Also, this! China Moses’ guest on her TSFJazz show back in March, I made a last minute dash to Paris right before the lockdown and recorded a little mini-concert which you can still catch via the TSFJazz facebook page. Thanks so much for having me :).
ON THE RADIO Pt 1 - 'LOOSE ENDS' BBC RADIO 4
Only three weeks ago, although it feels like another world entirely even now, I was in the BBC Studios with Clive Anderson and a motley crew of assorted culturally-minded folks for what was a lovely morning that included a live peformance of ‘Three Little Words’ from ‘Black and White, Vol.1’. You can listen back to the show here and in case you’re in a rush, I make my appearance at 9.55 in. <3
ƒƒƒƒ TÉLÉRAMA REVIEW!
In this time of lockdown, good news glitters like gold making me especially happy to read this lovely review of ‘Black and White, Vol.1’ today :). A big thank you to Louis-Julien Nicolaou and Télérama!
And another shout-out from Télérama here, in this piece about bringing the jazz club into your living room whilst you can’t go to the club - including a reminder you can watch a few things of mine (amongst much other fine jazziness) on Youtube whilst we’re all stuck at home.
Hoping you’re keeping safe and well out there!
SHEET MUSIC FOR 'BROKEN LITTLE PIECES' HAS ARRIVED!
‘One day, when you’re older this will all make sense’…
I hope so. And to help us there is music. I always think music has all the answers, it has always helped me to make sense of things. By listening but by playing even more so. Whilst so many of us are in lockdown at home, what better time to get your instruments out and play music?
This sheet music/single song bundle is available in the website shop but also via my Bandcamp page where it is set to 'free or pay more if you would like'. In these upended times, we are all in this together. If you enjoy my work and can afford to support me as an independent artist, any contribution is most gratefully received whilst I have no concerts for the foreseeable future. Equally, if you cannot afford to pay anything, please enjoy playing this music for free. Much love.
‘Broken Little Pieces’ is the first track on ‘Black and White, Vol.1’. Look out for more sheet music releases in the coming weeks!
Sheet Music ‘Broken Little Pieces’
4* JAZZWISE REVIEW FOR 'BLACK AND WHITE, VOL.1'!
Thanks so much to the folks at Jazzwise for this wonderful review of ‘Black and White, Vol.1’! Get a hold of the February issue for a double page feature too :).
'BLACK AND WHITE, VOL.1' IS OUT NOW!!
An album focussing entirely on solo voice and piano recordings, this is an intimate collection recorded in my own studio. And it’s getting some great reaction already! I hope you will take it to your hearts and can’t wait to hear what you think of it :).
There are a few signed Limited Edition vinyl copies left to buy direct from the shop here, otherwise you can buy CDs/Digital Downloads from either here also or from wherever you like to buy your music. This link should take you there!
Julia.x
Why 'Black and White'?
Life is not black and white and yet I am. Not black enough, not white enough but still both. The identity of multi-racial people such as myself is complicated to arrive at and I feel lucky that music has been there to guide me and allow me to create a sonic reflection of myself in order that I might feel whole. As much as alluding to the keys of the piano, the instrument that set me on the path to being the artist I am today, this is what the title ‘Black and White, Vol.1’ is about.
Nothing about life is simple and neither is talking about matters of race, yet as a species we have evolved this binary concept of ‘black’ and ‘white’ and so from that have come these vague ideas about what it means to be ‘black’ and what it means to be ‘white’. And so we have racial stereotyping. Like as if these supposedly two colours of human are somehow intrinsically different from each other.
The beauty of music is that it is above all of this mundanity. Music connects those of us that want to be connected regardless - it exists in a higher place. If we let it, music can pass through any and all filters and speak to the soul. It’s a magical place and I wish I could be there always. But I do not kid myself, I put this album out into this world knowing that its title and for many just the mere sound of my voice on these gentle songs will present a challenge to primitive, un-inclusive world views that are held hidden in the confines of musical genres. In reality they are often little more than subtle ways of racial stereotyping. My blackness co-exists with my whiteness in my skin, in my voice, in my influences, how could it not? I am both ‘black’ and ‘white’ in a world that seems to want me to pick a side. I was once told that racially-speaking, I shouldn’t exist, yet here I am.
