ORGY Members To Release JULIEN-K Debut
January 8, 2009JULIEN-K, the brainchild of two of the founding members of the platinum-selling group ORGY — Amir Derakh (also ex-ROUGH CUTT) and Ryan Shuck — will release its debut full-length LP, "Death To Analog", on March 10 via Metropolis Records. A limited-edition version of the album will include a bonus disc titled "Death To Digital", featuring remixes of album tracks by such electronic luminaries as Paul Oakenfold, Deadmau5, SHE WANTS REVENGE, Photek, among others.
According to a press release, JULIEN-K "fuses elements of dark electronic club music with styles of modern rock and pop. JULIEN-K fills a void that exists between genres without leaning too heavily in any direction." "Why is there no band that's really rocking my world," asks vocalist Shuck. "Where are the revolutionaries? I haven't seen any bands stirring that up, bringing a new look, a new everything, kids buying guitars because they want to sound like that band. With JULIEN-K that's what I'm going for. I want to start a movement — a new religion."
Joined by drummer Elias Andra and studio collaborator and cohort Brandon Belsky on keyboards and vocals, JULIEN-K pushes the boundaries of what traditional electronic music is supposed to be. "Death to Analog" introduces listeners to a world where technology is fused with artistic expression in a way that has not been attempted before. Creating quite a thunderous stir on tours with EVANESCENCE, MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE, as well as a mainstage slot on Projekt Revolution alongside LINKIN PARK, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, PLACEBO, TAKING BACK SUNDAY and HIM, the band had been planning and plotting their international rock overthrow for quite a few years now. The band also appeared on the soundtrack to the hit film "Transformers" (incidentally, the band is currently scoring and composing the music for Transformers 2 videogame, due out in summer 2009).
Breaking into the mainstream with ORGY, whose #1 crossover smash, a cover of NEW ORDER's "Blue Monday", was both ubiquitous and credible, JULIEN-K has taken the aggrotech of its previous band and immersed it even deeper into synths and electronics. "We are this sort of hybrid of an electronic band and a rock band, which ORGY was as well, but we're actually skewed more electronic," Amir says. "I think deep down inside we really felt that we had always wanted the band to go in the direction of what we're doing now." "That was the initial thought behind ORGY — to become an electronic band that could play on the same stage with the likes of LINKIN PARK, KORN, MY CHEM — real rock bands — and hold our own," Shuck adds.
Executive-produced by Chester Bennington (LINKIN PARK) and mixed by Tim Palmer (THE CURE, HIM, U2),"Death To Analog" provides a sweeping landscape of musical influences and themes that pull the listener into their world on first listen. From expansive epicness of "Forever" that harkens mid-era DEPECHE MODE coupled with a futuristic center, to the deconstructed quasi-cover of ROMEO VOID's "Nvr Say Nvr", to the swirling synthpop of the first single and video "Kick the Bass", this debut sounds both eternally familiar but completely new and refreshing.
"We are trying to say something, we are trying to change things, we are trying to take performance to another level, we are trying to integrate technology in a way that no one ever has, we are trying to continue to write great songs, we are trying to write hooks and have great choruses, we are trying to talk about real life, our lives, situations, things that people can actually identify with, real life, love, relationships, all the things that I used to love in music," Shuck says. "We are trying to keep passion in music."
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