THE ECLECTIC INTERVIEWS RETURN
This week, I speak all things music with London-based artist Julie Hicklin. From slow burning, dance floor friendly tracks to cinematic, melancholic, haunting ballads & dark, sexy, pop. A sonic journey of life, love and human experience. Let’s get started…
THE LOW-DOWN WITH JULIE HICKLIN
ARP: Tell us a little bit about your musical career to date and your musical influences past and current.
JH Music has always been a dominant part of my life, I think I sang before I could talk! My Dad loved all genres of music, I grew up listening to anything he chose to play around the house. so anything from Elvis the King to Elvis Costello, Abba, The Pet Shop Boys, Shirley Bassey, Count Basie…Mum would play BBC Radio 4 so we’d hear some classical too.
I adore melody and focus mostly on that when writing a song although I did write one of my best to a simple drum loop. Inspiration can arise from any form of music for me, I don’t always have to like it, it can still achieve a reaction, a feeling which can sometimes be the catalyst for a new song.
I suppose Electronic music has been the biggest influence from Depeche Mode to Daft Punk, Pet shop Boys to Jessica Winter.
ARP: What’s the story behind your latest track ‘Dog Solitude’ and how did you connect with Alan Elettronico for the remix?
JH I released Dog Solitude during lockdown in 2021, originally there was a sample of a dog barking in the distance but I made the decision to remove it and to keep the odd sounding title. The song depicts unrequited desire, the lyric ‘Touching she finds, he won’t find, he won’t hear her crying la la la..” has a correlation in essence to the lone dog barking in the hinterland, a sense of longing that cannot be fulfilled. I met Alan Elettronico through a playlist on Spotify – City of Music – curated by Robson Darker. I reached out to Alan as I loved his music and hoped he might like to remix Dog Solitude which he kindly said would be honored to! He communicated as the process progressed, asking my opinion at the various stages until we reached the one that we released in January – Bristol Remix – a nod to 90s Trip hop. I was delighted with the result. There was a synergy in our thinking, it was a positive, productive experience, a relationship has been forged, we will release together again in the near future.
ARP: If your current musical style was a recipe, what would be the key ingredients, and is the secret component that makes it distinctively yours?
JH I’d source the best quality ingredients I could find and afford, musicians that are masters of their instrument, who elevate my ideas to that place in my imagination that I’m unable to reach myself.
The measures and timing of the components need to be exacting and perfectly balanced to create a sonic experience that the listener would want to indulge in again and again.
My voice is the secret ingredient, the common denominator that brings all the ingredients together to be recognisable as one of my creations, most likely a Marmite situation though, in that you’ll love it or hate it 🙂
ARP: Imagine a Time Machine that could only use it to change something about the course of music or the music industry! Would you use it and what for?
JH No, I wouldn’t use it, I think you have to let things evolve naturally. I hear a lot of musicians complain about the income derived from sites like Spotify but I personally feel sites like this open the floodgates for independent artists to be able to release music without the confines of a major label, to have control and relish at the fact their music is out there in the ether for the whole world to discover also. For me this is all progress.
ARP: If you could design a perfect listening space for your latest or an upcoming track, from the architecture to the lighting to the seating, what would that experience look like for your audience?
JH For my upcoming single, I’d like the audience to experience an immersive journey where they would be encapsulated within a huge replica of the inside of the human body, to experience the effects of how mental pain affects our whole internal system, the trauma of loss, a broken heart, anxiety, despair.
A 3d CGI generated extravaganza where they would exit having felt all senses had shared the experience.
ARP: Is there song in your catalogue that feels like it’s still evolving every time you hear it, and has its meaning transformed since you first wrote it?
JH The song Numb which I wrote in 2008 with my long time collaborator (Laykkah/Las Bibas) based in Brazil is a song that lends itself to multi genres, it has been released a few times, the most recent being an Afro Beat version, it is a very sad song about the break down of a relationship which we can all relate to so there will most likely be another version at some stage.
ARP: Is there a sound, instrument or genre-influence you’d like to incorporate into your music, but haven’t yet done so?
JH:I always dream that one day I’ll sing my songs with an orchestra, the sound, resonance, drama would be the ultimate.
I’d also like to have the opportunity to use a Theremin, the sound is otherworldly, eerie and echoes my usual melancholic themes.
I think maybe it’s time I wrote something upbeat and positive!!
CHECK OUT JULIE HICKLIN
Julie Hicklin on Spotify
Julie Hicklin Bandcamp
Julie Hicklin on Apple Music
Great interview 😍⭐️🌞
Thank you!