Julian Velard’s second full length – Mr. Saturday Night – makes for a modern greatest his package of the 70’s catchiest beats and harmonies. Velard’s 2009 debut was released after he was plucked from relative obscurity off MySpace and found himself the center of a record company bidding war. A former Parisian street sweeper and nursery school gym teacher, no less, Verland has since gone on to pen songs for other emerging new artists including Olly Murs (who’s just had the biggest UK debut album this year) while his own debut became an immediate hit with critics. Glide recently spoke wiht Mr. Saturday Night himself, while his namesake album gets released this week (Nov 1).
Right when I hear the first song “Me and My Mirror” I’m getting a throwback to 70’s Elton John – describe your relationship with that era as it’s obviously very dominant throughout Mr. Saturday Night?
To call me a man out of time is an understatement. My influences are so firmly rooted in the past I get worried sometimes. It’s difficult for me to find an album, even a movie, made after 1983 that I like. I feel a deep connection with the golden age of Pop Culture. I like to think of it as the lost city of Atlantis. Some glorious place I’ve never seen but sure was there, where people created without worrying about updating their Twitter account. That said, I love Twitter.
The second song “Love Again For The First Time” has more modern influenced pop sound and can make its way onto the radio alongside Jason Mraz or One Republic. Where do you see your music stand today in modern music circles and what type of audience do you think will most likely “get” your music?
For years I’ve wrestled with that question. On the surface my music is very commercial proposition. I write songs from the perspective of a character, much like Randy Newman or Tom Waits. This kind of thing used to be at the heart of Pop music, from Gershwin to Dylan to Springsteen, but we’ve moved away from that. Now it’s about an emotional malaise, stringing together a bunch non-sequiturs that add up to I Love You. Commercial radio sounds like Prozac. I guess the people who like my music are the ones who aren’t medicated.
The chorus to “Sentimental” has a very catchy and familiar feel to it – was their anything that directly influenced that song?
I wanted to write something in the vein of 70’s lite rock: Dan Fogelberg, Leo Sayer, even Little River Band. I know those songs are super cheesy, but there’s a real sense of sadness beneath the saccharine. They remind me of rainy days when I was a kid, huddling next to the heater. Also I like the idea of writing a song that’s at home on the speakers in a CVS. I love pharmacies, the endless aisles of shiny, useless products.
All the songs are irresistibly catchy on Mr. Saturday Night – “Fellow Americans” features a well placed horn section – what moments on the album are you most proud of and feel most define where you are today as an artist?
I’m most proud of the songs that capture the character of Mr. Saturday Night. Outside of Fellow Americans those are Me & My Mirror On A Saturday Night, Take The Money and Run, Everybody Wants To Be Famous, and Another Guy’s Song. More and more I find myself looking for a bigger narrative. I’m not content with just writing a nice tune, I want my songs to be part of a continuum. They should not only tell the story what’s happening, but what has happened and what will happen. Basically, I need to write a musical. It’s in the works.
Can you talk a bit about your alter-ego “Mr. Saturday Night.” The fictional bow tie wearing character you perform as? What does the character creatively enable you to do?
Mr. Saturday Night is really just me, but with my best and worst aspects amplified. I wanted to create the consummate entertainer who should be the biggest thing since sliced bread, but he keeps getting in his own way. After years of doing this night in and night out, you take a lot of hits. I found that if I hold on to the pain of rejection it erodes my mindset. Creating Mr. Saturday Night gave me a place to put all the bad (and good) feelings. I put on the costume and then take it off and go home. That way I can leave the agony and the ecstasy on the stage.
You are returning to the states for a U.S. tour in October and November – what cities are you looking most forward to visiting? What made you become London based after previously residing in NY?
Touring is great. Being a native New Yorker who can’t drive, I relish the chance to see the way the rest of the world lives. When it comes to America, New York City is like Mars. I feel like a space explorer when I go from town to town. Right now I split my time between NYC and London. After signing to a label in the UK, it made sense to have a presence there. Plus they make great shoes.
Before moving to London you toured around America and released 3 indie records – how do you feel you’ve most grown as an artists and song-writer since then?
Putting out albums myself was essential in shaping me as an artist. It taught me how to be a businessman. Which is what you have to be if you want to have a career in music. You must learn to wear many hats.
How much does the piano/keyboards play a part in your artistry? Do you see yourself as a piano based artists in the way of a Ben Folds or Regina Spektor?
I only play piano so it’s a huge part of what I do. I write away from the keyboard more and more, but after a while I always find my way back there. I’d like to think the sign of a good song is that it can be relayed simply with a voice and a piano. Ben Folds was a huge influence on me during college. And I came up gigging with Regina on the Lower East Side. They are both fabulous talents and to be included with them in any conversation is awesome. You are the company you keep.
Which of your contemporaries do you feel most feel a musical kinship with and who would you most like to collaborate with?
I like a lot of singer/songwriters who have one foot in the past and present: Andrew Bird, Richard Swift, Sam Prekop, Jon Brion, Ian Love, Gabe Dixon, Fyfe Dangerfield, Elizabeth and The Catapault, Mike Viola. I also love retro/future funk production-based stuff like Jamie Lidell, Lewis Taylor, Gonzales, Chromeo, Van Hunt, N.E.R.D. And inexplicably I love modern R&B. R. Kelly and The-Dream tell some pretty awesome stories. I’d work with anyone on that list.
Do you yourself to continually explore the Mr Saturday Night sound on future releases or what other sounds or genres do you hope to record within?
As I mentioned before, I’m in the process of developing a one-man show based around the Mr. Saturday Night identity. I don’t know what genre the music will be, but it will probably sound like a musical in a good way. Yes that’s possible.
