The internet has a lot to answer for these
days. I dread to think how many man hours are lost in offices around the globe
to the black hole of time known as YouTube and Facebook: the frustration of
trying to remember exactly which password is required to log into yet another
website that demands you possess an account to do anything; or the abject fear
of having last night’s drunken shenanigans broadcast to various relatives after
your friend hilariously uploads them for everyone to see on Facebook.
Thankfully, though, the internet does have
a good side. This very website, for example. Alongside us, it has grown into a fantastic platform
for smaller artists to promote themselves and grow a fanbase across the
world. This rambling essay on the
internet leads us to one artist in particular: Julia Nunes, an artist who got
her break on YouTube posting covers and originals recorded in her college dorm.
She cultivated a worldwide fanbase (and a few million views) thanks to an
absolutely brilliant voice and a cheerful sense of humor obvious in her
singing.
My writings on the power of the internet
don’t end there though, and move on to crowdfunding website Kickstarter, a
platform where creative types can propose projects to ask for people to help
fund them (with appropriate rewards for all involved). Last summer Julia put up
a request for help in funding her new album, aiming to earn $15,000 to cover recording
and production costs. In the end, more than $75,000 was put up by fans,
resulting in Settle Down, the album I
have here in my hands.
For those unfamiliar with Julia Nunes, she
tends to take a somewhat cheerful and enthusiastic approach to her work, with
most of her songs featuring a combination of ukulele and multi-tracked vocals,
which show off some impressive harmonies. Covers range from the happy and silly
Build Me Up Buttercup all the way
through to tracks like Run Around Sue
which really showcases the power of her voice.
Settle
Down as an album follows this pattern, shifting
from the melancholy to the daft and back again. Tracks like Lullaby tell familiar tales of love and
loss, as does Comatose which takes an
already stunning vocal performance up a notch. The flipside to these is songs
like Pizza which, powered by a
drumbeat from a cheap Casio keyboard, is probably one of the most worryingly
relatable songs I have ever heard, and I can only recommend that you hear it
for yourself.
The quality level on the rest of the album
doesn’t drop at all, with the $75,000 raised well used to allow more time in
the studio perfecting each track, and hiring some extra professional help with
the backing instrumentation.
Overall, it is not hard to see how Julia
has created such a following online. And having had the chance to play on Conan in the US, and play gigs at SXSW
and beyond, there is hopefully a very bright future ahead of her.
Settle
Down is available from all you usual online sources
now.
Check out Julia’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/jaaaaaaa for a whole
range of music and videos.
DL
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