I’m Julie, the singer in OLDER, which still makes me laugh a bit because if you’d told me years ago this is where I’d land, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But here I’m, still doing it and still loving it!
I take the lead on vocals, but if I’m honest, the real fun for me is in the harmonies. That’s my playtime. I love slipping into those spaces around the melody and adding something that just lifts it or gives it a different feel. It’s not always the obvious part, but it’s the bit I probably enjoy the most when we’re in the studio.
The way we work is pretty relaxed. Jel will usually build the music track first. That’s his space and he’s very good at it. Once we’ve got something to work with, we’ll sit down and write lyrics together if we can, or at least bounce ideas around. Then we’ll record a rough version, nothing fancy, just enough to capture the feel of it. From there, once we’re happy, we head into the studio and turn it into something more polished.
Now here’s the honest part. I don’t play an instrument. Not properly anyway. I can’t jump on the piano and work things out, and my guitar skills are… let’s call them functional. We’ve always had a guitar in the house, so I’ll pick it up and have a go, but it’s really just a communication tool. It’s not about playing it well, it’s about getting the idea across.
So most of the time, I’ll sing something to Jel and say, “This is what I’m hearing.” And he’ll go, “Yep, throw me the chords,” which is slightly optimistic given my skill level. I’ll muddle my way through, chuck a few chords down, cross my fingers and hope he can make sense of it.
And this is where it gets quite remarkable.
What I give him is often pretty rough. Basic is probably the kindest way to describe it. But he has this ability to take that rough idea and turn it into something that actually sounds like a proper track. He’ll shift the key, change the chords, move things around, do whatever he needs to do, and suddenly it’s got shape and depth and direction.
A good example is a track called Hogtied. What I originally put together was about as simple as it gets. A few lines, a basic melody, nothing flash at all. Something along the lines of:
Don’t need a little man on your shoulder
Got the whole damn world to control you
From memes to screens and talkback machines
You’ll be swiftly hogtied to the mainstream
And then I just hand it over. “Thanks, Jel. See what you can do.”
And I wait.
Because I know whatever comes back is going to be better than what I started with.
That’s kind of how we work. It’s not polished at the beginning. It’s not perfect. It’s just ideas, thrown around, shaped, reshaped, and slowly turned into something we’re proud of. And honestly, that’s half the fun.
