, yeah. So that’s obviously one of the ones that’s for listening, as opposed to something I ever expect a congregation to sing.
But, um, you know they’ll be doing you care for me, you know and you know they’ll be doing some other things which are a lot more accessible to the group. Um, but yeah, so, uh, so, the, the trumpet, the trumpet it’s my thing, my little thing. I got a few little things the hook yeah. I know.
I hear you know that’s always a challenge as a musician is when to do things that are not commercial because they’re unique to you, and when to to stay to the straight and commercial narrow because you need to get a wider audience. And that actually came up on one of the other songs on the album um, what christian means to me? Um, which is it’s a really fun song, and when I wrote it I said, okay, so this one’s not a congregational song. But then when we were in the studio recording it, I did a scat solo not a trumpet solo, just a scat solo in it. And then we brought a saxophone player in to play some stuff and my producer was like, well, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s. You should probably just do it the trumpet. So, excuse me, the the saxophone should just take that, because that’s more.
You know more commercial yeah, yeah, yeah you know, and then I was kind of like but there’s nothing on this album where I’m scatting and that’s something that I do, that people associate with me as an artist yeah.
And I. There has to be something on here where I do this, you know, and I guess there was a little something with the trumpet on the other one. But so what we ended up doing was something where me and the sax player are trading, and it does definitely take it a little bit out of the pop and into the jazz, but it’s just musically, it’s so fun, it’s just so fun and I hope when you hear it you’re going to love it, because just the joy is just popping.
0:39:01 – Speaker 1
Well, I guess, at the end of the day, isn’t that what creativity and kind of doing your creative thing should be all about? Right is having fun because, like it, it loses if you, if you turn your creative thing into like, oh, I need to make money with my creative thing, I don’t want to, I want to say it like loses. You know it’s whatever, but I mean, you still have to remember, at the end of the day it’s like you’re doing this at. At the end of the day, I I feel like if you’re a creative person doing creative thing, first and foremost you should be doing it for kind of like you, because it’s it’s beneficial, it’s beneficial for you yourself as a person to create something, to get it out of you. Because I feel like there are some people in the world, maybe many people in the world, that are frustrated, whatever, mad at the world, angry, angry at the world, you know, fill in the blank with whatever and a kind of negative connotation, and I think a lot of that can be, can be boiled down to we all have a creative inkling in us, regardless of what it is, and if you’re not tapping into that thing you’re, I don’t think you’re like a fulfilled person, like a fulfilled person. So that’s why, that’s why I believe people need to just create and do what’s inside of them, because they need to, to scratch that itch and give them a sense of like. Give them a sense of like ah, at least at least I don’t feel because that’s why the podcast is called Embrace your Storm Like there’s this storm brewing up inside of everyone.
We have trials, tribulations, we go through traumatic events, all this stuff. So we have trials, tribulations, we go through traumatic events, all this stuff. So we have all this brewing up inside of us. So I want people to find their creative outlet and then channel that storm through the creative outlet. You know so like that’s why you want to make sure you’re having fun still and not get lost in the you know into oh, I need to make money, or oh, this isn’t going to sell enough, or oh, you know what I mean, because you never know, know who you’re going to connect with with the creative thing that you put out there. And I think part of creativity is to connect with people. So that’s why you have to be like, true to yourself, not necessarily worry about like I mean, we all need to worry about money but, like, try not to let that be the like the deciding factor in your creative outlet, because you might miss touching someone if you don’t really.
0:41:12 – Speaker 2
I like that. I like that a lot and actually I want to just circle back to what you were saying about the podcast and where that came out of Jonathan. Because, well, first of all, before I forget, one of the songs that my husband released recently is called Fighting Through the Storms, released recently. It’s called Fighting Through the Storms, and I sing on it, in fact I co-wrote the lyrics with him, but it’s stylistically so different than what I’m doing on this other album that we’re sort of calling it two separate projects.
We’re calling that hit song, but I’m still singing on it. But, who knows, maybe you’d want to use it for bumper music. It might fit what you’re doing really well. But you know, I’ve definitely had some big storms on my journey and you know, and that’s why I feel like maybe things are breaking through now and maybe didn’t at an earlier time because it wasn’t the timing wasn’t right. Yeah, as much as I would have liked it to be, I keep having to learn this lesson over and over again. Trust, trust in God. Yes, he knows best, okay. God, yes, he knows best, okay.
