We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julian Young a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Julian, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
The belief that my artistic journey is one of love and honesty. It is the people who have felt respected and dignified by me who have done the absolute most they could to aid-in or add-to the fire. The words of a stranger that told me my presence and performance was medicinal. And most importantly, my mother.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m a performer. I pour myself into the moments I get to share with others on and off stage. My most favorite thing to do is genre swap, reimagine, and improvise. Rock songs by artists such as Audioslave and Radiohead turned jazz and soul. Pop songs by Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson turned gospel. This blends are how I found my own sound.
Outside of my own efforts, I work in a band out of Crested Butte, Colorado called ‘Easy Jim, a Tribute to The Grateful Dead’. This privilege grants me space to continue to share the love of expression and improvisation via a wonderful musical and cultural phenomenon. Regionally the group is adored, and gaining more and more appreciation and reach with each performance.
My artistic journey is one of love and honesty.
On all major streaming services, my EP ‘Rotten Apples’ is available for streaming. It was made from home, some remotely and some with friends.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Openness to others: This path is slower than some others. Building a community is hard. Lean on your people and make space for collaboration.
Study your instrument:
Being able to hang at a moment’s notice takes time and discipline. Increasing your musical vocabulary strengthens your intuition.
Be good to yourself:
You will be told no. You will be told nothing at all. You will be ignored and overlooked. If you take it personally, it will effect you personally. Get comfortable asking 25 times. Get comfortable with rejection. Treat yourself with dignity, patience, and respect – as you would others.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
Know the limits of your strength, because it’s possible to hurt yourself. Leaning into what makes you uncomfortable will make you stronger, though.
I have had countless real-time trainwrecks on stage. Sometimes these things can’t be avoided and you’re not prepared to react. Recovery is important. However the most important thing I learned was that if you don’t know the part, don’t play it. It sounds logical in theory, but knowing yourself well enough to catch it and correct it before you audiate incorrectly is the life-long lesson. Then you have to learn how to make your mistakes sound intentional. That comes with vocabulary and intuition.
Keyboards have a versatile palette – therefore you can blend in, jump out, change the whole song, or hardly do a thing. Knowing this adds to the responsibility, however it gives you the tools to navigate stressful improvisations and songs with grace rather than perfection.
My weakness used to be allowing these experiences to reduce me rather than reduce me. I safely say they have benefited me as a performer now.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.julianyoungsings.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianyoungsings/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julianyoungsings/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1U9ROA2AGhQuuNuq3zjA_Q
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/julianyoungsings
Image Credits
Gary Sheer Photography https://garysheerphotography.com/
