ZADAR – JULIE

US artist, ZADAR, has just released his latest single, Julie. ZADAR is the moniker for Antonio G and this is currently a solo project, with a plan to take on other musicians for a live show. We’ve been taking a listen to Julie here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today and for lovers of old school Sisters of Mercy style music, this could well be right up your street.

In the words of the artist; “ This song was originally written for someone I was once very fond of. I contemplated for a while whether I should even release this track at all because of the meaning it once held and the bittersweet feeling it brings me whenever I listen to it. It felt like a shame to shelve this song as I’ve always liked how the music turned out. It was written and demoed in about an hour and mixed by James Sinclair-Stott with artwork by Mirko Dellamonic.”

Julie starts on a simple, panned left guitar riff before the vocals come in with the repeated line of “Julie”. Clearly influenced by the likes of Sisters of Mercy and the Cure, this is a song which one might describe as “gothic” or “post punk”. The Sisters of Mercy influence is very strong in the vocal style. Zadar’s voice is very similar indeed to Andrew Eldritch and Julie feels as though it could sit alongside a playlist of late 80s/ early 90s post-punk tracks.

Julie is a truly creative and quirky track. It feels like a song that the artist should consider pursuing a sync deal for. Perhaps for a TV show where the music is playing in the background over a scene. As a song that remains fairly similar throughout (no sudden changes of key, tempo, crashing drums or changes of direction) this truly is a perfect track for a sync deal.

From a production perspective, we feel there are three frequency bands that are under-represented in this mix. A boost centred around 80Hz would bring in more bass and kick. Another boost centred around 1kHz would make the song sound fuller and a little less hollow. A third boost centred around 12kHz would give the track more brightness and ‘life’. Finally, a light compressor/limiter to control the peaks created by the kick and snare and a fairly large amount of make up gain would give the track more warmth and thickness as well as more overall volume.

For lovers of Sisters of Mercy, New Order and the Cure, you can’t go wrong taking a listen to ZADAR’s latest single, Julie. We’re looking forward to hearing where this unique and relatively new artist will take his career next.