By: Cassidy Rose
The ever-evolving saga of the operatic maverick Julie King continues as we discuss her transition from her 20s as a rising star to the force that she has become today. Continuing from the last interview, we find King in ascendant. Following her success at Coachella, she started being invited to sing and perform with swaths of different artists. King was then contacted by NY Russian TV in Winter 2014 to do an exclusive interview with her. Suddenly, “Forgiveness” started getting played all over the world, and she was invited to perform at places like Whiskey-A-Go-Go, The Viper Room and House of Blues, resulting in her being referred for even more awards.
King was then invited by the lead producer of Russia’s most prominent TV channel to come and spend six months performing there, which she couldn’t pass up! Rolling Stone Russia published an editorial on her performances, catapulting her into the spotlight and reaching the pinnacle of musical success there. However, it wasn’t quite what she expected. She recounts some of the experiences she had, “There were huge runs of exposed electrical wires all over backstage that I had to step around to not get electrocuted. I would walk around thinking, ‘OSHA would Hate this,’ or, ‘That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.’ It’s so different than working on American sets. I didn’t renew my six-month contract because of it.” King sighs, “But I’m so lucky I got to experience that!”
Coming back to America, Julie set out to create the show for “Popra Soldier”. She had a whole ensemble ready to go, but couldn’t get the funding in time. So King jetted off to Vienna, performing several classical concerts, and then back to LA to win an opera competition, handily.
Julie traversed the globe for a time, showcasing her talent, competing and performing. Still, something was missing. Coming back to California, Julie began the painful healing process of working through her past traumas using Conscious Breathwork and Sound Healing. She started taking advanced classes, pouring all her energy into transcendental meditation. Finding this activated different things within her and allowed the healthy release of emotion; King delved deeper into the underlying science behind it. A highly trained musician, she already understood the link between sounds and emotions, getting an audience to feel what you want through sound manipulation.
Her Breathwork teacher expressed support for King redirecting her energies, showing her a whole new world of sounds that she could be exploring outside the classic metrics. Julie started studying to become a teacher herself. Hosting women’s circles at her home with rings of singing bowls, each having their own unique tone. She even had Frankie Bernstein come to play the tabla, assisting with the music for these circles. King started to feel like she was reemerging from a long, dark sleep, coming back into the light. Wanting her music to reflect that rebirth, she stopped singing about heartbreak, choosing to focus on positivity.
Through this community, she was invited to take part in a sound study at NASA, and Julie leaped at the opportunity! The results finally connected all the dots, and King dove back into her training certifications with zeal.
Serendipitously, the hotel where “Forgiveness” was filmed contacted her, requesting Julie create a week-long meditation course for them. Deeply honored, she set to it. “I was between studies with Clarity Breathwork, so I went to a Mt. Shasta retreat. In the water, I heard this incredible, phenomenal sound. Inspiration struck! I remember coming back to the studio to work on this album and thinking, ‘It can’t just be music.’ That style is out there already. What can I bring? I did a bunch of research on shamanic healing sounds and frequencies congruent to the chakra system, as well as the specific healing sounds for each. Instead of spending one week, I presented a three-week meditation system. Such an incredible job.” [Meditation Course]
This was King’s artistic shift. While focusing on her spiritual work, she had also been auditioning for opera roles. Even offered the role of Carmen with the Barcelona Opera, though they wound up going with a local. Still, the Conductor booked King several years later to perform at the Abai Opera in Almaty in 2019. Such an amazing homecoming for King.
Though her agent was facilitating contracts for King, she really wanted to continue her Breathwork studies since she was so close to graduating. She decided to call her teacher, Dana Dharma Devi, in Bali, who was hosting the final workshops Julie needed to complete. She was told that a single spot had just opened up that morning! It couldn’t be a more apparent sign from the universe. So King packed her bags and flew straight there.
Recounting her time in Bali, “I held a workshop where I implemented my mantra singing with bowls. I remember the people there saying, ‘We never thought about harmonizing multiple bowls and singing mantras; we always play one bowl at a time and sing.’ That’s where I think my music training comes in. To me, it makes more sense to play on two or three bowls at a time because then there’s a full harmony. And having a full harmony, I’m supported by the sound so I can improvise on top of this bed of sounds. Then, when I would sing, I wouldn’t have to be specific. Usually, there are specific lyrics, but with this, it just flowed out of me in the moment.”
By now, King was living in the Bay Area, having a more developed opera scene there than in LA. In between auditions, Julie stayed busy facilitating classes and teaching at yoga studios.
During this period, she didn’t write much music, at least not mainstream music. “It’s like.. well I don’t like saying a ‘dry spell’. It’s not that I wasn’t inspired! Because I was going through my healing, I was no longer singing about heartbreak and suffering, which was basically my main theme. I think it’s because I needed to integrate and experience a new type of life within me, within the harmony that I was obtaining at the time, for something new to be born.”
King even turned down an offer to perform with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra, stemming from a combination of musical differences, “I was tired of the vacillations, and I needed to focus on my spiritual work. A whole new world has been opened to me, that I really love! I love helping people, seeing their transformations”. In February 2020, King was asked to represent her teachers at the Cabo Festival in Mexico as a panel speaker and teacher. Such a huge honor!
Flying back from Cabo for her Grandmother’s birthday, King felt on top of the world. Then, the COVID lockdown was announced, and the world stopped. There was a desperate need for mental peace, so Julie hosted sessions over the internet, helping people through the crisis.
Cementing to King that she was on the right path. She relocated to her Mother’s ranch in Santa Maria, CA, teaching outdoor classes and developing a hybrid program she calls TranceBreath. It is described as “A multidisciplinary program based on ancient philosophy and modern psychology. It’s a whole program now, part of the Global Practitioner Breathwork Alliance. Plus, I’m now eligible to certify practitioners myself, an amazing attainment for me!”
King is focused on the imminent release of the first singles off her new album “Beats of Enlightenment: Ecstatic Mantras”, due to be fully released later this year. Meanwhile, she is excited to pursue her studies in Neurolinguistics and continue bringing us enchanting music.
“Carlos Santana once told me, ‘If you don’t feel it, they won’t feel it. If you feel it, the whole world will be on its knees before you. I’ll never forget it. Since then, I have felt every word, every note that I have ever sung”.
Visit the links below to learn more about what’s coming from King, her upcoming releases, and festival appearances this Spring and Summer.
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/julie-king/1730168262
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5LtMStrVbEokvGgLcdp1rz
https://www.facebook.com/juliekingmusic
https://www.instagram.com/julieking_music/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeFae9ZfTdpUkIQDRD7FzCA
Published by: Martin De Juan