Um, but uh, like for instance um, I didn’t come to faith until my late 20s and, uh, I was, as I mentioned earlier, just going after my music career with you know, full, full steam ahead. And, um, I was in a band, I led a band called centerpiece, which was gigging like five or six nights a week. We were I was just, I was hungry, you know.
I was if I make we, I found work, even if it paid a penny, I found. And so we worked and we played, and but I didn’t know when to stop, I didn’t know when to rest. I burned the candle at both ends. I had a day job as a telemarketer at the same time as I was gigging at night, not sleeping much, drinking lots of coffee instead of water. By the way, vocalists need to drink a lot of water, exactly.
The teacher is talking now. Okay, but I did a lot of other things that were not good for me physically, and I’m not talking drugs and alcohol even. I’m just saying that I just pushed the envelope way too, far. For a while I was bulimic. I was always concerned about skinny and so I was throwing up and that gives you acid reflux and messes with your sockets and all this awful stuff. And then I got nodes on my vocal cords.
0:44:03 – Speaker 1
Oh man.
0:44:05 – Speaker 2
And I stopped being able to sing. Everything fell apart. My band broke up. I had to cancel all my shows, thought my career was over. To cancel all my shows, thought my career was over. I didn’t have any training or understanding that led me to know that there was a light at the end of this tunnel.
0:44:26 – Speaker 1
Yeah, I know.
0:44:28 – Speaker 2
You know, and at that time that was when, and my fiance broke up with me right in the middle of that, Wasn’t?
0:44:35 – Speaker 1
that lovely oh geez.
0:44:37 – Speaker 2
Yeah, nice guy he was, yeah.
0:44:39 – Speaker 1
Oh my goodness, Talk about kicking you while you’re down.
0:44:42 – Speaker 2
Oh man. But the only people that seemed to still be in my orbit when I went through this were a few Christian friends of mine, including this guitar player named Jim Peterson, who’s actually my colleague now. He’s also a professor at Berklee. He’s a guitar professor, but he remained my friend for many years. I went to Berklee when I was an undergraduate in the 80s and I had met Jim then and he started inviting me to church and I was like nah, shut up and play your guitar. But he was so good that I continued to hire him for original shows and stuff.
And when everything fell apart, he didn’t just disappear like so many of my other friends did, who was like you don’t have a gig, I’m out of here. I got things to do. I got to go find work somewhere else, you know. But in fact he even started to study the Bible with my ex-fiancee, who changed so much it is just he, my gosh. He started apologizing to me about stuff and I was so blown away and he said, oh, jesus died for me and I can’t treat you like this anymore. And I was like what?
So it was during that time that I started to look deeper into the scriptures and it took me a while. It took me a bunch of months and you know, took me a while, took me a bunch of months, but decided that I wanted to follow Jesus and came to a faith and was baptized and then, crazy thing, my voice actually healed with a little bit of vocal therapy, but without surgery enough so that I could start singing again and started singing, started worship leading and started singing in Christian bands. And I was still doing GB gigs. In fact I still do general business shows, I do birthday parties, I do weddings, I’ll do that. I do that stuff on the side. But everything had changed at that point. But you know, everything had changed at that point. But it was even 10 years after that that, when I started teaching voice in, started teaching at an elementary school, that I lost my voice again. And that time is when I really learned my lesson and learned OK, you can’t just kill yourself and expect your voice to behave.
0:47:17 – Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s very true.
0:47:25 – Speaker 2
And that time I ended up getting surgery getting node surgery in 2001 and learned so much about vocal health Hello, we’ve got company. But anyway, I learned so much during that whole thing that that’s very Central to my teaching, Whether it’s to worship leaders or anybody. Learning voice just how to, I mean golly, god gave us Sabbath for a reason and I’m not talking about a day, I’m just talking about realizing that we need to rest.
And when our body is just done, or our voice is done, we need to rest it. And you know, we think we just have to keep going, going, going, going going. And you know, anyway.
0:48:14 – Speaker 1
so that was a huge, huge lesson, um, along the way, julie, I, I hate to cut you off, but we’re we’re gonna have to wrap things up here, uh kind of rounding.
We’re kind of rounding third base, but like is there I love what you just said, though, about giving your body the rest of stuff, because a few interviews are known. It’s not the interview isn’t out yet. It will be, but I spoke to another vocalist, uh, um, kind of teacher guy, and he was saying those very safe things. He’s like singing is the only thing where it’s like you need to take care of your instrument, like you are the instrument.
