Et Cetera Magazine Feature: ADDIS ACOUSTICS AND BROCKLEY BEATS: IN CONVERSATION WITH JULIUS RICHARD

We caught up with one of Southeast London’s rising talents, Julius Richard, a 23-year-old freelance musician, artist, guitarist and session player, based in Brockley. Listen to some of Julius’ tracks on Spotify and keep up to date on his Instagram.

Image credit: Illustration by Cerys Jones

Where did you grow up? Where have the last 23 years taken you?

I was born in Swansea in Wales, and pretty quickly after that moved a bit to Leeds where I was in primary and secondary school. When I was 14 years old, we moved to Ethiopia. I came to London three years ago, straight to Goldsmiths.

What instruments do you play?

I’m a guitarist and I sing. I play a bit of bass, and play this instrument called the Krar which is an Ethiopian harp.

How would you describe your personal music style?

Indie pop, something like that.

Any favourite tracks you’ve released?

I’ve got a song called Dreams Adrift, which I wrote when I was 17.

How do you think living in Ethiopia has influenced your music style?

I had a guitar teacher, he’d come to my house, he was a local jazz musician so he would show me Bob Marley songs, basic Jimi Hendrix stuff, whatever. He taught me all the Ethiopian scales, all the rhythms, and got me listening to Ethio-jazz as well. Then there’s a guy called Abegasu who I studied with, he’s a record producer in Ethiopia and has done a lot of Ethio-jazz and does all the big artists out there in terms of radio releases.

Image credit: Ottavio Sostero Crespi

What collaborations are you working on?

I’m working with several producers. At the moment, I'm collaborating with another indie artist called Henry Coke and also doing a lot of my live arrangements with Josh Stidwill - We’ve been arranging for a big four-piece brass section.

I’m also doing a jazz-gospel fusion project and we’re probably playing a gig every two or three weeks here in London.

I’ve also been working with musicians and DJs from back in Ethiopia doing an Amapiano/live music fusion; that came about with our band The LAJ Trio staying on stage when DJ Beniah came up at the Zema Mesikir festival concert in 2022. We knew the tracks he was playing and he brought the energy of the party to a whole new level, improvising with our instruments. That was a concert to remember.

What makes good musical fusion for you?

When there’s two genres coming together, if they can find a way to share common ground, whether that’s in the fact that both genres involve dancing, or improvisation- there’s always a tension between the expected and unintended parts of both genres coming into contact.

You also need the right individuals on both sides of the fusion. Not just people who are there to be the ‘first ones’ to do a thing, I want to work with performers who are leaning across genres because it sounds good, and makes people move.

Image credit: Woosje Maarseveen