We were lucky to catch up with Julian Stanz recently and have shared our conversation below.
Julian , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?
The past 4 years I’ve had constant migraines. It hasn’t been until relatively recently that I’ve gotten them under control. I was unable to work, write music, perform, record in studio, and struggled with basic functioning. Moreover, I was an inconsistent person. I couldn’t be relied on because I was always in such pain. I had 5 to 6 migraines a week, was on 3 medications, and was an absolute wreck. Last May I finally found something that worked, cut my headaches down from nearly one a day to about one bad one a month. With my newfound vitality I’ve been up to my neck writing new music and getting ready to kind of re-admit myself to the music scene. I’ve been gone for far too long, but I have big plans and will be launching new music this summer. My anxiety about having been so ill for so long and now trying to navigate the current music scene is causing me trepidation, but I’m writing the best songs I’ve ever written, and can’t wait for people to hear them. I’m so thankful to be back in action. It’s been a long slog. I hope others can learn from my struggles and push through their own personal struggles. There is success on the other side of those burdens; keep pushing. You can make it!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’ve been in bands in this town for about 15 years. I started off in a band called The Hostage, then launched a new band called With Bravado in which I sang, played guitar, and acted as primary writer. At the same time I was in a band called Sleeping Seasons, a pop punk act led by my With Bravado guitarist CJ. Both bands had hundreds of thousands of streams, played killer local shows, and With Bravado was even recognized by the Recording Academy, our music video for We’re All Alone Together being featured in a local music event.
With Bravado has always cut against the grain. I’ve insisted on doing things my own way, writing songs that were weird but had pop sensibilities. We essentially looked at what was popular and did precisely the opposite. At times we were intentionally wry, replacing guitar solos with laser blaster sound effects, using entirely too large of amps, and even the (With Bravado) was a joke. We are all introverts, so calling our band With Bravado is precisely the opposite of how we feel. If the band was named after our personalities, it would likely be called “Quiet People Make Noise Occasionally.” We’ve always been able to laugh at ourself. We even have a cat motif that we have in basically all of our imagery. We have always taken our music seriously, but we don’t take ourselves so seriously that we couldn’t just step back and laugh at the whole thing, you know? I think With Bravado was kind of our attempt at testing to see what would happen if we played as though we were in a vacuum and had no knowledge of current trends. Our music, in that way, was kind of innocent and childlike in a way. We could not have predicted how supportive people would have been. Memphis is a remarkable town, featuring many awesome acts, but we were not ostracized or cast out. No matter how weird we were, we were never made to feel “less than.” On the contrary, we were welcomed on many festival bills, played with other (much better) bands regularly, and carved out our own niche. We really are an island of misfit toys, and it’s nice that people didn’t hold that against us.
Contemporarily With Bravado is working on our last song for our new EP. It will be the heaviest song we have ever done, so buckle up. CJ is now working on a solo project called CJ Starnes. It’s beautiful and I recommend everyone go and listen to it. It’s very heartfelt, and reflects CJ’s gentle spirit. Julian is quietly working behind the scenes to create new music on his own too, however it will likely remain a studio project as his focus will be playing Piano and guitar for CJ’s music. Don’t be surprised if the summer of 2023 is simply swimming in new music releases. Not all will be With Bravado, but all will be from the heart.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I’ve had to learn to stop waiting. I am not a naturally tenacious person, but recently I have had newfound health and time to work on music, and I’m pushing forward. Writing music makes my soul sing, and similarly not writing and releasing music makes me miserable. I will be more doggedly pushing forward to record and release new music. For a long time I didn’t have the health to do so, and that was such a horrible feeling. Now that I’m in the best health of my adult life, I want to make the most of my time and create as much new music as possible.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
DO NOT go out and eat barbecued local band for dinner. Don’t talk bad about each other. We don’t need cliques in Memphis. We need to cultivate a healthy environment where people are excited to see each other do well, and are spurred on to be better because of the high quality of the musicianship in town. Let your competition make you better, not bitter.
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Image Credits
Photos by Alayna Marie