After earning international acclaim with his debut EP ‘Dopamine’, Julius Black launched his follow-up ‘Together We Go Down In The Dark’ by sharing its first track ‘Do You Still Dream?’. The single was heralded by Wonderland as “a triumphant return” as Julius continued to add to the tastemaker tips that have positively compared him to Frank Ocean, Phoebe Bridgers and Rex Orange County.
Julius Black now shares a second taste of the EP by sharing the new single ‘Boomerang’. The track is set to add to the 1.1 million streams that Julius has already amassed at Spotify alone.
‘Boomerang’ is representative of Julius’s ability to embellish songs that initially feel deceptively simple with a selection of intriguely off-kilter production ideas. Vocals and guitar are the foundation for a series of unorthodox touches as swooning vocal harmonies, detuned synths and constantly evolving beats continually add creative yet cohesive curiosities. It’s a song that defies simple categorisation, touching upon alt-pop, singer-songwriter and R&B without being defined by any one genre.
‘Boomerang’ is again a product of Julius’s work with his key collaborators, having been co-written with Joe Faris (Ezra Vine) and produced by Struan Finlay.
Julius says, “‘Boomerang’ is about ambition and ego. I wanted to make a song that encapsulates the feeling of nothing ever being enough and always wanting more. It’s kind of a nod to ‘Channel Orange’ era Frank Ocean.”
Listen to ‘Boomerang’ – BELOW:
Frank Ocean is one of a wide range of influences that inform Julius’s music, with others including The Beatles, The 1975, Moses Sumney and Willum Maindo. It’s that mix of the modern and the classic, the mainstream and the underground, that makes the five-track ‘Together We Go Down In The Dark’ EP such an engaging leftfield listen.
It seems that unpredictability is something that has always been part of his DNA. At the start of his teens his love of hip-hop and punk emerged, shortly after moving to New Zealand from Shanghai, but later detoured into gospel and R&B. Determined to forge a life-long career in music, it looked as if attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music would help that ambition become a reality. The pandemic ruined that plan, but undeterred Julius instead shaped his own path – and soon listeners from the world over were connected with songs that started in his bedroom studio.
‘Together We Go Down In The Dark’ tracklist:
‘Do You Still Dream?’
‘Boomerang’
‘Cellophane’
‘Red Flags’
‘Together We Go Down In The Dark’
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