In a racially binary world, I am the rainbow.
The new album from Julia Biel, ‘Black and White, Vol.1’ is released via Ankhtone Records/PIAS on 28th February 2020.
Photo by John Seymour
JAZZWISE FEATURE, FEB 2020 EDITION
One wintery afternoon I met up with Peter Quinn to talk all about the new album ‘Black and White, Vol. 1’. You can read all about it in the February edition of Jazzwise! And their 4* review of the album is in the same edition too. Thanks so much Jazzwise!
'Black and White' series - NEW RELEASES
I hope you’ve been enjoying the new recordings! So far the BLACK AND WHITE series has seen brand new song ‘Three Little Words’ released alongside new solo versions of ‘Shhh…’, ‘Say it Out Loud’ and ‘Diamond Dust’.
It’s been so great to deliver on what so many of you have been asking for with these new versions. And there’s many more to come! I hope you are following on Spotify to be the first to hear what’s coming out next? If you haven’t already done so let me know which is your favourite so far or what song you’d like to hear a solo version of in the future!
Julia.x
Photo (c) Mark Cant
'Three Little Words' - NEW RELEASE
Hey hope you’ve been doing well and living life to the max. I’ve some new music for your down time my friend :).
At the beginning of the year I decided I was going to create some solo piano/voice recordings to share with you. In my topsy-turvy music world, it’s something I’ve come to last despite many of you coming up to me after live shows asking if I had made a solo piano/voice record. I was listening honest..! But I felt I should only do this when I thought I could pull off putting the drama in the music recording full solo live takes in the studio singing and playing at the same time in a way that I’d be happy with… and that meant strictly no overdubs. This year the time was right - I felt ready for the challenge and cleared my diary for a week in March.
So now without further ado, I can share the first solo recording with you. It’s a brand new song called ‘Three Little Words’ and I’m pretty sure you’ll know the ones I mean. I wanted to write about the power words hold, and especially that particular pesky threesome. They can be healing, weaponised, manipulative, controlling or withheld - perhaps that’s when they have the most power of all.
For now, this series is streaming/download only but keep an eye out, there will be physical copies released bringing the whole series together at some point! If you want to be the first to hear when the next in the series is released, be sure to follow my page on Spotify and you’ll get automatic notifications.
Oh and don’t forget to let me know what you thought of the song - can’t wait to get your feedback :). Come and find me on Instagram or Facebook and we can chat there.
Happy listening, stay well!
Julia.x
Julia Biel. Photo credit (c) Jenna Foxton
UK SHOWS
GERMANY SHOWS
Land of my mother, it’s always a pleasure to perform in Germany! The year’s shows kicked off with a run of three shows in Ludwigshafen, Augsburg and Minden. After my guitar got left behind in London (thanks British Airways :/ ) we were re-united just in time for the second half of the show at Ludwigshafen and then it was onto Augsburg. Here’s a lovely review of that show to whet your appetites for more upcoming Germany dates, this time in Einbeck and Idar-Oberstein!
'Something Beautiful' - a video by Jordan Copeland
What a fab year it has been!! Thank you so much to everyone who has come out to see and hear me and my musicians this year at all the various shows around and about! It’s always a huge pleasure to get to play my songs for you.
This beautiful year is rounded off visually by ‘Something Beautiful’ by the videographer Jordan Copeland who has created an amazing sequence out of archive footage for my song. He had this to say about his approach:
"For me, this song belongs to the ancient tradition of ambiguous love poetry, in which it’s unclear whether the subject is a person or something more spiritual. Like Rumi - I wanted the video to ride the line between personal and profound, to say something about the human condition, about capital-B Beauty, to offer a perspective on the fundamental nature of things.”
When I watch what he has created, it speaks to me about mankind’s discovery and enjoyment of our beautiful planet whilst warning of our impending and careless destruction of it. It offers a timely wake-up call to our species to realise what is happening. I love what he has made. See what you think and watch it here!
