Julie Corbalis
Gig Seeker Pro

Julie Corbalis

Band Rock Singer/Songwriter

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Interview with Julie Corbalis"

by Lindsay Noonan

I meet Julie for lunch at a small café down the street from my
apartment. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that
we’ve been friends for 6 years. That means that there’s a lot of
small talk and gossip before the interview gets going.
When it does get going, however, when I finally break out the paper
and pen and prepare to take notes, I’m surprised. “You’re going into reporter mode!” she says. “I’m so shy!”
Odd for a woman who voluntarily picks up a guitar and plays for a
crowd full of people, often by herself, almost every weekend. One who has fronted her own band for the past 4 years. But maybe that’s just it. The guitar is like a security blanket and now, without it, she’s naked. Or maybe it’s just something to say because it’s odd to have a friend start grilling you about where you see your musical life going over the next six months.
Jules first picked up that security blanket the summer before ninth
grade. “I was looking to hang out with dudes with long hair,” she
says. Then she confesses, “I also wanted to learn how to play
[Extreme’s] ‘More Than Words’. I never learned it.”
What she did learn was [Pink Floyd’s] ‘Comfortably Numb’ from
>Dennis Voyez, a Westchester local who was “playing guitar to pick up chicks. “ Jules recalls that he was a great musician with a passion for Metallica. “He knew them all.”
Around 18, she started writing her own music. By the end of college, she had about 10 songs finished, but she didn’t know what
to do with them. “I just thought you had to get a band to play out,”
she says. There weren’t a lot of singer/songwriters out yet. She
remembers Jewel and that’s it. Her brother played the local
Westchester scene, but he always had a band. So she sat on her songs for a while until a trip to Greece in 2001 finally pushed her to get moving on them.

THE BAND
Jonathan “JL” Lloyd was a friend from Yorktown, where Jules grew
up. “He’s been playing guitar longer than I’ve been alive,” she
jokes. “He’s in his late 30s now, so he was listening to the songs I
love as classic rock when they were just rock.” Jules and JL started working together. Soon JL brought in John Madden on drums and Marc Osborn on Bass.
JL, John and Marc had all worked together before, as part of Liquid
Boy 7, the Westchester band fronted by Jay Gisser, currently working on his solo career. “Jay kicked Johnny out of the band and Mark and JL quit over it 5 years ago,” Jules tells me.
“Marc knows his music theory better than anybody else,” Jules tells me. “He has the most technical prowess.” He’s a studio musician and he’s starting to expand into digital music. Marc’s background is in Jazz piano and he wanted to learn bass, so he joined the band and picked it up. “He’s a talented musician,” Jules says. “I want him to come down to the city and start playing in those piano bars down here.”
John Madden comes from a big musical Irish family. Growing up, Van Morrison showed up at their house for one Thanksgiving dinner. His sister, Joni founded “Cherish The Ladies,” a Celtic band. “She’s an idol of mine,” Jules says. “You see her out there having fun,
communicating with the audience … she’s a true entertainer. She’s
fucking amazing.”
John’s no slouch either. “He has the greatest ear for rhythm,”
Jules says. “He wrote the greatest song any of us will ever hope to
play.”
She’s talking about “Dolores,” a song on their first album.
“Dolores” is the tale of an elderly woman whose family is preparing
her to die. The song’s simple folk tune belies some of the haunting
words of this tale. “I am a color too beautiful to look away,” Jules
recites with a sigh. “I am flattered and honored that he would want
Jules and the Family to play that song, that he would want us to put
it on the album. Every time he wants to play it, I’m flattered. I
don’t feel that I do that song justice. I feel nervous playing the
song.”
John’s other big project right now: He’s a new dad. James is about
5 weeks old now. “John was made to be a dad,” Jules says. “He comes from a big Irish party all the time.”
The band is working on their second album right now and Jules says to expect changes from the band and from their sound. “The first album was more blue-sy, midtempo classic rock,” she says. “This second album will be more … neo-folk, I guess is the word for it.”
The biggest changes have come in how that music is written. With
the exception of “Dolores,” Jules wrote all the songs on their first
album. “We had to do that if we wanted to stay together. It’s hard
because they’re not my babies any more. It’s teaching me humility.”
She continues, “Marc comes up with chord changes I would never
think of. He has that jazz background that I don’t have and I’m sure that’s coming through.”
It’s all part of the compromise Jules is learning to be part of a
band instead of a solo artist. “I’ve never been part of a successful
group project in - More Sugar Music Newspaper


Discography

Jules and the Family, by Jules and the Family
(Jules is the frontwoman of this rockin' band)
All tracks can be streamed on www.juliecorbalis.com.
Upcoming solo album, Fall 2005

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Thanks to her dad's obsession with the Beatles and some incredible music educators along the way, Jules has been musical her whole life. Her feel is early 60's rock and roll; some influences include British invasion bands such as the Beatles and Stones, as well American rockers Aerosmith, The Black Crowes and Sheryl Crow. What sets her apart from other bands? Jules shines at the live gigs. Every show is a jam session that welcomes all closeted and professional musicians in the audience: anything goes. Both men and women easily identify with her stories about the less glorified sides of relationships and life. Bottom line: Nobody leaves the party without feeling like they just made a new friend.