If you’ve ever wondered what 90s/ 60s fusion clit rock sounds like then listen to the track below and you’ll get your answer. There’s no denying that Julia Why? is one of the most exciting up and comers in the rock scene right now.
The trio’s catchy melodies and relentless riffs have earned them the title of one of the most rocking female fronted bands around. With the release of their new album Wheel today the band are premiering their video for Turntable. Julia from the band took some time to answer a few questions about the video and how recording their album in one night sent their drummer to the looney bin. Really.
Did the recording of your album hospitalise your drummer? It happened to Julia Why? Check out their video Turntable and Q&A on recording Wheel in one day
HAPPY: Let’s talk about the clip for Turntable. It’s a interesting montage of Australian history, why this approach and what made you chose these clips in particular? Needless to say it’s very different to the zombie carnage of Just One Night!
JULIA: Yeah we wanted to show a different side to JuliaWhy? I guess. And our drummer, Peter Beringer, gave himself nerve damage and hasn’t been able to play drums for the past six weeks. He kind of went into a cave and came out with this. He showed it to me and I really loved it. It’s subtle and open to interpretation – kind of the binary opposite to our last clip. But I guess that’s the point.
HAPPY: The best music videos tell a narrative that both coincides with the song yet manages to elevate its meaning. What is the narrative in the video for Turntable?
JULIA: I asked Pete, who made it. To quote, “It”s kind of about lost opportunity. All the footage shows how the golden age of Australian innovation and our unique democratic socialism has gone to pieces…the attitudes in Australian society have turned around, from the more socially-minded to the more self-minded, kind of like a locomotive turntable turning 180 degrees.”
When Pete first showed me the clip, it was around the time our Prime Minister gave the Queen’s husband a knighthood. What a joke.When I watched this clip, where Prince Phillip and the Queen are visiting Waterloo near Redfern in the 50s to formally open the public housing towers there, I also thought – LOL what a fucking joke. That’s the last place in the entire world the Queen would visit today. The footage in this music video makes me laugh but it also makes me cry. Especially given where Australia is politically right now. Same goes for the song. I laugh at the same stuff I want to scream at.
HAPPY: Your debut album Wheel is out today, what has the journey been like to arrive at this point?
JULIA: I started writing a lot of these songs while I was living in a sharehouse in Marrickville – there were eight of us living there. Everyone played in bands. I think I was influenced by all the bands rehearsing there. We recorded the whole album in one night after some self-administered pharmacotherapy. A Sunday night actually. We finished at about 7am. It was rather productive. Mind you, it did send Pete (our drummer/recording engineer/producer/lover) to the looney bin. No, really, it did, for four weeks in fact. I visited him heaps. Matt didn’t. Anyway, the vinyl arrived on Monday. It was a pretty good feeling hearing it on the record player for the first time.
HAPPY: What was the writing and recording process like? Was there a precedent to make a good impression?
JULIA: Not really. Just my own precedent that I didn’t want to repeat what I did with my first release, (Part 1 and Part 2) which was, to not really release it! I disappeared into a black hole as soon as I’d finished recording it. I learnt my lesson and promised myself, next time around I’d pull my finger out. I think putting it out on vinyl helped me commit to getting this record out there as well.
HAPPY: We always write about things that make us happy, so we want to know what gives you those warm and fuzzy feelings?
JULIA: Getting greeted by my cute little poopie pumpernickel puppy dog Nico when I get home. Performing live always gives me a buzz. And writing songs with Matt and Pete of course. And beer.
Julia Why will be hitting the road for a tour in support of the new album, you check out all the details here. Wheel is available now via EXXE Records.
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