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Sep 18, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Julien Chang

Promising new 19-year-old Baltimore singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer Julien Chang is releasing his debut album, Jules, on October 11 via Transgressive. Now he has shared another song from it, the dreamy “Memory Loss,” which has a bit of a relaxed Toro y Moi vibe. Listen below, followed by Chang’s upcoming tour dates.

Chang had this to say about the song in a press release: “A worsening memory is something I’ve always been worried about. The song was made with a kind of structural rigidity in mind, and about memory’s natural lack of it when having trouble putting faces to names, for example. It’s easy to be frustrated by that feeling, but being left with a sudden emotional reaction sparked by some stimulus for an unclear reason can be as lovely as it is disorienting.”

When the album was announced Chang shared a new single from it, “Butterflies from Monaco,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Jules also features his previously shared debut single, “Of the Past.”

Chang self-produced the album and played most of its instruments. He’s currently in college, but the album began in his senior year of high school two years ago.

“The record was brought to life by uncertainty and experimentation, just like most everything else in life is during the summer before senior year,” Chang explains in a press release. “Even in the last weeks of recording, I was unsure of what kind of album it would turn out to be, but I think that was the point of making it-to follow inspirations indiscriminately and to whatever extent I felt.”

Chang adds: “The summer before my senior year was a really formative time for me. I got exposed to a ton of revelatory music, all sorts of stuff like Pink Floyd and Tchaikovsky and ‘70s Afro-funk and Gregorian chants. At the same time, I finally started doing the kinds of things you’d expect a 17-year-old kid to do.”

Of the album title, Chang explains: “I called the album Jules because it’s a nickname that no one ever actually calls me. Nicknames can give you something to grab onto, a sense of familiarity with someone, but in this case it’s actually a false familiarity. Just like people thought they knew who I was but had no idea what I was creating in that basement all summer, you might think you know me well from listening to this record, but the truth is that there’s a lot more going on below the surface.”

Julien Chang Tour Dates:

10/15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
10/28 - London, UK @ Bermondsey Social Club
10/29 - London, UK @ Servant Jazz Quarters
10/31 - Brussels, BE @ Botanique Witloof Bar
11/01 - Berlin, DE @ Musik & Frieden

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