Yes, you know, so, like, so, like you got and I was like, wow, that’s really interesting. It’s like things I, you know, didn’t consider before, you know. So it was really cool that you uh, you were kind of mentioning those things. But is there anything you would say to like? Uh, you know someone wanting to start singing, someone wanting to start playing guitar or whatever, or maybe they are. Do you have any kind of words of encouragement or or anything you want to give to the audience?
0:49:14 – Speaker 2
Wow, so many things I could say, but I think, as far as singing, you know, sing from your heart.
It’s the connection between you and whoever you’re singing for, which is most important and then find yourself a good teacher, because there’s probably so much you don’t know about what your voice can do. You know, some people have this idea that, oh, I’m already talented, I don’t need a teacher. That’s not the point at all. What a teacher can do for you is to help you to get more tools to be able to do more with the talent you have.
0:49:52 – Speaker 1
Exactly.
0:49:53 – Speaker 2
And to do it in a way that’s not going to hurt your voice.
0:49:56 – Speaker 1
Exactly.
0:49:57 – Speaker 2
So you can have longevity in your singing and your career and whatever you decide to do with it.
0:50:03 – Speaker 1
Yeah.
0:50:05 – Speaker 2
And remember that it’s a gift and you want to be a good steward of that gift you want to take care of it.
0:50:13 – Speaker 1
That’s very true.
0:50:14 – Speaker 2
And nurture it, you know. Allow yourself to do things that gift you want to take care of it um, that’s very true and nurture it, you know. Allow yourself to do things that inspire you. Um, I mean, I love mountains, I. I get very inspired by the beauty of creation and I was when I was in black mountain. I was staying at a cabin with a mountain view and that was just like paradise for me.
And then I’d go in the studio and then I’d go back to my little bitty cabin and it was. It was so nourishing for my soul. Do things that nourish your soul.
0:50:45 – Speaker 1
Absolutely Well, julie, again I you were awesome having on. I feel like we could have probably talked for a few more hours but unfortunately I have to cut us off here. But maybe we can have you back on some other time to kind of go into more about vocal stuff or like train. You know things like vocalists can do to to train themselves and prepare. But yeah, again I thank you so much for your time, for coming on. It’s really appreciate your, your. You definitely had a lot of words of encouragement throughout this episode, so I appreciate that.
0:51:15 – Speaker 2
Thank you, and can I encourage you all out there in the listening land to go to my website, which is JulieKSingscom.
0:51:26 – Speaker 1
Julie K Sings.
0:51:30 – Speaker 2
JulieKSingscom and you’ll find links to everything else that is, Julie, including my book, and you know my shows and everything else Coming up in the fall. I’ll be leading a concert at Berkeley on October, that’s cool. October, october. Let me find it really quickly. Where is it On phone? Why are you not moving? It’s not. What is it On phone? Why are you not moving? It’s not. What is that’s weird? You know how sometimes, like, your finger doesn’t have any electrons, okay, yeah, what the heck is going on with that?
0:52:08 – Speaker 1
Okay, october 17th. Yeah.
0:52:12 – Speaker 2
October 17th. I’m leading a faculty concert, but I’ll be singing on it at Berkeley College of Music in Boston, 1140 Boylston Street, at 7 pm. I’ve got a lot of other little things coming up before that which you can check out. I’ll be probably singing at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium Also. I think it’s Sunday, the 13th of October. I think that’s going to be a big week, which is it’ll be a huge church service at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium with a couple thousand people. Oh wow. So I’ll be singing at that. Keep it in your prayers that things are going to work out for SoulFest, but that won’t be until next year. But yeah, a lot of different things coming up Absolutely Leading vocal workshops, different things Awesome. You can join my mailing list if you go to that.
0:53:12 – Speaker 1
JulieKSingscom. Awesome, that’s great Again, julia, I thank you so much for your time and coming on and and sharing your your story with the audience.
0:53:23 – Speaker 2
You’re welcome. You’re very welcome. Thank you for having me. And anybody out there also is a worship leader and you’d like to have me come do a workshop for your church Also please let me know.
0:53:35 – Speaker 1
There you go everyone. Thank you for listening, thank you for downloading and don’t forget to embrace your storm, see ya.