Julie Peel

Self-taught multi-instrumentalist Julie Peel is preparing to unleash her debut full-length album, Near the Sun, around spring 2009 on American Laundromat Records. Previously featured on ALR compilations including Just Like Heaven (a tribute to the Cure), Gigantic (a tribute to Kim Deal), Dig for Fire (a tribute to the Pixies), and Cinnamon Girls (a tribute to Neil Young), this will be Julie’s first solo full-length release. She counts Aimee Mann, Beth Orton, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell among her influences, and their impact is not hard to discern on Near the Sun. Julie’s lo-fi, guitar-driven pop recalls the likes of Ida, Anna Ternheim, Caithlin de Marrais, and Mirah, but bears her own distinctive indie sensibility and style.

Born in Cannes, Julie was raised between France and Canada, and sings entirely in English on this album. As a child, she tended toward self-determination. “At 5,” she explains, “I would take my bike and go for long rides in the countryside... Sometimes I would go fishing by myself.” Though her mother worried, Julie always came home “like it’s normal a 5-6 year old kid would go out all day so far away.” That independent spirit is evident throughout Near the Sun, which Julie recorded, mixed, and produced on her own. She plays most of the instruments as well, though she is also joined on bass, cello, and upright bass by Cyrille Catois (who she met in 2005 and has worked with consistently ever since) and on drums by Andreas Dahlbäck (drummer and producer for Anna Ternheim).

Spontaneity was key in the creation of this album, as evidenced by tracks such as ‘Innocence.’ “I composed it and wrote the lyrics in under an hour, and recorded it very quickly right after,” she reveals. “... I guess this song is what represents me the most.” The swell of the cello under her honest, melancholy lyrics turn this stand-out track from simple to understatedly sophisticated. “Most of the tracks were first takes,” Julie notes, which manifests itself in a sense of both immediacy and intimacy throughout the album. The undeniably catchy track ‘Living in a Movie,’ replete with irresistible hand-claps, seems sent straight from the soundtrack to a film by Michel Gondry or Sofia Coppola. A sweet and somehow cinematic tune that demonstrates Julie’s capability to craft pop songs at once familiar and dream-like, deceptively minimal, ‘Living in a Movie’ is just one of the songs off Near the Sun that compels repeated listens.

Though her contributions to the ALR compilations were noteworthy in their own right, this collection of original material bears testimony to Julie Peel’s own dynamic pop sensibilities. Keep an eye out for Near the Sun, and look for her hitting the road across the US later in 2009.