A BIT ABOUT THE ARTISTS... Julian Socha

JULIAN SOCHA

In his mid twenties he moved to Sheffield and joined a band called Precious who were managed by ex Simply Red bass guitarist Shaun Ward. They gigged all over the UK and supported bands like Corduroy and The Lighthouse Family and opened for Wet Wet Wet at the Sheffield Arena. To broaden his experience further during this time he was also regularly working with innovative solo artists, DJs and musicians such as Future Loop Foundation. He was regularly playing live while also gaining valuable experience in the studio. This was an essential learning curve for him and really encouraged him to develop his own writing. Julian then headed for Liverpool where he joined the band ManBreak. This turned out to be another major opportunity to work with some great musicians. ManBreak toured Europe with bands like Smashed Mouth. At some of the larger European festivals they found themselves on the same bill as artists as varied as Beck, Run DMC and Chumbawamba. In 1999 ManBreak recorded their second album 'Asphalt Culture' on the seminal label One Little Indian (one time home of Björk). The album was jointly produced by Bill Laswell (Sly & Robbie, PiL, Axiom Records etc.) in New York and Stephen Lironi (Altered Images, Creeping Bent) in London. The band received many favourable press reviews. The single Dark Age was single of the week in The Guardian newspaper while also gaining prolific Radio 1 airplay. Around about this time he was also working for Granada TV, writing and producing title and theme music for a variety of programmes and advertisements. Sadly ManBreak decided to call it a day so Julian then spent sometime playing guitar professionally on cruise ships where he played a wide variety of styles including pop, jazz and solo guitar... Soon he decided to develop his career as a solo artist. In 2005 he made a trip to the Dobro Festival in Slovakia and completely fell in love with the place, the people and the music. The music in particular had a huge impact on him and began to influence his own writing and direction. In 2008 Julian moved to Slovakia and formed a lasting friendship with the esteemed blues musician Peter 'Bonzo' Radványi, even being invited to play with his band: Bonzo And The Resonator – which included a number of established musicians from all over Slovakia. Julian was fortunate enough to build a fan-base for himself on the Slovakian blues scene and was able to play all over Slovakia at venues and festivals, large and small. Although he is now back living in the UK, Julian still maintains strong ties in Slovakia and The Czech Republic and plays there often.
In 2009 he recorded his first solo album 'Hiding Place', a collection of acoustic instrumental pieces which was shortly followed by his second album 'Light Exposure', again a collection of acoustic instrumentals. Julian recorded his third solo album 'Who Is The Man' in 2012. This album started off as an acoustic project but grew to include many new finger-style guitar pieces, along with some vocal numbers and some songs he produced with the full band treatment. Julian says his aim was to still keep the overall feel minimal and 'organic' sounding. His fourth album is called 'I'll Never Know' and is a collection of blues and country - both vocal and instrumental, with touches of the seductive sound of Slovakian folk. Living back in the UK has enabled Julian to establish himself on the thriving acoustic live scene. Although he loves recording, playing live has always been his first love.