Following 5 successful Indiegogo campaigns, electro-rock act, Julien-K, have begun a new crowdfunding push for their next album, DRK|MODE. The album is to be “a purely electronic dark industrial creation,” aiming to capture the band’s essential sound without the use of guitars. Various items are available to support the campaign, but some have already sold out. Find out more in the article below.
Find the Indiegogo campaign here.
Julien-K casually drops another bomb on fans with their now classic playful yet ominous tone:
“Do synthesizers feel pain? We want to find out. Can we create a compelling album through acoustic exclusion and electronic torture? Possibly.”
After their return to their Orgy-esque roots in Harmonic Disruptor, they slowly began the “answer” to that album, Trauma Echoes:
“We started creating sludgy, guitar heavy, emotional electro-rock as a path out of the JKHD universe – but we kept finding ourselves pulled to heavy a synthetic 4 on the floor heartbeat. That heartbeat cut a new path that lead us through a new doorway. This unexpected dichotomy in our approach confused us at first, but over time it became clear that that we were being led down the path to two separate works of art. Two disparate projects. Twin shadows walking alone in the same darkness.”
“The divergent undersurface of Trauma Echoes had to be free of our well known guitar heavy approach. It had to be pure electro. It was a challenge to speak this new language only using machines. Could we create a sound that was definitively Julien-K without our guitars? An entire album of it?? Would the fans that have had our backs for so many years support an idea like this?”
This was the beginning of DRK|MODE.
Ryan Shuck says of the bands new campaign “We really broke the mold and set records with our last campaigns, but at this point we’re extremely cautious with our expectations. Will this campaign be so surprisingly successful? We just don’t know – it’s not a “new” concept anymore. All we can do is unleash our creativity and energy and do the best we possibly can to create a compelling and comprehensive world for our fans to participate in. So far, if we focus on that – we have succeeded every time. We have to have faith in our fans.”
More from Julien-K:
Julien-K is an independent electro-rock band formed in Long Beach CA in 2008 by long time friends and collaborators Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck (founding members of Orgy, Dead By Sunrise). Later joined by Anthony “Fu” Valcic in 2009, the band recorded it’s now classic debut album Death To Analog. Over the last 10 years, the band has released multiple albums and toured extensively, and has become one of the most successful crowd-funded bands in the world. Despite the band’s dark & stylistic videos and Blade Runner-esque imagery, the band has focused on a totally “connected” independent and authentic fan-focused career path – often avoiding a more classic commercial approach.
Follow Julien-K:
https://www.julienk.com/
https://www.facebook.com/julienk
https://twitter.com/JulienK
https://www.instagram.com/julienkofficial/
https://youtube.com/@officialjulienk