Another day, another trip abroad to soak up the sun, soak in the sea and smother ourselves in new music…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Hi there, we originally come from Greece.
How did you meet?
Actually from common friends or fellows, the old-school way…
How long have you been playing as a band?
Band was created in 2006 and the first line-up came to existence a year later. Have changed a good number of members that far however vision remains pretty much the same.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Yeah, there is actually a story behind it. Elia’s (guitars, compositions) nickname was “July”, he was called like this by a pal in a former band he was playing, so this is the “Julian’s” part. “Lullaby” seemed a good fit to the musical direction and a smart choice back then because it’s not really revealing any particular music style or at least you don’t expect what the band would sound like. We wanted a somehow unusual name.
What are your influences?
Would rather say heavy metal from the ‘90s and ‘80s with modern production, symphonic, classical elements and some folk-rock touch. We combine both male and female vocals but we have tried different singers formations in the past, even two female singers. Current one seems to be working best though.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Well don’t know about unique but surely, we try to sound a bit different, mix the same ingredients in a way that it does not remind you of 100 other bands if you know what I mean. Our musical influences come from the ‘80s and ‘90s metal mainly of course, but we also combine folk, neo-classical and goth rock elements, so the end result sounds familiar but diverse and colourful in a way that differs from bands of similar genre. This is not necessarily good or bad, it’s just us.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Our lyrics are highly influenced by dark poetry, books, mythology, films, personal experiences and even theatrical plays. We also work with a novelist that has written a lot of our lyrics in both albums so far.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We haven’t played that many shows unfortunately for a number of reasons. Most recent one is the distance as we don’t live in the same city (or country) anymore.
Our shows are more direct, heavier and mainly “guitar” driven so to speak. We don’t use live keyboards although we tried in the old days but didn’t work very well mostly because of chemistry between members. We now use only a few pre-recorded parts and lead guitars also undertake a lot of melodies played by other instruments in the studio version. This makes it more interesting at the end.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Ah ok, we might disappoint you a bit as we are not Motley Crue or Ozzy or the kind of band that you can expect wild stories, drugs, heavy drinking or super-crazy live show experience. We unleash lots of energy on-stage and have a great time together but that’s it. One nice story that comes to mind is the gig we did in Belgium in a really underground club in the middle of nowhere with a Russian black-metal band called Satarial and another local band called Noord. This was a cool experience and had a very good time, normally we enjoy every time we play live without taking it too far, we don’t need it.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We play strat-like with nice balanced sounding coils guitars to match our playing style and normal heavy rock double-kick drum kit. No endorsements.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We are currently still promoting our second album Prisoner of Emotions.
What are your plans for 2020?
We are in the pre-production stage of our next album, stay tuned!
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Very difficult to choose, there so many known or unknown bands that would like to share the stage with, more important is that we play, sorry this is what matters the most!
Julian’s Lullaby: official | facebook | twitter | bandcamp | youtube