Summer days! France, France, France
Wow, guys sorry it’s been a while since my last confession.. I mean blog post ;) . It’s been a glorious summer in many ways, and not just weather-wise so even though it’s getting colder again I feel thoroughly warmed by meeting so many amazing new people at all the shows over the past few months. I really appreciate it when you take the time to come and chat after and give your words of appreciation and encouragement.
This year it’s been so wonderful to be able to start touring in France and there have been really memorable shows in Strasbourg, Chamonix and Montpellier in the last couple of months alone. Amazing times and so great to be so incredibly enthusiastically received.
Here’s a lovely live review (below) from the show in Chamonix as published in Le Dauphiné Libéré, the regional newspaper.
The final show in France this year happens on 7th December in New Morning Paris!! See you there!
Are you a narcissist?
I knew it was risky bringing out my third album and making it self-titled. Generally the preserve of the debut album, the eponymous title generally says 'hello world', or 'introducing...' and I've already put out two albums before this so what does doing this now say about who I was before? How does it make sense to pick this route now? Am I navel-gazing?
Of course the pursuit of anything artistic can be dismissed as navel-gazing if you can't see past the creator to the creations themselves - it's what the songs are saying to YOU that matters far more than the way the songs emerged from me. That is always the way I feel about things created - they are made to belong to everyone, for everyone to engage with and not to keep to yourself.
But the process of writing songs and creating music or creating anything inevitably makes the creators confront themselves. Because it's only natural that you would examine what you have made before putting it out into the world.
And so many of my songs have come into being out of my subconscious mind that it can sometimes feel like I'm doing the aural equivalent of charting a map of unknown lands. And when confronted with myself listening back, I have realised that the whole pursuit of making music for me has been about and continues to be one about shaping and defining an identity through sound. A context in which to explore a human nature that doesn't 'belong' to a particular racial tribe (the consequence of a very mixed racial heritage) but belongs as we all do under the category 'human'. Just one sentient being as we all are, feeling emotions as we all do.
I didn't set out on this trip into music-making thinking 'I must create my sonic identity', but the further I have gone on this trip the deeper the realisation that this is what it is about. These are interesting times as the identity issues of mixed race people of colour are just beginning to be talked about more widely and I for one am glad. The binary world-view that we have all been encouraged to or collectively forced to exist in (and be on one side of) strips away and almost denies many complex nuances of experience and I think in many ways my music is a direct response to that.
So in calling my third album after myself I'm expressing a thankfulness to music for giving me a context in which to know myself, I'm saying I feel like I may have reached a milestone on the way to knowing myself and I'm saying I feel like I've reached a place sonically that represents me and here it is. But mostly I'm saying, here am I, just a person - treat me as a human-being, see all of me before you judge me, see me for the person that I am. I'm just like you.
Not long to go now!!!
It's come around so fast!! Only two weeks to go til my new album 'Julia Biel' is released. Some lovely reviews trickling through already including this very comprehensive one from Jazz in Europe. If you've already ordered your CD via this site or via bandcamp or elsewhere, your CD will be dropping through your letterbox on 9th February or shortly after - and if you haven't yet, well, get involved! If you do so right now, you can be part of the build-up to the big day :)
There's so much going on behind the scenes - I've been working on a new video for 'Always' (the photo here is a still from it) - I can't wait for you to see the whole thing! Any day now....
You can listen again here to my little chat with Jamie Cullum on his BBC Radio 2 show (14.30 mins in)... Next week there's full band live session being recorded for BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends programme... I'll be in Paris for a few days in the week of the launch and in Germany for a few days the following week doing a full round of interviews and radio sessions... Meanwhile the ball is well and truly rolling in the Netherlands where 'Wasting Breath' has just been playlisted on NPO R2! Later in the month it's back to Germany for a full band live session on breakfast TV.
If you see me anywhere, hand me a bottle of water and give me a thumbs up like I'm running the marathon!!! Thanks for all your support everyone, I couldn't do it without you. The tour diary is filling up fast for the rest of the year so I really hope to see you somewhere along the way!
