Page 99 - ION Indie Magazine NovDec 2018

Harmonically Disruptive

While members in the band Orgy, Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh had dreams of doing something different. They found
themselves writing songs and collecting material that wasn’t really going in the direction of their current band. “We really
just wanted to do our own thing,” Amir said. “We wanted it to be different,” Ryan agreed. In 2005, they both left Orgy to
focus on their new project, Julien-K.

“The funny thing is, I don’t think I’m capable of doing something that isn’t different,” Amir said, shaking his head. “I’ve
tried to do more normal things on occasion, but it doesn’t work. It never feels right. I’ve accepted I’m going to do my weird
thing.” And their weird thing works. While ION was walking over to their merchandise booth to interview the band, they
were surrounded by concert goers who were buying their albums and merchandise while complimenting them on their
opening set for bands The Cult, Bush, and STP.
Amir, who went to school at UCLA for mixing and producing and was into electronics at a young age. “I was always
tinkering. I would bring a cassette recorder to rehearsals with earlier bands,” Amir said. Fascinated by the recording and
mixing process, Amir asked a lot of questions while in the studio. “I was fortunate to have really cool people around me
who were happy to teach. I was like a sponge,” Amir recalled. As the years progressed, he found himself doing the demos
and found a lot of success in both engineering and producing.

While Ryan has always been a singer/songwriter who was well-known for writing the hit “Blind,” sung by Jonathan Davis
of Korn, he admits he loves traveling, seeing the country and the world. “I get giddy when we leave on tour. I also like that
we have more control as a band -- the marketing, branding, writing, and recording processes. Now when we’re working
on a song, I can visualize how the campaign will look,” Ryan said.
He and Amir have always been the nucleus of Julien-K and are not stopping. As the band acquires new members for both
touring and studio work, they bring with them a new energy. Julien-K has become more independent, so the band mates
have stepped into new roles. As previously mentioned, Ryan has handled the touring and Amir has taken on the studio.
Friends and bandmates are very involved in their new album “Harmonic Disruptor.” One band mate who does a lot of
studio work, Fu Valcic, is unable to tour with them right now but remains an integral business partner. Fu contributes to
writing as well collaborating on producing and recording. Amir, Ryan, and band mate Bidi Cobra described Fu to ION as
“their bridge guy” -- explaining that he has a natural ability to nail a bridge that will bring the song together.
“As a team, we all wear different hats,” Amir said. Even in the musical process, each band member brings something
different to the stage and studio. Ryan has more pop sensibility. Bidi has great melodies and hooks. They have honed their
writing and recording process into a machine in which Amir is described by band mates as the “studio driver”. “We’re
pretty prolific,” Amir said of his team, with a smile.

Prolific and clever, Julien-K holds true to the concept that the music is not just a form of self-expression, but also, art. “We
want fans to interpret the lyrics and song titles however they want, like they would a painting or any other piece of art,”
Amir said, after explaining that they like contradictions in titles, which explains the name for their latest release “Harmonic
Disruptor.”

Julien-K set out on a goal to disrupt harmony and they’ve achieved it. Their sound is unique and quite contagious, but not
in a way where it sounds like everything else that’s out there. Their underground, dark wave music will have you hooked,
through and through.