Joule$ Talks Making "Chi" Off Acid, Making His First Song, And More!
We got the chance to link up with artist, Joule$. He's got a very unique sound especially in songs like: "Chi", and "RUN IT". Check out my personal favorite song of his: "BIDNESS MAN" He's on the comeuppance so definitely check out his music.
Where are you from and when did you first make a connection to creating music? And how long have you been doing music?
I was born in San Salvador, El Salvador. I lived there for the first 4 years of my life and later migrated with my family to Los Angeles, California. At the age of 12, we finally moved to Arlington, Texas just outside of Dallas where I spent most of my teenage years and have made most of my memories.
Can you talk a little bit about your creative process? How do you make a song, run us through it?
To me it's all about the vibe, everything moves a certain way, everything vibrates. If things are in an uplifting mood then I usually freestyle the song or maybe sit down spark some bud and let my mind just write, express the emotion. If I am in a dark place in my life where I need to kinda check myself and snap myself out of whatever the funk is I will sit down and write, usually off of some form of psychedelic to release those underlying emotions and do what I like to call vibrational alchemy. Which means to transmute a certain vibe into another, seeing the good in the bad if you will and bringing out its beauty. There 's beauty in every struggle.
What was going on in your life when you made your first song? Was music always your vision or were there other career paths you were interested in?
My first song as a rapper came to me naturally just as everything should in life. Nothing was forced, I was simply having fun messing around with an old stage microphone (Sennheiser) I would use to record little freestyles with. To be honest this was probably the best time of my life. The birth of something beautiful manifested from all the beauty and positivity that surrounded me. It was my senior year in high school, a time when I was still finding myself and who I wanted to be, searching for my calling or true purpose. Before that, I had been in several bands, mostly metal and heavy rock. I was a vocalist for every band, my style was heavily influenced by the heavier bands around that time such as white chapel, suicide silence, veil of maya, the ghost inside, legend, for the fallen dreams, etc. You can still hear that influence in my music to this day, you just have to find the gems in my discography. I never really knew where music was going to take me but I knew from the day I started messing with music and sound, in general, it would play a huge role in my future success.
Was everyone around you always supportive of your music or was there a lot of haters trying to knock you off your grind?
It took quite a while for people to start showing love, to be honest. It's the usual scenario when you do something the average will not do in a lifetime and set yourself apart from the ordinary. Naturally, envy comes into play and creates animosity or hatred towards things that break the norm, hatred which usually stems from underlying emotions within the very same person hating. Regardless, after a year and a half of steady work finally getting traction and millions of plays, people finally began to see the vision. This was around 2015 -2016 when I dropped OLA ONDA & one of my hit singles CHI. This was all accomplished thanks to the people around the world who go through the same circumstances, that era brought unity to the underground music community through social media and of course Soundcloud. Everyone that came from that time period prospered together, just how it was meant to be.
When and why did you start to take music seriously? What changed from you doing it for fun to wanting to do it as a career?
Around when I dropped OLA ONDA in the summer of 2015. Everything changed, my sound went viral and traveled the world. Thanks to my brother ASTARI, I gained not only fame but a market was established, a demand was created and what was once a hobby became my career and how I was able to survive off music alone.
How did you grow your fan base? Any advice to an artist trying to build themselves up?
I simply did what I was supposed to, made relationships with who I was supposed to and never stopped believing in myself. My only advice to give is to make sure you are doing this because you love it and not for the wrong reasons. It's like anything in life it requires time and sacrifice so if you do not apply yourself and show the universe you want it bad enough, you will never have it.
Can you run us through making "Chi"? Was it recorded in a studio or home studio? Run us through what that studio session was like?
To be honest, that night was a blur. I know I took acid and washed it down with Fiji, thus the infamous line. I was with my brother George in my room and got this beat from Manitee. As soon as I heard it I got to writing the song, literally took me maybe 10-15 minutes. I had never heard a beat like it before and it definitely channeled energy from within I never knew was there. I recorded it in a homemade studio, no padding, just a little AKG compressor mic which was a hand me down from my dad. Within the same hour, I had written the song, the song was finished. Like I said the night was a blur, I just remember it being one of the most magical moments I had ever experienced, made me want this experience even more.
Can you run us through the process of making "Gather Around"?
Gather Around is another song like CHI, took me literally an hour maybe two to finish. Recorded and engineered it all by myself at home in my room. One thing you know as an artist now that you wish you knew when you first started out? Monetization for sure. I was very naive at the beginning of my career. I missed out on a lot of money I could have made off plays early on but regardless it taught me a lesson and because of it, I am wiser and more experienced when it comes to the business side of music.
What's on the horizon for your music career in 2019?
To be honest there is no telling. There's so much I am not even going to list it off but I will name a few projects you can look forward to this summer. ACID n CHILL w/ CJ TOP OFF, INDiiiGENOUS, ANUNNAGI, CONNECTION FLIGHTS w/ JERAYMAKESWAVES + HEXAGRAM & many many more singles in between these bodies of work.
Check him out:
https://soundcloud.com/joulesofficial
https://www.instagram.com/imjoules/