Love
Julia.x
Langes Interview auf deutsch neulich erscheint! In Kultkomplott.de
Vielen Dank an Jörg Konrad für seine Geduld und Güte mit mir für dieses Interview in Kultkomplott.de!!
Wer 10 Minuten frei hat (und auch Deutsch redet) kann meine Antworte an vielen interessanten Fragen hier lesen :) .
Das neue Album ist jetzt hier als Pre-Order zu bekommen!!
New album release date!!! 09.02.18. On pre-order now
It's official!!! My new self-titled album 'Julia Biel' will be released 9th Feb 2018!! 12 songs in all, it's been a real labour of love and I can't wait for you to hear it :). Thanks so so much for your support everyone, it means the world to me <3 <3 <3
You can pre-order it now and get 2 songs instantly!!
http://bit.ly/2yoM3Sf. Available as downloads and on CD in luxurious digipack packaging with 12-page lyric booklet.
Idris Rahman Laurent Dupuy Rob Updegraff Samy Bishai Marco Piccioni Laurence Corns Andy Gibson Roy Dodds Khanti Records Marie Britsch Jerome Dupouy brillJant alternatives HEART BEAT & SOUL handshake booking Lander PR
Photo by Jenna Foxton
Brexit-busting
It's certainly a strange time to be British wondering where exactly the UK is headed. I waver between giving in to a voracious need to devour the news trying to fathom it all out and long periods of time when I find the news too depressing and I need to succumb to the desire to avoid knowing anything outside my immediate sphere so that I can continue to function in a meaningful way.
As a mixed race person, I truly feel like a citizen of Planet Earth so it's genuinely weird to be caught up in this nationalistic colonialist-inspired 'we're better than you' throwback in the form of this thing called Brexit. And as my direction of travel as an artist looks ever outward, one of the greatest joys I am finding is experiencing the warmth that comes with taking my music across cultures to clubs, concert halls and international jazz festivals abroad witnessing first-hand musicians and audiences from all over the world being united by the language of music. It's a beautiful way to remind everyone present how very similar we all are at our core, that we all share a common human experience no matter what trappings of language and customs and nationality we also wear - something fans of 'world' music have long-since known. The feeling of being made welcome and having people 'get' the music when you are not from there is the precise opposite of us as a nation saying 'we don't want to be in your club', because collectively our goal musically is to remind ourselves that there is only one club to be part of.
Last week's show in Vauréal on the outskirts of Paris, got me thinking again about how we will fare as a nation culturally if Brexit actually goes ahead. It's not just the ease of travel for the likes of me and my musicians but also the reverse as fewer and fewer artists and musicians from all over the world will want to come here or be able to even if they still want to. How impoverished will we be through this pursuit of otherness? If Brexit does have to go ahead, here's hoping it is at least not at the expense of the open borders in our hearts and minds. Every time I see a show featuring invited guests from abroad or get to go abroad to play I'm going to think of it as an act of Brexit-busting rebellion against a political landscape that seems to be trying to narrow our world. Just don't anybody say it's 'the will of the people..' I believe the will of the people is that everyone should have equal opportunities in this life. I don't believe Brexit is the way to achieve that. If politicians were really listening they'd concentrate on addressing the inequalities that prompted so many to vote leave and see the referendum for the blunt tool it really was. If ever there was a definition of political 'correctness' gone mad, Brexit is surely it.
At Forum de Vauréal with Rob Updegraff on guitar. Photo by Yanis Baybaud.
BRAND NEW VIDEO FOR 'WASTING BREATH'
A short film narrative concept by director David Tallon and produced by Benn Capon, we had a lot of fun making this surreal fantasy of a video for you! Shot on location at The Clapton Country Club and at various other East London spots over a long weekend, special thanks go to Terence Bates, owner of The Clapton Country Club who not only let us use his club but also his flat and he also features as an extra <3. It was truly wonderful to behold such generosity of spirit in the name of creativity - total legend! Can't wait to play at The Clapton Country Club some time - a gem of a place. Premiered in The Telegraph, you can watch the whole wondrous outcome on this link. Enjoy!
